GRADUATE WITH NO JOB
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" Living your life is like drinking a hot cup of coffee. When taken in a hurry all you get is a burn, but when taken slowly, you get to enjoy the sweetness it brings. - AJIE-MIT "
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IG|@motivate_inspire_transform
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Here I am, sitting on the only sofa in my house. I raise my legs to the same level as my hands. My eyes are teary. At this moment if anyone walks in and says the words sorry, I am going to break down in tears.
How can one live in such abject poverty?
My father Mr. Peter is a mechanic and my mom sells roasted corn and yam just in front of our 'one room and Palour ' house.
I still wonder what they were doing when others their age were hustling for a future. Wasted years.
My left-hand leaves my knee and slides down to my left leg to kill the mosquito feasting on my melanin-straight legs. I have to give it to my parents though, the one thing they did so well, is making me beautiful. It will be worse if I am poor and ugly. I look at the window and I realize it is open. Figures. My home is old but it's not a den for mosquitoes.
My hand travels back to my knee and my head gives the world a bow. I can't hold it in anymore. My life is a mess. I doubt there is a light at the end of my tunnel.
After drowning myself in tears I sober up and decide to do my homework. The one teacher whose homework you never want to 'not' do, is Mrs. Preye. Damn, I hear she owns a judo studio, and it explains why her strokes pain the most, even more than that of the male teachers. As I dig my hands into my worn-out hand-knitted bag I feel something that isn't familiar. This book is not mine. In my hands is a novel.
I laugh hysterically. How on Earth can a novel be in my hands? I don't even read school books unless it's exam time. Oh Kelechi, this guy is something else. Kelechi is a friend I still can't believe I have. We're from different worlds. He is from a very wealthy family, whereas I am from, you know, the slums. Everyone in school thinks we are dating because we always go to school and leave school together in his car.
Remembering how this friendship started makes me want to laugh hard. He always says to me " I know you feel you have it worse in life but I want you to know that everyone does too", of course, I don't believe him.
ACHIEVERS is the title of the book. The thing about fiction is that writers only write from their imagination. No one writes realistically. Almost every piece of fiction has a happy ending when in reality, eight out of ten life stories have a sad ending.
What good can this book possibly do for me? Will it somehow, magically pop in naira notes into my home?
I toss it back into my bag and pick up Mrs. Preye's homework. I go to join mom outside. We humans always fall in love with the appearance of things before we fall in love with the thing, my mom always says to me. My mom though uneducated is surprisingly brilliant. People always love buying from her because of how her corns and yams are always appearing neat. I have roasted yam and oil for lunch every school day, I feel like there is a yam forest in my stomach by now. Outside my mom's neatness, people always buy more when I'm around. Figures. I'm beautiful. After some hours I go in to freshen up. I also still need to make dinner and tidy up the house.
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As usual, a car pulls up in my front yard. My ride is here. I say goodbye to my mom and dad, and then hello to Kelechi.
"Have you read the book yet?" He asks. I pretend to be looking for something and then he just laughs. Kelechi knows me too well. He knows when I do stuff and don't do stuff, just from some gestures I make. One thing I despise in life is lying. I rather you say nothing to me at all, than lie to me. So I find it very difficult to lie, I just avoid the discussion.
"You didn't right? Anyways I will be more surprised if you say you did. It's alright to take baby steps."
I hate reading novels.
A new day, and yet again I have to deal with the gazes and speculations. I want to ask Kelechi to stop picking up and dropping me off. But the truth is I don't want him to stop also. My life is a serious mess.
Today is cold, veeeeery cold. My sweats, yh I left them at home. I warm my hands with my breath and by rubbing them over each other. Kelechi took a turn and looks at me.
He pulls off his blazers.
I have to say this, I sometimes daydream about how nice it will be to rest my head on his shoulders because they are so broad. Kelechi has a nice build.
He flings the blazer in my direction. "Put it on. I can't let you freeze to death while with me", he said to me. Maybe I won't be freezing to death but what about him?
Evely-high is a school for those who are well of. I go to school there only because I'm on a scholarship. Everyone comes to school in a fancy car. From their hairdo to their footwear, you can smell wealth all over. I have to maintain my grades if I want to continue my journey in Evely-high.
The school bell rings and it's time to go home. I get a text from my ride.
