I have come a long way and I have won many battles

I got up before I heard the bang on my door. It was almost like I was expecting it, like I knew that in the next 3 seconds someone would intrude on my privacy and disturb my sleep. My eyes had flung open at exactly 6:15 am, but I didn't lift my body off the bed until some seconds later when I thought I heard the sound of feet shuffling, and truly, a knock came almost immediately.

Source
I tiptoed to the door to press my ear to it. I wasn't expecting anyone at that early hour, so I wanted to be sure I was safe before opening up.

“Are you sure someone is in there?”

“I'm positive, I saw her come in last night.”

I recognized the first voice immediately, Mr. Philemon, the caretaker of the compound I lived in. It was the second person I couldn't recognize.

When the knock came again, I turned the key in its lock and pulled the handle.

“Good morning, sir”

“Ah, Treasure. May I come in?” I looked from the bent man in glasses to the tall, bearded guy with a smirk on his face then opened my door and dropped my curtain.

“Sorry to disturb you, it seems you were still sleeping” the bent man, the compound caretaker, said. I said nothing to him. “Take a look at the house, Tommy,” he said to the other man, “will it be good enough for you?”

“What is going on here?” I asked. There was silence for some time before Mr. Philemon smiled.

“Treasure, your rent is due in 2 weeks. We would like you to move out by then. Mr. Tommy here wants to rent this place for 2 years.”

Nothing he said sounded funny, but I chuckled when he was done talking.

“Mr. Philemon, you had my phone number. Why didn't you call me to schedule a meeting at a better time and place? Please I want to work, can you both excuse me?”

The Tommy man blinked twice in surprise, but Mr. Philemon must have been used to me by then. When I moved into that house 11 months ago, Mr. Philemon had refused to give me a receipt for the house.

“Just keep the date you moved in. The receipt would not be a challenge” and so he kept saying till I called him 4 months after I moved in.

“Mr. Philemon, if I do not get the receipt for this house by the end of this week, I will call the landlord personally and have a full refund of my rent!”

The landlord himself had confided in me that Mr. Philemon was bound to lag behind in so many areas and if he misbehaved at all during my stay in the compound, I should not hesitate to report to him personally.

I received my receipt by 6 am that Saturday morning.

Mr Philemon shuffled his feet and nudged the other man along.

“Make sure to have your things ready the exact day your rent expires. Mr Tommy would be paying that same day.”

I didn't expect to break down when they left but the tears that rolled down my cheeks were almost unstoppable. I knew that Mr. Philemon was not acting on his own accord, the landlord must have instructed him to ask me to leave, but where would I go?

I sent a direct message to my older brother explaining the situation, but he was not in the same city with me. He had since left for youth service and was not going to round up until 4 months from that day.

I immediately began to send messages to my friends, asking which of them I could stay with when the two weeks I had finally elapsed. Two of my female friends stayed with their families and the only one who stayed alone lived far away from school, there was barely any other option.

We both had to wake up by 5 am to prepare for an 8 am class and would have to buy food in school because we almost didn't have time to cook when we returned home exhausted.

During that period, I learned discipline like never before. I had to learn to set my priorities right, knowing fully well that I didn't have so much time left to myself after hurrying to school and returning home tired.

It was then I learned to wake up early consistently, meet deadlines, and cut down on my spending habits because of how much I spent on transport daily.

I didn't get to relax on that particular schedule until my brother was done with the 4 months that he had to finish up with his service year then moved in with him when he got an apartment.