My Journey Through Tough Times

I know some of you must have heard the saying, "Tough times don't last, but tough people do," and I couldn't agree more with that quote. Difficult times are part of life; we can't always have it easy. That's why I don't panic when facing difficulties because I know it's normal. Instead, I focus on finding a way out. There's certainly going to be a solution to whatever problem I find myself in. I won't even say I have experienced many difficulties in this life, as what I see as my greatest difficulty is another person's daily life.

Hardship is not a competition, but you might think you're having the worst possible experience until you hear of someone else's journey. That's when you will realize it's important to be grateful for the things you have. I have experienced a lot of difficulties in this life, but nothing beats the experience I had when I was in my final years at the university. Before getting into the final year, I had been thinking a lot about how I would fund my final year projects because I knew I wouldn't be able to depend fully on my parents.

I did a rough estimate and realized I would need around N150k, so I called my uncle and asked for his help. He gave me N50k, which was a very good amount, so I just had to figure out how to get the rest. Luckily for me, a friend of mine came to me with a very good business opportunity, and I was getting a minimum of N4000 every day, and on some very good but rare days, I made up to N30,000. I saved some of the money and was able to get up to N100k in savings, but I squandered the rest.

I ate like a king, always bought whatever came to my mind, and even stopped cooking (I was always eating out). The business stopped after a month, and a few weeks later, I started my final year project. I thought the money I saved would be more than enough for it, but the whole thing disappeared within a week, and I was very broke. I was so broke to the extent that I started powering down my Hive power, which was giving me around $10 of Hive every week that I immediately sold on Binance just to get money to survive for the week.

I wasn't sleeping much because of the time-consuming nature of the project, and I was eating only once a day because of very limited money. This was the same me that was eating 5-square meals a few months ago, always buying the big pack of Hollandia yogurt and Chi Exotic drinks, but now I can't even afford to eat twice a day. I became very lean, but I still tried to stay happy because I know that the condition was only temporary. It was still in that period that one of the Binance transactions I did got sent to a dormant bank account, and I couldn't retrieve it; I had to borrow money from a friend.

My phone also went bad during all this, and I was caught between fixing it with the little money I had or just keeping the money for food. Luckily for me, a friend gifted me some money, and I was able to solve both problems. Exams were also fast approaching, and I had to study hard because it was my final exams. It was very frustrating because I was always hungry all the time (try studying on an empty stomach). I couldn't even take part in most of the activities organized by my classmates to celebrate our final days in the university (we call it FYB week).

Either I didn't have money to buy the clothes/costumes needed for each of the celebrations, or I was not in a good mood for it. But still, on the day of my final exam, I signed out and celebrated with my classmates. The next day, I packed my bags and ran back home to my parents; I used the last money I had on me to transport myself back home. To be honest, I never enjoyed my final weeks at the university; they were the worst weeks I have ever experienced in my 5 years at the university.

That experience humbled me, but at least I learned my lesson, which is to always save for rainy days. I had the opportunity to save as much as I could when I was getting a lot of money, but what did I do? I squandered it on food and drinks. I could just go to a restaurant and buy food for N4000, something I had never done before. But when things went bad, I started managing that same N4000 for a whole week. These days, I'm more intentional with the way I spend money; no more frivolous spending because this life is never predictable, and something might come up one day that will require a good amount of money. So, it's better to be prepared.

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