There is always a reason for whatever action we decide to do. Waking up at 5 am, there is a reason for it. Entering into the kitchen to prepare meals, there is a reason. We don't do anything outside the spark that makes us do it. It is what I always tell those around me because one cannot just step out to hunt for jobs if not for the reason to have what brings them food on the table, to survive the journey of life and to be able to stay fit and responsible in society.
Just like everyone else, there is a reason why I wake up each day, go out, pick up my phone to start writing an article etc. We only know what is happening now, no one knows the future and so, we tend to keep going, looking forward to the day our efforts will pay off.
When I was growing up, my inspiration has always been my aunt (Dad's younger sister). Her stories and how she has become today have inspired me greatly that she is the one I ever looked up to in the family so that I can also become someone great and useful to myself and the people that surrounds me. At some point, I added another person to my list of inspiration and that is my big sister. She has been a great being that I have come to make my motivation, not only because she is my blood but because she has turned into someone I can never lose my focus on because of her resilient spirit.
I used to say to myself that I wouldn't want a life where I would depend on my siblings for survival. I use my Dad's story to keep my path going forward, to keep being committed and never in life would I want to be at my siblings' feet and begging for help all the time. My sister has been so strong right from when she graduated and has given herself a life where no one can ever toy with or look down on. Looking at my Dad today, I don't want to end up that way.
Being a man he is and I, a woman, especially in a place where they might use that as an excuse that both genders are different and that it doesn't mean, it means a lot to me because if I don't take it more seriously now, it may become a generational thing. This is why I keep going and staying focused.
Poverty isn't something good and when I see people struggling, especially knowing it is what killed my mom's elder sister, that was after my mom's death and because there was no support for her hospital bills, resorting to self-medication, she died in the process. Seeing lots of people living in abject poverty and how life is treating them, gives me the spark to take my life seriously and do what I need to do now that I have the strength because a time will come when there won't be strength to keep on. They say, make hay while the sun shines. Time waits for no man.
I know where I am coming from and having tasted life in ways I never wished for in the past, I have made the decision never to return to such kind of life again. I push myself and wake up daily even when it isn't convenient to do what is expected of me. Right now, I can say it has been God where I get to eat what I want. A colleague at my place of work once said to me that she wished to be like me because my life isn't hard and I get to eat whatever I wanted. I smiled and told her it has been God's grace, only if she would listen to hear my side of life too. With this, I feel the urge to keep doing the right thing to have a better future and not to be negligent with things now so as not to regret them later.
Seeing my aunt and big sis, they are my inspiration to keep going, struggling now to reap the effort later as I don't want to become irresponsible later or someone they won't give regards to, especially but to give me that respect even when I am not available.
Both images belongs to me