THE LONG WAIT IS FINALLY OVER

My 8 year journey is finally over. Looking back I can only be grateful for every experience, every hard work, every suffering, every pain I had endured, every time I had to learn, and relearn, every lesson learned from experiences within and outside the four walls of the higher institution. I have waited for this moment, relieved it over and over again in my dreams, and now I get to experience it in real life.

A SUMMARY OF 8 YEARS

After I finished secondary School in 2014, my parents planned on sending me to study overseas, but finance truncated the entire plan. In a bid to save me from the shame of sitting at home while my mates were in school, my parents decided I do a one year preliminary course in computer engineering which would enable me to start from two hundred level in any institution. Unfortunately, I finished my preliminary school with very high grades, but still had to start from the first year in the current school I graduated from. It wasn't an easy start, but I'm glad it's all over now.

After my second year, my parent's finances went further down the drain, which made me drop out after my IT. I spent 3 years working so I could go back to school. In those 3 years, I saw my mates graduate from school and went on to service. At a point I started hiding from them considering the shame of not being in their class (life status) anymore. Going back to start from year 3 with students who were still in secondary school as at the time I entered school was first disheartening to me. I opted to do a transfer to another school, but my mum advised me to face the shame instead of spending recklessly to cover it.

I took her advice and went for it. But I am happy I made the decision to swallow my pride because it made me meet new people who today have helped me become a better person adding positively to my life in different ways. Along the line, I got to see many of my former coursemates get married, and most doing very well, which placed unnecessary pressure on me of wanting to meet up. I even got into depression at a point thinking I had something to prove, but then I decided to think about my life journey and saw that I was moving at my own pace which meant I was in competition with no other than myself. I got out of it later on and now I'm living a relatively happy life.

MY PROJECT DEFENSE EXPERIENCE

The journey to my project defense started six months ago. It was hard to balance working and schooling as a full-time student alongside the bills that kept on piling up day by day. I was sorting out money for textbooks, school fees, and all the many fees paid in the higher institution. At the same time I was sorting out personal expenses for utilities and family. In the middle of all this was trying to save up 70,000 naira (about $60) for my project itself and I was still paying other fees like the project registration fee and all the little project fees that summed up to 30,000 naira ($25)

This wasn't easy to achieve, I needed a new device along the line and had to sort it all out without assistance from anybody. But somehow I managed two jobs (my physical job and hiving) which though wasn't sufficient, but was a push. I had to also take a small loan in the process as it was the only way I could ensure I met up with the bills that were pilling up for me before the deadline. The last three days had been stressful having to finish up with my construction before the deadline which was yesterday. I had issues with setting up the motherboard for the home automation system I was building, the first one wasn't giving me the result I needed, I had to finally settle for another one.

I finally finished my home automation system which can give users opportunity to have full control of their house hold appliances or any other electrical appliances for that matter using their phone via a Bluetooth device. I couldn't record or take pictures of the whole process because I had to get materials in the day, and did the construction at night because there was no electricity. I even had issues testing the construction because of electricity, but I'm glad it's all over now and I can finally sleep knowing it's all over.
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