Hello #scifimultiverse, I am happy to join this week’s contest. As duty calls for this opportunity, I present to you my write-up and invite you to relax and ride through the post. Do have a happy reading.
Life is a journey – unpredictable, we can say, promising? beautiful? fearful? tumultuous? The questions can continue. Life can be said to be filled with more questions than answers. No wonder a singer, “The Genesis & Mary McKee opined “, heaven holds all the secrets we never know till we’re there”
Amid this life journey lies the search for purpose, and enduring struggles regardless of our predicaments and existing situation. Sometimes, we struggle against culture, family beliefs, discrimination, and bullying as we engage in the search for our purpose and essence of life.
The Essence of Life
To me, life is a rhythm, not a race. We drive meaning in our careers or chosen paths of life, believing in achieving that one thing that makes our existence worth the journey. Mine is one filled with days of adversity, little beginnings, from my secondary school days to my early days in university. It all started around the late 1990s when I finished my secondary school on high hopes of studying law. I sat for the needed examinations to gain entrance into the university but couldn’t obtain the required number of credits. To add salt to the injury, I didn’t reach the cut-off mark to study Law, which was the chosen course of my study.
I was deeply saddened and broken because of my laid-out plans to launch into the University early with my friends, graduate early to start helping and impacting lives.
That dream was shattered. Some of my friends got admission and left me behind. While this was ongoing, I asked myself a lot of questions, what if I just forget about schooling and go into street hustle or trading. What if this, what if that, with no answers and succour in sight. Amid the ensuing confusion, I lost a very close relation, and this drained me emotionally and hampered my re-sitting for the exams for over four years.
Suddenly, light shined on my path and early 2000, I secured admission into the prestigious University of Nigeria not to study Law again rather marketing. At school, I was the assistant course representative. I connected with like minded individuals to form a study group and boom…. we became a force to reckon with. Funny enough, my reg number ended with 911. This made it easy to be crammed by some of my course mates who aimed at checking my results once they are announced. Because my number is related to a model of big trucks used in loading goods. This earned me the title “911” and Cargo, attributing my big scores to the big truck. I grew from strength to strength, even with the lost academic years. I improved on every mistake and continued to grow. My results from the first semester never went below a second-class upper division grade.
The Search for Purpose
My essence to life began with my scaling through the university days with a driven purpose of becoming a noble professional business manager. This purpose led me to studying marketing. While I found my purpose early, some of my course mates were still struggling with their career path while some believe that they will eventually find their rhythm after school, I registered and sat for some professional exams, one in management and the other in stock broking and passed all. In what seemed like a dream, my national service call up letter came out swiftly, so I went to camp, after the two weeks orientation, I went for my national service and boom… the struggle set in.
The hustles and struggles, regardless
I redeployed to Lagos State due to security challenges in the Northern region where I was previously posted. That marked a turning point in my search for purpose in life. The vice of man knows man to get a job began playing out. I was rejected in over 3 different companies I was posted to serve. Hey, I almost slipped into depression. Waking up every day without a job became a challenge, heart palpitations set in, and I became afraid of facing each day. I reached out to family and friends, but there was no succour.
In my hustle, I encountered long days of brokenness, rejection from companies, fear, doubt, confusion and uncertainties. Against all odds, I managed to encourage myself and made sure I went for my daily job hunting, knowing that life holds more than just a routine. As fate would have it, I met someone on the bus, and he noticed that I was quiet and wasn’t interested in the ongoing conversation. He reached out and engaged me with a few questions, which I casually answered, not knowing that he is a manager in one of the big telecommunication industries. He gave me his card and requested that I visit the company.
I did, and the rest is history…. I got a call centre job role through his recommendation. He also became my mentor, advising, encouraging and nurturing me throughout my early career hustles.
Looking back on memory lane, this hustle and struggle became a teacher to me. It shaped my thoughts, tested and proved my resilience. Though it did not end there, in my journey for essence and search for purpose, I encountered toxicity in employment, like threats and even bullying in the workplace. All these have shaped my thought that you don’t quit to win in life. At some point, when it seemed the centre could not hold again and things fell apart in one of the firms I worked with, I sought counsel from the professional forum I belong to and switched career to human resources management.
Today, my hustle and struggle in search of the essence of life and purpose in my life’s journey have yielded results that transformed me into a full-fledged Human Resources Professional with over eleven years of experience in delivering exceptional services in HR consulting, recruitment and outsourcing.
Thank you for the engagement. I would like to know what motivates you even in tough times.
