Photo by Jessica Lewis Creative:
Trying to find your ground or stance in life can be a very burdensome task, especially when you have to scale obstacles and setbacks that arise during this period. But as one adage I love saying in times like that says, "failure is a necessary part of the success story," and as we all know that it is often through our failures and challenges that we grow and learn about life the most. Unfortunately that was the case for me early in my life.
I could recall vividly, the last day of my West African Examination (WAEC), an exam that proved I was ready to move on from high school and onto the next stage of my education life, the University life.
The day was bright, the sound of the school bell ringing signalled the end of our highschool journey. We were jubilant with cheers and some already were breaking their pen. A ritual familiar with students in my country. Like soldiers victorious from a long hard battle we emerged from our exam hall. The pressure of highschool academics has been lifted off our shoulders. We sang and danced. Friends exchanged pleasantries like it was the last time they were going to see each other. Well it might actually be because just like we all know after highschool, most of us could hardly tell of the whereabouts of some of our friends as we were entering a whole different phase of our lives that might not need our highschool friends.
I on the other hand was elated, ready to embark on a new adventure. I had already made plans on how I was going to sit for my entrance exam into the university, but as usual, life had other plans for me.
Running down the school stairs celebrating with my friends and saying goodbye to my teachers, I missed a leg and slipped down the stairs, dislocating my knee. The pain was much, and unfortunately my knee did not heal as fast as I had imagined. Well it wasn't new to me anymore. I had noticed growing up my wounds often took longer to heal than those of others.
Fast forward to a year later, and I was still at home, nursing my dislocated knee. Due to that I wasn't able to sit for the university entrance exam as I had planned for myself. According to my doctor I needed close medical attention and if I was to leave for school I might not be able to deal with the school stress and still keep up with my medical appointments. At that point I knew I had to do something to keep myself busy, I was tired of being the house watchdog while everyone went to work. So I began looking for a job. I had a little experience with sewing, thanks to my mother who had taught me a few tricks with her sewing machine. Lucky enough I found a job at a sewing factory down the street, and to lighten the burden they used industrial sewing machines which required little effort and also I was going to make use of my other left that wasn't dislocated.
We were over 50 employees at the factory and all of us high school graduates were trying to make ends meet and keep ourselves occupied until we could gain admission into the university. Of Course the pay wasn't great, and the workload was too much but we had no other option. Instead I decided to find a side hustle if I was going to make ends meet.
I recalled that I had received my first laptop as a gift from my aunt. So I opted for blogging since it was what could give me time to work in the day and blog at night. With no mentor at all but only a few YouTube videos to guide me, I started blogging on WordPress. I worked religiously on my blog after each day at work. I invested my salary from my sewing job into running the blog. I spent most nights generating content for my blog whole praying that I attract visitors and recognition.
Months into blogging, I realized that my site was not thriving as I had hoped. The sewing company had already downsized its staff, and I was among them. I had no job again, I realized too that I had invested all of my salary into my blog and clearly I had no savings with me. I had to shut down my blog.
Fortunately for me, my dislocated knee had healed. So I decided to take another shot at the university. I sat for the examination and on my second attempt I eventually passed the examination and got admitted to the university. Another phase of my life I was happy to embark on.
To the failures of the past, thank you for teaching us life lessons and adding to our success stories.