Part 1: The journey to self-discovery.
I’m not a writer so bear with me, l’m just putting my thoughts and experience to pen and hoping to share to at least inspire someone and anyone!
So first of all. Hello and welcome.
I suggest you make a cup of tea, coffee or whatever makes you comfortable as this is going to be a long ride, but just long enough to finish a cuppa.
I am currently 25 years old, jobless and couldn’t be happier about where I am in life. I am on another break (my third break) towards self-discovery and exploring to discover what’s next for me. I am also currently studying to be an Android Software Developer, via Udacity, thanks to an EU-wide Google Scholarship.
I have alway been the type of person to always know when I needed to take a break, to reflect on what my next steps are. On where I want to be in life and how I can get there.
Everything started late last year “in 2016” when I knew my contract at the Co-op was ending, I knew I no longer wanted to continue in the position I was in. I saw no progression in the role and it was ultimately just a stepping stone for me. I had so many thoughts going on in my head about what I wanted to do next and how I could get there.
The Co-op at the time was also going through a whole lot of changes.. It had just established a new department “Co-op Digital” with a new digital executive officer, “Mike Bracken” who you might know for his work with the government and the gov.uk website. Luckily, I was also right in the middle of this new change, which gave me a lot of different opportunities and cemented that I was on the right path.
When a scholarship to learn ‘Android Development’ landing in my lap late last year, I happily jumped at the opportunity. Really hoping I would get selected, however, I wouldn’t know if I was selected until January 5th, 2017. Midst of all this, Tokyo was also calling, a friend of mine was teaching English there and invited me down to come visit, we had discussed it for months on end. Tokyo was right at the top of my travel list, mainly because I love Japanese culture and l’m a massive anime fan.
So it was an easy decision for me, leaving my work when my contract finished at the Co-op in December (finished in January but I had some holiday left to take, so left early) to go to visit Tokyo without a job to come back to. Having done that, I have to say I had never been happier. Tokyo was amazing. I visited many temples, especially in Kyoto, where I prayed that I would get selected for the scholarship. I really can’t wait to go visit again as there is still so much I want to see. I love travelling and experiencing new culture, ectera.
One other amazing thing that also happened while I was in Tokyo, was receiving an email saying I had been accepted for the scholarship. It was like the universe telling me I made the right decision in the end. Having just completed the first scholarship course, ‘Android Development for Beginners’, and being selected for another full 3 months scholarship, ‘Android Basic Nanodegree by Google’, I can’t help but think I am right where I am supposed to be. Since starting the scholarship course in January, I have created over 8 apps, 3 of which were course projects, all designed and coded by me.
In order for you to understand how i got where i am currently, I need to tell you more about what my role at the Co-op was and what I saw myself doing next was, but before I go into details about it, I guess I need to tell you more about the other breaks have taken and where it lead me, in order for you to get the full picture.
The first time I took a break was a gap year after college `if your not familiar with the UK education system, college is an extra 2 year in an higher educational system, after high school and before university, and if you want you can also opt in to do this in a high school that has a 6th form` I was 17 at the time and the rest of my friends had already been accepted to university and knew exactly what they wanted to do.
When I told my mom, I can still remember the look she gave me, she was very shocked and quite disappointed, I don’t think she was expecting it at all. Being a single mom, am sure she was wondering where she went wrong at the time. She bombarded me with so many questions “What are you going to do? Why don’t you want to go to uni? Are you okay? Is everything alright? Did something happen?” Being Nigerian by birth, it is just not what you do, you don’t take a break, you just get on with it. So am sure you can understand why my mom was asking all these questions, especially because she also knew I had already applied to some university to study Nursing via Ucas ‘ Ucas is how students in the UK applied to university’.
Usually when people take a gap year they use that year to travel and explore and see the world, but the only plan I had at the time was to keep working part-time at my part-time job which I got in second year of college, a chippy job in a fish and chips place which was only a short ride on the bus from home.
The one year gap year was spent at home not doing much, just reflecting, thinking and mostly just working part time. I saved and helped my mom with the bills also. My mom and I had so many fights, mostly just meaningless arguments, I don’t think she understood why I was at home while my friends and fellows were in university getting an educational and a degree, I think she thought that was it for me.
Growing up I had so many curiosity and ideas about what I wanted to do in life and who I wanted to be. In high school, I was greatly fascinated by the body and muscle. Sport and Science were my all time favourite subject in school, which meant that I paid more attention in those classes, which lead me to the decision that I wanted to study sports sciences in college and work with athletes.
But after just one session with my high school career advisor, which was mandatory in Year 11, just before our GCSE exams, I learned that ‘you can’t have a career just on passion’ and that there were very limited jobs in sports sciences. I think this was my very first preview of adult life, I was crushed, it wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I do have to admit that made me lose focus a lot, as I didn’t do very well in some of my GSCE’s, which really baffled some of my teachers.
Two of my teachers sat me down after my result came in, to talk, has I was an exceeding student, who did great in all the practice tests and was also part of the student council. They wanted to know why I did so badly but I didn’t really have an answer. Taken my GCSE’s was a bit of a blur to me. I didn’t even go to pick up my certificates which I now regret, has I had to pay for them to get re-issued three years later, as my high school only holds on to a certificate after a year of them being issued and if they weren’t picked up, they got destroyed.
So in the summer, after the fiasco that was my high school life, it was time to take the next step before the next academics year started in September. The original plan was to stay on at my high school and go to sixth form there, as it was nearer to my house and only a 10 -15 minutes walk, I decided it was time to move on and applied to go to college instead, to study Health studies and redo my GCSE, which will give me enough points to go to university to study Nursing.
I bet you are all asking the same question right about now, ‘Why Nursing?’. Nursing was an easy conclusion to reach, my ‘Mom’ who is my hero is a nurse. I remember when I was growing up in Nigeria, I used to visit the hospital where she worked after school and she was very liked by her colleagues and patients and was really good at her job.
I remembered spending some time in the Nursing school she went too. I remember the wards she used to work in, am sure I spent some time in that very hospital been treated for something, I was an adventurous child.
I had very fond memories of seeing her in her white nursing uniform with her little white hat, which she used to hook in her hair with brown bobby pins, I remember the colour because I used to play with them. She also had this silver upside down pocket watch, you know the ones that nurses wear, it was alway hanging from her left breast pocket.
I bet you are now all wondering how I made my way from Nursing to tech!
To be continued.
