I came about my IG handle from a Christian fiction book by Tessa Afshar.
This particular author was my first read when I was about 14 in high school, I was never even a reader, heck, I hated all the series of Ted Dekker books that had an owner in every single class, the ones that girls especially carried around and fought for as though their lives depended on it, they all just looked too huge and I wondered what someone could possibly be talking about that would make me read a book the height of the 2nd edition of Oxford dictionary, volume 1, Must be nice lol…
I was in the 3rd term of SS2 (grade 11) at this time, I reluctantly picked up a book (I’ll tell you the name of the book as the story goes) by Tessa Afshar, that was sitting around on a classmate’s desk during a short break on a random day when everyone had gone to fight for their non-existent space on the tuck shop line and the few successful returnees were silently “solo-waking” their hard-earned premium snacks at the back of the class.
I was just sitting hopelessly in my seat and wondering how I was going to survive one more year of further maths after the last class with Mr. Adeniji. This man’s classes were a killer for me. It’s probably only one person in the entire class that enjoyed those classes and somehow managed to top the class in the course every single time with no competition ( Brorhie if you ever read this, catch your sub ) To this day I still don’t understand how I loved maths as a subject on its own but couldn’t just further it. Further maths for me was one of those courses that when the CA test scripts arrive, I’ll go stand beside the person sharing the papers and get ready to squeeze mine once I sight my name and the juicy red biro marks on it. I maintained a constant C grade and Thankfully I dropped it in SS3 ( grade 12 ).
I was just thinking about my life when I saw this big novel on the locker in front of mine, it was for my classmate, Jessie, the cover art was the first thing that caught my eye, it was a very gorgeous lady that looked like the graceful women characters in the Bible, it didn’t look like a Ted Dekker book but it still looked big for a non-reader so I picked it up and reluctantly flipped through. In my mind, I still felt like no matter how interesting the book was I couldn’t finish a book that height.
As I flipped through the pages, the writing style first caught my attention, it felt like the Bible was happening in real life, the context was in old Persian times, I got comfortable and decided to start from the beginning. Lo and behold my dear friends, just like that I became one of the girls that carried novels around in school and just like them I fought for this book with my heart, I tried to play smart and managed to skip through the long queue of people that were waiting to read it before me but eventually I was nabbed because I was too slow reading it lol. ( it was a struggle to eventually get the owner to lend it to me again after it left my hands)
I read every line of this book word for word, it felt like I was in ancient Persia and was watching everything happen, maybe the hand of the queen even. it was about a fictional character Sarah, the niece of prophet Nehemiah, The book took me on a journey, it centred around marriage, healing emotional wounds, perseverance in hardship and Finding our worth in God other than our accomplishments. This was my first Christian fiction book and ever since then I became hooked, I can only talk as much as I felt but you can only understand if you read it or have read it before. I finished part one of the book “Harvest of Rubies” in the 2nd term of my final school year ( lol see how slow I was ) and I luckily found part 2 of the book “ Harvest of Gold “ from Jessie again, isn’t she just an OG. This was where the whole thing got interesting, the part 2 was way more intriguing! I was so deep in this book, at this point a new character, Darius had come to play and it was the man Sarah was set to marry in the book. I carried this book everywhere I went after our series of final exams ( Mock, JAMB, WAEC) and I was on it while our NECO exam was ongoing, nobody cared about this exam, never even seen anyone that had straight A’s in it, it was pretty useless for admissions
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I was in the theatre group ( drama club) and had just gotten a role in the final big school play at this time, I loved acting and to be on this play was the biggest thing for me, this was also the grand period when boys asked girls out to go to prom with them ( this is a story for another day, we took this thing very seriously in the school, lol, no jokes, it was like the cheesy high school movies that boys would plan a whole show to ask a girl out to prom ), we called it “ black and white night “ ( don’t think it too much, the main event was not all that ) the interesting part was the asking out part and the drama that came with it but it was something everyone looked forward to from your first day in junior school.
This was the most ecstatic time of my life In that school at the time for many reasons. I was sure I had gotten admission to the program I wanted to study at the university of my choice and I had the best girlfriends at this time too, I was having way too much fun this year. (shoutout to Toolz and Rejoice, if you are reading this, y’all were the real MVPs ). On the night before the main drama night, I had rehearsals back to back and I would continue reading the book at any break I got. When the rehearsal was done, I sat at the back of the school hall to continue my book while the hall was being decorated. I was almost crying at this point in the book, it was the most emotional part when everything started making sense and it just made me thankful about the place I was at in my life at the point in time, I was instantly grateful to God for everything, sustaining my tired ass through all the long dreadful exams and crowing my efforts with success, the friendships I had, they were the best, I was going to be acting in the drama night the next day, I was finally about to be done with secondary school and school was just generally interesting at this time and in that moment, I got excited and hopeful for more good things to come in the coming days and month and even more hopeful because it was my birth month, June.
A more interesting detail here. Right in this mushy state while sitting and in a different world, one of my closest friends at the time, Joshua, appeared out of nowhere and I knew he was coming to find me to either disturb me with one argument, ask me what I think about something, bring sweet gist or have me walk with him somewhere. He asked to follow him to his guardian’s office and that always meant food and enjoyment, so why not? So I stood up and followed him and he asked to make a quick stop to pick up something from his class and I followed him only to get to his class and meet a surprise he had planned to ask me out to prom! You can imagine how mushy I was at this point, smiling like an idiot, dropping tears and all that 😂 he even bent the knee to ask the question (it was that serious in my school 😂)
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The entire experience this day was the same feeling I was getting from the scenery in the book at that point, I was literally in the world of the characters and it was ecstatic! Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t some lovey-dovey thing going on throughout the book, far from that even, at that point in the book it just felt like peace after all the storm. That aside, it was the best book I ever read! When I got home that summer, I was searching for where to get the book to finish it and didn’t find it, so I eventually finished reading this series in the 3rd semester of my first year at the university and I already had an IG account at the time but after I finished this book I was thinking of changing my IG handle around that time and while I just reminiscing on how far I had come with the book on the day I finished it, I remembered the experience and named my new handle after that day, the book, the thankful and hopeful feeling from that day and of the days to come which was a new month at the time and also my birth month, June.
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So there you have it “ Harvest of June “.
Now the spotlight goes to Tessa Afshar, the author of these amazing books and many others that I cant wait to read, A gifted writer. She would transport you into the world of the characters, you could literally smell the scent of bread the women baked in the book 😂 ( no jokes) and her writing style for me is the icing on the cake. I just thought about her today and I’m going to pick up a new read from her new books, who knows what story would come out of this new read haha, at least I read faster now. you should check her and her books out, highly recommend it!
https://tessaafshar.com/resources-and-news/
She is the story behind my IG handle…
