GIFT, 33, lost her father when she was writing her senior school certificate exams but was not told until her exams were over. She said all the comfort she had known ended abruptly. To further worsen her situation, her mother became critically ill and unable to work and fend for the family. Before long, her elder sister who was in her second year in the university began dating an “Aristo” who got her a posh flat outside campus and gave her everything to make life comfortable. When they could no longer afford to pay their house rent, their mother had to go back to her parents’ house in the village where she could be taken care of. She got an admission into the same university as her sister but bluntly refused to stay in her sister’s flat or succumb to the pressures of men offering her comfort for a sexual relationship. What surprised her most was the rate at which her sister changed her “Aristos” which was alarming and rather scary. From being a squatter, Gift ended up sleeping on the floor of the living room of a female lecturer who took an interest in her after she scored highest in her English elective course. The female lecturer adopted her after she had narrated how difficult life was. All the while, her sister was the hottest babe on campus as she had the most expensive car. Her sister felt slighted that she chose to squat with a “staid old maid” as she tagged the female lecturer and shut her out of her life completely to spite her. She remembers that when she had typhoid fever and was almost dying, her sister ignored all her text messages for money to buy her medications.
She went through the female lecturer’s cookery books in her past time and learnt how to bake. From there, she began to sell all sorts of pastry to sustain herself. Not making enough money for her schooling and her mother who was now becoming a liability on her grandparents, she started coaching classes for some lecturers’ children. She confesses that combining all with her lectures was an onerous task and she never had enough sleep but asides having enough money, she was well-appreciated.
In her final year, a foreign professor visited the university and the vice chancellor invited him to his house. The professor had a chat with the vice chancellor’s grandchild and was very surprised and greatly impressed at his impeccable English and smartness. The professor commended the school the child attended. However, the vice chancellor was quick to tell him all he loved about the child was from his coaching classes. Incidentally, a lecturer who was doing a research alongside the foreign professor had a child with similar traits who was attending Gift’s coaching class. Immediately, he requested to meet and interview her. After a rather long chat, he blurted out “this girl is too much for Nigeria!” In spite of all odds, Gift made a second class upper division grade and went on scholarship to Harvard University courtesy the foreign professor. Guess what? (This is no fiction) she was given a master’s degree thesis to write without having to go through the whole programme and her thesis came out best of all the Masters’ degree students. From her first degree, she started her doctorate degree. Today, armed with a Ph. D., she lectures at an American University and delivers papers every now and then at Harvard. She’s an attaché to the White House; a consultant to the Clinton Global Initiative and UNESCO. According to her, “at a point in time, my pants had holes in them from excessive washing; I had to beg my colleagues for their used weave-on. I remember when men who were in a position to help me would taunt me and tell me I was the cause of my severe lack and that I would die in poverty just because I refused to sleep with them. I remember nights when I would cry to God, days when I would fast and fast and fast and pray just for God to turn my life around. Some mornings when I would wake up wondering why I woke up…”
Today, I want to live forever. I’m swimming in dollars just by pursuing what has now become my passion precipitated by my circumstance – teaching. My rents are paid and I live in a luxury apartment with my mother. I can afford to go into any designer shop, buy whatever I want but usually don’t have the time. My secretary knows my taste and shops for me on-line whenever I see what I like. I dine in the best restaurants with members of the diplomatic community, top United States government officials, world-class academicians; I could go on and on! My sister…? She has two children for two different men and is no longer the beauty she used to be. To worsen things, her standard of living is so low compared to the life she enjoyed as an undergraduate. She has a boutique which I hear has rundown. When I tried to help by sending 10 boxes of the latest clothing items in vogue, she rejected them and instead hurled insults at me. I paid for my “school mother’s” doctorate degree programme here in the U.S. and she also lives with me. Indeed, “no pain, no gain”.
Wow! How inspiring. Truly, hard work pays. Do the right things, wait and be of good courage and things will fall into place better than you could ever imagine.