As I stand at the school's gate, a lot of thoughts float through my head. Kelechi isn't going to drop me off today, there is an emergency at home. Walking on the road I see a homeless boy who I believe to be my age, begging. What Kelechi always says to me makes a little sense right now, Everyone has it worse in life. I have both my parents with me, I have a roof over my head, I go to school, I eat, even if my meals aren't the best one could hope to get, at least I don't have to beg to eat.
All my years on earth I've been living a life without gratitude. Maybe I should give ACHIEVERS a chance, who knows, it may make me start loving fiction.
I stand from a distance and look at my mom. I see something different in everything today, makes me wonder if I ever even see these things in the past. I see the sweats roll down from her cheeks to her chin, I watch her wipe it off with the back of her hands before it drops on one of the corns, and then she washes her hand immediately. Mom is breaking her back for me. I approach her with weak steps, my eyes are teary again, I am such a crybaby. My mom loves singing, and as I get closer to her, I finally see where I get my beauty from. My mom radiates beauty. I listen to her as she sings one of her favorite Mercy Chinwo songs Obinasom. I join her in singing and dancing. As we dance I wonder where my mom gets her positivity from. This happiness she exhumes is going to make a whole lot of sense to me if she drives a Ferrari and lives in a Mansion, but for someone who roasts yam and also lives in a one-room and Palour to be this happy, I find it difficult to understand. I give my mom a very tight bear hug and I soil her dress a little as I cry while hugging her. My mom gently pulls herself out, "what has gotten into you?" She asks. "Is something wrong?" She asks again. I just smile at her and peck her on her cheeks. I take my lunch from her, the usual roasted yam and oil, and then I go in. I greet mama Vero before going inside the house. Mama Vero is one of the nicest people in the compound.
As I open the door, I feel a sudden rush of brightness. It is almost like I brought the sun in with me. The house is so bright that I spot the earrings I lost two weeks ago, our light is back on. Finally, now doing my assignments would be less stressful. But wait, how is the light back on? I can't believe this! I am the reason and I hold the answer to my questions.
Last night, while I was doing my assignment close to the window with a candlestick, we are too poor to afford a Torchlight, the wax continuously drip on my book, and in my anger, I scream out "why can't we just have light like the others", I guess dad must have heard that.
Now I feel bad.
I slump on the couch again, I look around my house, and then, all of a sudden, I have this thought in my head, what if my tunnel has a light at its end? I stare into space for a few minutes and then I pick up my lunch, devour it like a hungry beast, and then, I let out a sound that scares even me, I sound like a roaring lion. I quickly trash the nylon. I take my bath quickly, the weather is still very much like it was in the morning, veeeeery cold.
There is nothing more gratifying than coming back home from school and having no assignment to do. Who knew life could be so stress-free? Not so long after, the idleness began to bore me. Not having anything to do might not be such a good thing after all. I remember now, I have a novel in my possession. Maybe it's time I check out ACHIEVERS.
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GRADUATE WITH NO JOB
Jenna sat on her bed and looking through the window, saw tall trees with little birds resting on them. Listening to the humming of the birds she gets lost in her thoughts, enjoying the pleasure the melodic humming made her feel. This feeling of pleasure was snatched from her as a sound coming from her kitchen distorted the melodic humming of the birds, bringing her back to reality away from her thoughts. The water that she was boiling to make a hot cup of coffee perfect for the cozy weather had exceeded its temperature limit.
Jenna was a twenty-one years old graduate from the University of Lagos with a first-class certificate in the department of mass communication. She lived alone with the permission of her parents. Her apartment was finely furnished in a middle-class way.
Being bold, beautiful, and outspoken, Jenna went to many media houses with her CV and each time got rejected.
With rejection becoming an everyday thing, Jeana gradually became a timid lady and decided to give up.
'Jenna's rejection happened not because she was unqualified but rather because of her beauty' that at least was the idea she conceived in her mind. Her interviews were headed by young males who sent awkward signals to her which her brain cells intentionally kept rejecting.
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Jenna took her cup of coffee to her room but rather than staring at the trees and birds, she looked at her certificate laying hopelessly on her table wondering what else to do with it.
An idle mind is the devil's workshop. Unnecessary thoughts streamed through Jenna's mind.
" People doing plastic surgery to get beautiful is understandable, but not doing it to get ugly, would be weird. I'm sure anyone I tell this to would only see me as a weirdo, but wait, is it my fault to be born beautiful?, did I make the right choice going into mass communication?"
