Skills are the passport to your future. The choice of learning is yours, the key to the future is in your hands.- Abraham Lincoln
A few years back, social media was buzzing with cries about unemployment rate in the country and everyone was complaining about how they didn’t have jobs. It was during the period that most people came to realize that having a university degree wasn’t the key to making it in life. Today, majority of youth in Ghana have ventured into entrepreneurship and they’re doing just fine there ,thanks to COVID-19.
As an individual, having a skill or skills is as important as having a university diploma or degree. There are a lot of skills one can learn in this technological era. In the olden days people had to pay in order to acquire some skills like sewing and even hairdressing. Today , we have YouTube and the likes to help us acquire these skills. I have a friend who learnt how to braid on YouTube and she’s actually making money out of it now even though she’s still a student. Everyone could use some extra cash.
Personally, I’ve ventured into a lot of things with the skills I have. Today, I want to share just two of my skills with you all. Some years back, I took a gap year to learn a skill but I didn’t really know which skill to learn since I had a lot of options. After thinking and looking into the future I decided to learn how to sew. Thankfully, my aunty is a seamstress so I didn’t need to go looking for someone to learn from. Initially, I struggled a lot because I didn’t know the names of most of the equipment or even how to use them. I felt terrible because I wasn’t learning as fast as I thought I would but gradually, with my aunty’s support I started to get a hang of it.
I began to make money from my sewing skill right from my aunty’s shop. I would help her sew her clients clothes when she was busy or away and she would give me a lot of money. Then, the currency was good so it was a lot of money.😅 Looking back, I think it was a good step I took because my family and I don’t need to go to a seamstress to get our clothes sewn when I can do it.
Being a foodie, you’d be surprised I didn’t like the idea of cooking as a kid. I wouldn’t even wash dishes at the age of 12 and this made my mom really mad but my dad always came to my rescue.😂 I didn’t understand the importance of house chores as a kid even though my mom was always emphasizing on it and I mostly saw it as a form of punishment. The first time I tried to cook , it was a disaster and I felt really disgraced cos my mom wouldn’t stop making fun of me. I was around 14 years then and I knew I needed to start learning these basic stuff before it’s too late.
From then, you would always find me with my mom in the kitchen. Even if she was going to sleep there I was ready to also sleep there cos I didn’t want to disgrace myself anymore.😂 By 16 I was a very good cook, thanks to my mom. I love cooking and I love it when people eat my food and enjoy it. Cooking has grown to become a life skill I can’t do away with and in the future, I look forward to starting my own food business.
Acquiring a skill isn’t as difficult as it looks. There might be some bad days but there’s always good days after. I wouldn’t have been able to acquire all the skills I have now if I was lazy. Without others we are nothing. I learnt my skills for free from people who knew the importance of having a skill as a lady growing up in Africa and I’m always open and ready to teach anyone who is ready to learn. This year, the plan is to acquire as many skill as possible because they often come in handy.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, thank you for your time.
all images belong to me unless stated otherwise.