I will not lie, I did not like the way my school life played out. It was on a 'managing' level from beginning to end.
In this age of technology, I sometimes wish I had attended school in this era. Things, especially finances, would not have been as big an issue as they were in my days in school. My siblings that are in school now are enjoying life.
For those who have not seen my photo, I am slim in nature and very fair. This look gave a lot of people the wrong impression of me, making them unwilling to tag me along in the field of hustles because they thought I would not be able to work. However, it did not take me long to prove them wrong, and I started jumping from one hard job to another just to earn money and sort myself out, because my parents were not financially buoyant.
I was into building site work, such as serving a mason, excavating earth for soakaway pits, clearing forests meant for building purposes, and any other job that came from that line of work. I was also into laundry services, though on a mini scale, because I was doing house services in two to three homes. In addition, I used to follow a group that was into canopy, chairs, and tables rental business, helping to organise party grounds and supply these items.
Funny enough, despite all these hustles, the money was not enough to make me live comfortably during school because school demands kept draining it whenever they came. My parents were supportive too, no lies about that, but their support was limited to the basics such as school fees and house rent. Other dues were not really a thing of concern to them. Feeding money? No. Once I carried garri and yam from home, I was expected to cater for other things myself. 😅
Coping with little or no finance during school was hell. It was so bad that I did not get to enjoy life the way other students did, such as buying clothes, eating good meals, or going on tours. I remember there were times I had to switch to using firewood to cook because the cooking gas got exhausted and there was no money to refill the cylinder. I think this was one of the reasons I did not fancy going into a serious relationship back then, because as we all know, going into a relationship is like signing a spending deal with a lady. Lol.
The good thing is that the experiences of those days structured me very well and shaped how I manage my finances till today.
Thanks for reading.
The photo used is mine