The first time I made money for myself I was no more than a child, and the feel of that hard currency in my palm was one of the greatest joys of my childhood that I still can't forget. I will tell you all about it.
This happened somewhere between 2007 and 2009, I am no longer sure. But I am sure that I was fresh out of primary school then and was waiting to begin secondary school. At that time, I had to miss an entire term because I was making a move from a private primary school into a public secondary school. So, it required a lot of running around and paperwork that my mother did.
But it took so long that by the time I was finally admitted into JSS1 of the secondary school, the first term was already all but over.
So, this means that I spent more than three months at home, doing absolutely nothing. My parents had to go to work every day, and my siblings were either going to work as well or went to their own schools. So, I had to stay at home alone every day until they returned home.
And it was boring because, in the entire neighborhood, I would be the only one at home seeing as all the other kids had gone to school as well. Back then, around ten in the morning, you could see me walking through the empty streets leisurely, probably kicking a plastic bottle that was lying on the street. Or I would be playing ball on the community field, all by myself. Yeah… it involved a lot of running.
Anyway, I hope you get the picture I am trying to paint here, I was a kid with a lot of time on my hands and little to do with them.
It was during this time I truly began writing, I started with short stories then. I also tried my hand at drawing but that skill just never developed for me so as I grew older I dumped it. But none of these made me any money until much later in my life. What actually put that crisp paper note in my palm was something I did not even expect in any way.
One day, I was walking through the streets as usual. The people already knew me, so they had stopped asking why I was not going to school. That is to tell you how regularly I was taking these walks.
Well, I came across some bricklayers who were working on building close to the field. I can’t remember what made me stop, but I did. And I just stood under the shade of a tree and was watching them work. I guess I was impressed with the ease and manner they were carrying out manual labor so effortlessly.
It turned out that under the tree I was standing, these guys had stacked cement blocks there. They had been offloaded off a truck and placed under the tree. But apparently, it had not been a smart move, because they were building the house on the other side of the field. So having to move all the blocks would cause delay, something they could not afford.
That was how one of them approached me, he was an elderly man. He told me that if I could help them move the block across the field, he would give me twenty naira for every block I carried.
I agreed.
Mind you, this was a time when five naira still had a lot of value. Back then, you could buy rice and stew for twenty naira and you would be satisfied.
So, I did as asked. I was just a small boy so I carried it one block at a time. There had to be about five hundred to one thousand blocks there. I moved these blocks for over an hour, going from one side of the field to the other. I was carrying it on my head, they provided me with padding to make it easier for me.
Eventually, I got tired and could carry no more. They understood and gave me cold pure water to drink which seemed to bring back some of my energy. But not enough for me to continue. While I was drinking the water, the same man called another boy my age and asked him to continue from where I stopped. I am sure he would have offered him the same deal.
Anyway, I can’t remember exactly how many blocks I carried that day, but he gave me four hundred and fifty naira. Now, I do not know if he cheated me or if he gave me extra, back then I did not really care. The money was in my hand and it was so big that there was no sin he would have committed that I would not have forgiven.
I remember the amount he had given me because I remember what I had used it to buy. It was one of these wireless transistor radios that could fit into the pocket, and all it needed as an antenna was just your earpiece. I used three hundred naira to buy the radio, fifty naira to buy the earpiece, and twenty naira for the batteries. I can’t remember how I spent the rest.
Today, my mother still does not know about what I had done. I hid the radio from her for so long, and by the time she found out about it, I was already going to school and I told her it was from my pocket money that I was able to buy it.
I did not tell her the truth about it because she would not have appreciated me walking all over the streets when my mates were in school just as she would not have liked me doing such labor seeing how small I was. And I believe she would most likely take the money from me. As she had done countless times before.
Anyway, I never went back to that field until I started school, and when I did I was always passing there on my way to school and I would see them working. I knew the day they finished working on the house. And I also noted the day the owners started living there.
It is quite funny these details are still in my head. I am sure if I go back to that area I will pinpoint the exact house unless it has been renovated. Because since we moved out, I’ve never gone back.
So, dear friends, that is the very first time I made money. It was not pocket money, I earned it with my sweat and I spent it as I liked. Thankfully, the radio lasted for almost six months before it stopped working. Although by that time it was just prayers and cello tape that were keeping it together.
During the course of my teenage years, there were times when I did various things just to get some extra cash into my pocket. By the time I was an adult, making money was nothing new to me. I already knew that hard work and persistence paid, and as long as you were willing to do what was required, you would get what you deserve.
Thankfully, I am now wiser. I am still working though, but I now have better avenues to put my money into that do not involve buying a radio that would not last up to a year. I have dreams and aspirations, I will keep working until I get that which I am after. I would not stop.
The boy might now be a man, but the hustle continues.
It never stopped.
Thank you for reading, till we meet in the next post.
This post was inspired by the first topic for this week which is Your First Earning. Feel free to try it out.
Borderimage credit: @deimage.