Reflecting on the last four years; it is the spirit of hard work, self-reliance, contentment, perseverance, volunteering and leadership for me.
How? I can explain.
Follow me, as I summarize.
After my SSCE and my first UTME, it became so glaring that as the first child, I do have a lot of responsibilities. Just like a dream, it happened- Dad lost his job and Mum’s business went down the rail. Somehow I freaked not, confident I was, that Allah is always in control and indeed he knows all.
Within that period of preparing for another JAMB and seeking for admission, I was a fine primary and secondary school teacher. I go from school to JAMB tutorial, and weekends to a fashion school where I was learning how to sew. My dad never gave up.
As a responsible father, whom I am proud of, he continued struggling to make ends meet and that was the inspiration for me. “Adufe, life is full of challenges. To succeed in life, you have to work and pray”- my dad would always say to me. In 2015, I gained admission to study Mass Communication at the Lagos State University. Alhamdulilah, we didn’t give up because there was no money, but I was able to scale through the admission process.
Then, the real struggle of bagging a B.Sc began. I will try to be concise as possible. This particular struggle almost affected my dream of graduating with a good grade. At the end of 100level; I made a CGPA of 3.0. Living and studying as an undergraduate was quite difficult for me but I had vowed to face my struggles regardless and to never opt for negativity.
Throughout the journey, Allah blessed me with so much energy as I efficiently remained versatile and very hardworking, that at 200level, I was already used to the struggle and I have been able to study the university setting to some extent. Thanks to my dearest coursemates who from 200level through 400level supported my business, your patronage was everything to me.
Thanks for trusting me with your school fees payments and course registration. With that business, I was able to take care of my basic needs, even if they were not designer this and that.
Despite these struggles, I took up some leadership roles, from the General Secretary of the Public Relations and Advertising Students Association (PRADSA), the Welfare Director of the Community of Ogun States Students in Lagos (COSLAG), the Editor of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN-LASU) to the Deputy Editor of the Association of Campus Journalists ( ACJ-LASU).
These roles were time consuming but I was able to juggle them up with my studies and hustle. Moreover, they made me a better person and infact I was already on second class upper by CGPA and maintained it. Before the establishment of ACJ-LASU, I had started blogging and practicing campus journalism with the support of some of my lecturers.
At this point, blogging had attracted so many people to me, within and outside campus, even though I was using a free site back then. The struggle of ‘no money’ remained but had reduced and the feeling that I have less than two semesters to go gave me more courage to keep pushing.
With the love, care and support I got from my closest friends in school and the Kadaria journalism scholarship in 300level made the journey sweeter. This a reflection of the journey.
There are more bitter-sweet memories that shaped this journey, but I can only look back and say this to myself, “Mariam, you are beautiful.” To the very few people who believed in this girl, recommended me for one volunteering job or the other, who mentioned my name for good behind my back, I love you and thank you all.
My last two birthdays, I did a lowkey food outreach for the needy. But this year I have decided to train newbies, especially undergraduates on the basis of information marketing and copywriting this Friday and Saturday. See last photo on this post for details or join the group through this link; http://bit.ly/2Ia76Co Thanks for reading.Happy birthday Mariam Ileyemi
