Akpadolu Chioma
Nov 5 · 3 min read

"Chioma, come give your speech." Those few words were enough to give me a minor panic attack but I had known this day would come(it was a school tradition) so I had started my preparations early.

I stepped slowly out of my line to the podium and faced the whole school. I can remember thinking everyone could tell how fast my heart raced or see how shaky my hands were.

I had gotten the content of my speech from a book 'Attitude is everything' so I tried to do what the book was all about...think positive thoughts. Reminding myself that among this audience I was so scared of were friends and people I spoke with everyday, I started my speech. I only relaxed when I began getting a smile and a nod. I was sure what I was saying wasn't as organized as the original speech I had written but at least I was saying something without stuttering much and when I ended, the applause was really good. I even got compliments from teachers😌.

That day I got over my stage fright and all I had to do was take the step up that podium and change my thoughts. After that incident, I realized that the key to solving most problem was seventy percent positive thoughts...believing you can do it and thirty percent genuine effort.

While thinking about this task, a novel idea popped in and it came along with the name 'In You'.

It would be about Juliet a single ambitious lady trying to make her mark in an Architecture firm dominated by males. With her foster parent's connection(both who were successful lawyers), she could get to any position she wanted but she wanted to work for it and so far she had done well. It was her sixth year working with the company but she was already a senior architect with a high chance of being made a senior manager but someone else wants the position as badly as she does. She only realized how badly they wanted it when she began getting threatening letters. The person who was sending them somehow knew her well, using triggers that awakened fears she thought she had gotten over and digging up a past she had buried. It would take her guts and trust in herself to break free again from that past and get the position she knew she deserved.

And because I so much love the element of love in a story, am bringing in Mathew. A lawyer in her father’s firm and your typical playboy. He meets Juliet in one of the firm’s party and was left intrigued. Apart from the fact that she wasn’t affected by his charms, she was a puzzle he wanted to solve. She oozed confidence but he had seen how frightened she had been the day he crept in on her. He was a criminal lawyer, a damn good one and he could tell something was wrong but she wouldn’t say. He’s determined to find out what exactly was wrong and maybe win her heart.

I want it to be a sequel of my first short story 'Soulmate'. I still don't know how many chapters or if it would be a short story too… I plan to write as the ideas comes in.

For now, this all I got. Anticipate💖

#WriteHeart

#WriteWithFlair

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