Just like most average Nigerian youths, we start thinking of having a job mostly after high school, instead of staying at home and waiting for admission into the tertiary institutions we applied for, as this for some can take a long while. I had just graduated from high school, though very young, I was about fourteen years of age, staying at home was fun at first, my routine was to wake up, eat, do my house chores, then watch movies non-stop, as a human, it is certain to get tired of something you enjoyed at first if it remains same for long, then out of boredom, I started drawing for fun, I got a different plain sheet of paper/ drawing books and expressed my boredom on them, I wasn't a professional, but was good to some extent at drawing, you could refer to me as a natural talent, as I did it for the fun of it, not until my aunt stumbled upon some of my drawings and jokingly told me that they needed someone to make nursery sketches / drawing on cardboards at the school she once taught at, my interest piqued and I asked her If I could apply, and she just told me to go try my luck.
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The next day, I applied with some of my artworks with me, and surprisingly I got interviewed and picked for the artist job. The Proprietress told me I could also be a full-time teacher as they needed an extra class teacher in primary one class, and that was how I got my first ever job.
MY JOB EXPERIENCE
To be honest, I was excited about the job and didn't care about the meager pay I was offered at first, I guess it's because I was very young and innocent, all I cared about was getting busy with something while awaiting my result, but soon all that excitement gradually died down as I began to understand the value of work and getting paid equally, with time, I felt I was being used due to my young age, I did the job well, poured out my heart into it, but the pay was nothing compared to the stress involved, I enjoyed spending time with the children, did my drawing, but writing lesson notes was a total turn off for me, and when I discovered from other teachers who were also SSCE(Senior Secondary School Certificate) holders how much they were paid compared to mine, I knew then and there that the proprietress took advantage of my naiveness and young mind to her gain.
In no time, I got admission into my school of choice and knew that it was time to leave, even though I could still spend about an extra two months before leaving for school. When I made it known that I would be resigning, the woman out of guilt thought it was because of the meager pay and promised to increase my salary, because yea, I was good at my job, if not the best, I smiled and told her it wasn't because of her pay, but because I had gotten an admission.
The pay was low, but what kept me going during my stay there was that I learned how to relate with people in the outside world, as I got to face different parents every day, at first, a little complain could make me start shedding tears because of my introverted nature I was a very shy little girl that couldn't talk to people face to face then, but the little time I spent there, made me a little bolder, and I also learned how to communicate with people publicly.
If I am chanced to go back there, it won't be to work there again, rather to visit and say hi to my previous boss, I'm sure the teachers then won't be the same ones there now. Though my first job was being an artist and teaching, but I don't see myself becoming a teacher now, as I don't have a passion for it, life moved so fast, I can't even remember the last time I doodled, talk more of drawing.
This post is in response to the hive learners weekly contest, week 76, edition 2.