As we grow older our roles and responsibilities in life and society begin to change, we begin to adapt to our present condition which sometimes does not in any way fit into the picture that we’ve always envisaged, but do we give up on life? Or do we adapt and continue to strive?
Independency - When is the first time you felt truly independent or older than your age?
I have always considered myself as one who grew earlier than her age, not body size wise but being exposed to the harsh reality of life.
My childhood was all rosy, I didn’t have to struggle to get anything until things took a different turn during my teenage years, what regular teenagers didn’t bother about, my siblings and I would bother, analyze, strategize, and restrategize.
While teens my age would spend every money given to them by their parents, uncles, and aunties, I and my siblings would save every penny because those pennies came in handy later in life.
The one time I felt truly independent in my life was when I went for my National Youth Service Corps years ago. That was the last time my father ever gave me money. I left the house with only the money for transportation that he gave me and in his words “You are now an adult, go and make your own money”. Lol, imagine your dad saying these words to you when you were about to leave home for the very first time in your life to stay in a foreign land for a whole year. No family to run to, just you and you alone and the 33k (27.5$) government pays you monthly for serving the country.
At that point in my life, I knew playing the pity card was not going to cut it, heck I knew that settling for less wasn’t part of the plan too neither was going back to my father’s house jobless after my service year, as the labour market in my country isn’t completely favourable to fresh graduates.
I knew that I didn’t have uncles or aunties in high places, I didn’t have any connection of whatsoever to give me a job or the good life that I had always dreamt of.
During that period I knew I was responsible for my future and the slightest mistake could ruin everything.
The first step I took was making sure I was posted to a good organization for my PPA (Place of Primary Assignment) but it wasn’t easy as tribalism and nepotism kept getting in the way.
I was first posted to a government school and was asked to teach a class of 150 students, students who were way bigger than me, I knew I couldn’t grow in such an environment as teaching has never been my thing and it meant that I would be going back to my father’s house after teaching for a year.
Excluding the whole teaching thingy, the accommodation was nothing to write home about, the place I was asked to stay was not secured, the doors weren’t strong as I could even break them with my tiny legs if I had tried to.
I complained, I wrote letters, I begged, I cried and I prayed. While other youth corpers were serving I was moving around with my box to get a good place for my PPA. People kept advising me to make do with the government school, I didn’t blame them as they were only seeing the present and not the future that I saw.
Finally, God showed up as the government school that I was assigned to was changed to a big organization, this happened because one of the girls my zonal inspector liked back then needed a good organization to serve at and he needed someone to “escort” her to the place and yours truly was the perfect “escort”😂😂
You know when God shows up? He uses any and everything at his disposal.
I started working and making money, I did other business on the side. I started sending my family money and gradually I was growing and the rest is history.
As much as I love to be independent there are times I wish I could let my guard down and be taken care of😃 even the strongest people in this world need to be pampered once in a while😃
All images are mine except otherwise stated.
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Loads of Love🥰🥰
XOXO