Greetings!
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One thing about we humans is that our lives are always full of activities right from birth to when we breath our last breathe. And like the biblical saying that talks about time and season, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to laugh and a time to cry…
So also, we all have a special time in our lives. This special time might be a day that we can't forget in our life time and in most cases, it's used to be our first time of doing something. Though, some might not be, but like I said earlier, it used to be our firsts.
Now, while ruminating about the topic of the weekly prompt, the first of my firsts that my mind picked and that I will be discussing with us here was my first salary.
Though, I have been working before hand, but the nature of the job was not the one that has to do with salary and this was because it's my private business of buying and selling. So in this type of a business, I was the one paying myself and this can't be said to be a salary job.
Like I said earlier, I have had so many firsts, but that of my first salary was the one I cherished most. This is because it's my sweat and meant for me. Also, because it's a mean through which one lived on, I couldn't just take it for granted.
It all happened when i applied for a public service work in the year 2020. At that time, my privately owned business was declining and there's no more means of survival for me. So when I heard that the state government is employing people to the state teaching service commission, I put in for it and thank God I was able to scale through all the recruitment processes which started from the writing of the exam to the giving of the appointment letter.
Though, the giving of the appointment should have been my most cherish first, but because of the situation I was back then, there's no way it could have been my first as I was living from hand to mouth during that time. So, that's why it was not my most cherished first.
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So, after the collection of the appointment letter, we the new appointees resumed to our primary place of assignment. It's when we got to our various school that we realized that it would take the government 3 months to pay us our salary as we were being placed on probation for the first 3 months. When I heard this, I was downhearted, but there's nothing i could do to salvage the situation for myself as my business was no longer working.
So, week in, week out, the three month probation elapsed and we were all expecting the alert, but lo and behold, we could not get it when others who have been working before us got theirs. This was so devastating and all what I did then was to keep my hope alive.
Hmmm, I could sleep as I was checking my bank app and sms messages on my phone from time to time. As I was about to give up and close my eyes to sleep, I heard a beeping sound on my phone. I went straight to check it but it's one of the telecommunications company messages that popped up, congratulations that I had won a jackpot. This was so annoying as I went back to sleep without any hope at sight.
On waking up the following morning, I went straight to where I put my phone to check if the salary had been entered, but it's the same story. I called my colleagues that were just appointed to and the story was the same from their end as well.
Though we've not received our salary, that was not a tenable excuse to tell anybody as we would be sanctioned if we refused to go to work. So, without any delay, I went to the bathroom to take my bath and as I was about to step out of the bathroom, I heard another beeping sound on my phone. At first I didn't want to check it so as not to be disappointed like I was in the night, but instead of not checking what the message might be, I summoned courage but lowered my expectations to check the message.
Lo and behold, it's my first salary that has just entered, I exclaimed and jumped for joy, even my shout of joy resonated throughout my neighborhood and people were wondering what was happening. My neighbor mummy Ngozi came to ask about what's going on, but I kept it to myself and was thanking God.
So, I quickly dressed up and set out to work. But as I was going to work, I was checking my bank app to be sure if I was not dreaming. I was so happy that everyone around me could feel it. It was indeed a memorable day for me, not because I have not made money before, but because it's my first salary. So, I was able to pay up my debt with the money and use the rest for my family upkeep.
So, whenever I remember my first time collecting my salary, I used to give thanks to God that out of my many firsts, this my first salary collection stood out.
This is my entry to the hivenaija weekly prompt.
Thanks for reading.
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