A determined and brilliant lady, Ngozi Andrew, has shared her inspiring story of how she lost her dad when she was tender, entered university when she was almost 30, and yet graduated with first-class honours
Ngozi Andrew, who took to her LinkedIn page to narrate her story, revealed that she had actually dropped out of secondary school at SS1 because her mum was being weighed down with the burden of training herself and her seven siblings
The linguistics and communications graduate from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) added that she had to go to Lagos State to work as a housekeeper to help raise money for her education.
“I was a high school dropout.
“Only my immediate family knows this about me, but I didn’t finish secondary school. “I dropped out of SS1, which is equivalent to grade 10 in the American Education System.
“My father died early, leaving only my mom to take care of eight of us. Out of these 8 children, 2 were seriously sick and had to go in and out of the emergency room at regular intervals.
“The burden was just too heavy for one woman so I had to put my education on hold and get a job. “This decision was doubly devastating for me because I was straight. I was a student and had such lofty dreams for my future.
“I wanted to be an international lawyer.
“I left the village for Lagos to take up work as a housemaid for a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who lived in Ikeja. “My job was to take care of their three children.
“Within a month of my stay with them, they sacked their children’s lesson teacher and I took over. “In their words, I was better than the teacher, so why pay when I can do it?
“Apart from my regular duties and lesson teaching, I also work as an office assistant in his home office on weekends.
“I thought that, with all the extra work I was doing, they would enroll me in a secondary school, but they never did, even though I begged them on several occasions.
“When I think of it now, I wonder if I wasn’t doing as good a job as I thought I was doing for them, or maybe I wasn’t asking the right way.
“I kept my dream of getting more education alive by reading. I read everything in the lawyer’s office, from the Nigerian law review to the complete works of Shakespeare, and he graciously indulged me.
“Then I left them and went to work for a lady who was a manager at UBA at the time. “I negotiated with her to work without a salary, but she has to enroll me in an evening school so I can finish my secondary education.
“I was never enrolled, and neither did I get paid.
“Fast forward to 2010, after several menial jobs, I finally saved enough to register for GCE myself and cleared my papers. In 2013, I did jamb and post-UME. My name was number 13 on Uniport’s merit list that year.
“By the time I got into university, I was hugging 30, and I was in a class of fresh-brained 19- and 20-year-olds. But I was determined to put in my very best, and I came out with a First Class.
“I decided to tell this story not because that certificate made my life perfect but to encourage someone on the verge of abandoning their dream.
“As we prepare to welcome 2022, hold on tightly to your dreams. If you can conceive it, then the strength you need to achieve it is already planted deep within you.
“Hold on tightly to those dreams; let the winds buffet and the waves roar; don’t let go.
“Even when you come to what looks like a dead end, don’t abandon the journey; just look for an alternative route; there is always one at the next corner.”
As this page was updated, her story has inspired over 10,000 LinkedIn users, many of whom have tagged it as very touching.
What a way of being courageous.