Erikan Udoh
@erikanudoh342968
1 year ago
Making it to the top
I was just wondering in my room looking back at where I came from. I’ve really come a long way, but let me explain to you how my life was before the success.
I was raised by my grandma because my mum was always working 7-8 everyday except weekends and my dad was sentenced to life in prison whgeb u was only 5 years old. So you can see I did not grow up to have my dad by my side. It was my grandma and mom who was the breadwinner of the family. My mum was keen on education, so my mum would hire a private lesson teacher for me so I can be way ahead of the class in terms of academics. When I got to my final year in senior school it was time for me to write my Senior School Certificate Examination and my Joint Administration Matriculation Board Examination. Luckily for me I cleared all my papers and was offered administration to study Accountinginto a University in Southern Nigeria. I couldn’t resume early because of financial issues. In fact I was to resume July, because as freshers we were to come early for medicals. But I couldn’t go, because there was no money and mum was avoiding spending twice on transportationbecause the school was really far away from where we stay about 7 hours journey from where we were staying. My mum took loans to settle my rent and my Tution Fee, I took little amount of food stuffs from home because we were so broke at the moment and struggled to eat two square meals most times. July and August I was at home while my mates were in school, lectures had even started and I was at home. No friends yet to give a call help me with the marking of Attendance. To cut the long story short, I resumed September 10th and my first day at the village my school was situated was hell on earth. From not getting a hostel, to sitting in an empty kiosk because it was raining cat and dog since morning. We budgeted #70000 but on getting to campus area we saw that the least hostel #90000. We had to call one of our rich neighbor who we haven’t asked for cash before for #30000 so that we can complete the money for the hostel and mum would be left with #10000 for transporting herself back home. After 30 minutes my mum saw alert of #30000, I was very happy. My mum spent over 3 minutes on the phone praying for this man and she promised to return the money month end when she collects her monthly salary. We paid for hostel and luckily for me I found a roommate, different department though, he was studying History and International Relations but we became close friends in short period of time. My mum gave me #1000 as pocket, she said would send more money for me when she settle all her debts, indirectly telling me no money until month end. Anyways I should not allow my lack of cash affect me because I need to focus on academics, that’s why I am here. I attended my first lectures September 12th, I already missed different lectures, so I had snapped my first friend I met on campus Adekunle, yeah that’s his name I call him Ade. Weeks went by and I and Ade gelled like we knew each other before we gained admission. Luckily for me I found a friend who had the same mindset and plan as me , finish first semester with a first class. We worked so hard attended night classes where necessary and downloaded YouTube videos on courses we found difficult.
One faithful day as I was going through my WhatsApp messages I came across a WhatsApp message sent to me 2 days ago. I opened the message and the content of the message was about attending a WhatsApp meeting where he was going to enlighten us about starting our journey to becoming a chartered accountant.I saw the link to the group where the meeting would be taking place. I joined the group and when it was time, all I could remember about the meeting was that he talked about starting AATS(Accounting Technician Scheme). With ATS (Accounting Technician Scheme) becoming a chartered accountant would be easy for us. He said when we are done with ATS (Accounting Technician Scheme) we would have our AAT certificate (Associate Accounting Technician). With our AAT certificate we would be exempted from 2 papers in the skills level we would write only 4 papers and when we are done with the skills level we would do the professional stage where we would write 5 papers. And when we are done we are done with the professional stage we would become a chartered accountant and we would have ACA (Associate Chattered Accountant) to our name. It sounded exciting but I was concerned about the monetary aspect because I knew where I came from. He later said that the first lectures would be October 1st. I called my mom and told her about it and she was really excited, I asked her about money and she told me to start and face my studies. I attended my first lectures, and I was literally handling two programs, my Bsc program and my ATS program.
Fast forward to December, we finished our first semester exam when results came out I was on second class upper (4.48). I was this close to first class, I didn’t let that concern me because I had my ATS 1 exam around the corner. I wrote my ATS 1 exam, and I failed communication skills. I wrote Communication skills again I passed and got to ATS 2, at this point I finished my second semester 100 level exam and I was expecting results, when results came out I was in first class 4.58 to be specific. I wrote my ATS 2 exams and I passed and I moved to ATS 3 at this point I was already in 200 level second semester I was still on first class though. My second semester 200 level exams came before my ATS 3 exams so I wrote my exams and was preparing for my ATS 3 exams. Our 2nd semester 200 level results came out a day before my ATS 3 exams and it wasn’t what I expected I dropped back to second class upper. Anyways I cared less because I had my ATS 3 exams and getting my AAT on my mind. I wrote my ATS 3 exams and when the results came out I was happy because I passed, my induction was December and I would have my AAT certificate.
I was offered the post of a lecturer at the tutorial center I did my ATS. I was really happy like I said at the beginning of my story, looking back at where I came from it wasn’t easy for me to achieve this feet but glory be unto the lord almighty Jesus Christ.
#Nirclestories
#Storywriter
