Life for me has not been a bed of roses, I am still very hopeful for that time when it gets all smooth and rosy though. Some days are very great and I am just feeling so cool but on other days, I need to take a deep reflection on how I want my life to be and what was happening with me.
I am very good at starting something, once I put my mind to getting something done, I put in all my energy and strength, the problem I have however is when that thing is not working as well as I thought it should, I feel so discouraged and most times, I simply back out altogether.
The group of people that keeps me going regardless of what life throws at me are my siblings, those people are my world. It probably was the way we grew up, my Mum always sang it to my ears that, I was completely responsible for them and it was my duty to take care of them in her presence or her absence.
There was a time after secondary school when things were financially unwell at home, my parents struggled so badly. I felt so bad that my siblings were not able to take good snacks to school like other children. I instantly thought of what I could do, so I started to organize moral lessons for the children in the neighborhood, each child was to come with 50 naira as a lesson fee every day and I think I built the lesson to the point of having 20 children at the time, so I made 1,000 Naira daily on a good day, but when the turn up was low, I would make 500 Naira daily.
When I take out money for chalk, the remaining part of the money will be used to sort feeding in the house or to cover up some school essentials for my siblings. I also went to a woman who sold puff puffs back then and begged her to please teach me how to make them. She gladly taught me without collecting money from me, and I did that in the mornings and made a good sale because my puff puff was really tasty (laughs), then ran lessons in the evenings.
Whenever I feel down and I think my efforts are not adding up, instead of giving up, I would look for a way to strategize because I do not want my siblings to suffer. When I gained admission into the university, the house was almost swept out (I mean), almost everything was given to me so I could have a soft landing in school. Surviving through school was a struggle until I started my business of buying and selling in school, I was very popular back then with my business bag. Some of my schoolmates made fun of me that I didn't have a classy handbag, but I didn't mind as I was making money to take care of myself and even send to my siblings to live a good life in school too.
I instructed them not to go into business in school to avoid distraction from their studies, my own business was doing so well that I could sponsor their lifestyle. Home is what keeps me going, keeps me grinding, and keeps me moving.