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– Ayokunle Adedipe

Dear World,

I loved writing. It was my first love. The key that unlocked my imaginations and made me realize how well I could put my thoughts down through a pen.
Out of all the books I had written and all the characters I had created,my favourite was Alicia Spectre. My inspiration.
She was the politician, the doctor, the musician, actress, mother to 5 children and an amazing wife. It all seemed impossible. How could all this encompass one person. That was one of the reasons I created Alicia. She reminded me constantly of someone I couldn’t be.
Firstly, I didn’t study medicine. I studied creative arts in university.
Secondly, I wasn’t bold enough to be a politician. I had anxiety issues and I always worried about the next minute. The same reason applies to being an actress or a musician, I couldn’t sing for even 1 million dollars.
If I had kids, they wouldn’t be more than 2 and I wasn’t even sure if marriage was on the table for me.
Alicia Spectre was my inspiration. Every day I wrote about her, every time I created a dialogue using her name. I felt empowered. I felt powerful.
JK Rowling had come up with the idea of Harry Potter while on a train. She had previously gone through serious relationship issues and that was probably her push.
I didn’t need any push. Since I could write, I was my own push.
I grew up in an orphanage. A rich one. Well funded one. This isn’t the story of the secluded girl in the orphanage that was bullied and ran away bla bla. This isn’t an Annie story.
We all loved each other and became the siblings to one another. I never searched for my birth parents and i was never adopted either.
The only thing I knew was my mum was underaged while pregnant with me and my dad was a lawyer. I never asked the orphanage for her name or his name. I was content.
When I turned 18,i got a scholarship to study creative arts in New York and I accepted. That was the beginning of my life and that was when Alicia Spectre was born. 10 years ago on a flight to New York, almost like JK Rowling.
It was the lady by my side on the flight who started it. She had black hair, really brown eyes and a pretty pale skin. Her beauty seemed unreal.
I had never been in a plane before so my anxiety took over. I was trying to relieve it by throwing up in a bag and she helped. That was how I discovered she was a doctor. She helped me calm down and settle in well.
While I was trying to sleep, I overheard her talking to the other person by her side about politics and the importance of women in it. She was planning to run for mayor in the coming years. She not only had the charisma, she sounded so passionate about it. I was impressed.
She laid her head after sometime and started singing. I complimented her for having a wonderful voice and she gave me her ipod to listen to some songs she recorded in her spare time.
After listening, I couldn’t sleep again so I skimmed through the pictures on the phone and I saw her with 5 kids. Yes, they were all hers. She revealed to me how she had been married for 10 years and how her kids were her constant push to always do what you want to no matter the constraints.
In the middle of the flight, there was a serious turbulence and the plane crashed.
She died and I survived but my life was changed at that period.
I later discovered her name was Alicia Spectre. The doctor who relieved my anxiety, wife, mother, musician and politician on that flight.
I finished my education, I became the best selling writer, I became who I wanted. But Alicia didn’t. The superwoman who never reached her peak. That was why she outlived every other character in my books. She never died. Only evolved. Every year, I would send a copy of The Alicia Spectre series to her children and they would ask for more. I allowed her to grow with them. I didn’t have much gifts that could alleviate their pain except create their mother in another world.
Thank you Alicia Spectre for being my push. Eternally grateful.
Olivia.

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