Jenna kept thinking.
Her fearlessness and boldness fade away completely as the sun fades away at night. She went out less and stayed in more, afraid of seeing anyone. She was even more afraid to tell her parents what was happening, being the only child and considering the investments made into her life by her parents, she felt too bad.
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Going into the sitting room, with the presence of a power supply, she switches on the TV and bounced on her couch, she was ready to watch anything showing up because she needed the distraction. As if God was telling her to come out of her self-created shell the first channel that popped up was displaying a news story about how a police commissioner abused his sixteen years old daughter.
"Oh! What a world!" She blurted out in sadness. "Aren't the lawyers doing their job or are they sleeping?" she said again.
To her amazement, the news reporter ended the story by saying:
"It was an act of discipline to the child".
Hearing this Jenna became disappointed rather than agitated because these words were coming from one of the news reporters she held in high esteem, 'Uwadinmma Favor'. "So she is now one of the corrupt reporters who report in favor of the higher-ups," Jenna said in sadness.
There and then she realized she had been wrong about what she thought was the reason for her being rejected from every interview.
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The outspoken, fun-loving, fearless, bold, crazy in a beautiful way,y, and jovial Jenna came back to life. She promised herself never to be like Uwadinmma Favor or anyone else but to only be 'Jenna Wayne'.
Jenna had an English last name because her dad was an American and her mom was a Nigerian. The Wayne's are a wealthy family and her father was the founder of Wayne's enterprises. She was meant to take over the business after her dad. She had no interest in the business not minding the countless persuasions and pleas from her parents. That made them give up on persuading her and rather encouraged her in the pursuit of her dream.
Jenna was thankful she didn't involve her parents in the issue of her being rejected. Knowing who are parents were, she was sure they would have made a scene. Considering her judgment was wrong it wouldn't have been good for the family's business image.
The company was a huge one with two branches one in Nigeria, and the other in Korea, the headquarters was in America and was managed by her dad who seldom visits them in Nigeria. Her mom manages the branch in Nigeria and her cousin Bruce who studied business management in school manages the branch in Korea.
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I let out a laugh as I close the book. This is going to be interesting. I think someone needs to tell Jenna that she's in the world and not a book of fiction. Okay now that I say this, I feel really stupid, Jenna is actually in a book of fiction. Regardless though, with life in general, either inside or outside a book of fiction, the man with the bag controls the crowd. I never knew people still let the actions of others disappoint them. In my life, I am at the point where I no longer expect anything from anyone, this way the actions of people neither surprise nor disappoint me. Life sometimes turns out to be a comedy. The person whom you can vouch for with your life to be successful ends up as a loser, while that loser whom you tag a failure ends up having a success story.
I have to prepare dinner once again. Leisure time is over. Tonight mom says we would be eating egusi soup. I don't like the soup but I don't have much of a choice.
After dinner mom tells me that Kelechi gave a call. Unlike other youths my age, I don't have a phone to my name. When someone asks for my number and I want to give it out, I give out my mom's number. I practically own her phone with her. I only have a few friends. There is a good side to not owning a phone, I shove off stalkers pretty smoothly and easily, I just give them my Dad's number without stress. Both my parent knows Kelechi, he is the only male specimen my parents allowed to be around me, I don't know why actually. I ask my Mom about what Kelechi wanted and she says all he said is sorry. Kelechi is too polite and kind to a fault. Most times people abuse it, I do too sometimes, and so also his previous girlfriend. She left him because he loves her too much.
As I lay my back on my tiny bed, a few inches away from my parents at the end of the room, I stare deeply at our ceiling, I realize it has a lot of patched holes, even Jenna who is only a youth lives in a house better than this, now I even compare our lives with a fiction character, is it now this bad. I listen to my father's coughing and my mother's snoring, my mom is a deep sleeper. Whenever I try talking to her about it, she tries to make the discussion about me, by saying I snore even worse. I don't agree with her. The frogs start croaking telling me it's late and that it's time to go to bed. I turn to my left, facing the wall and laying on my side. I squeeze my eyes very tight and then I call on sleep.
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I hope you're enjoying this book. It's my first book on Wattpad. Sorry for any error you must have squeezed out.
Drop a comment as it helps me know what areas to improve.
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