The race to survive is intimidating, there is nothing specific about it. You keep trying all kinds of procedure or methods till you find what works. Even if it works, it might not necessarily mean you are good with it or it makes you feel comfortable but as long as it's covers your need, that all the justification that is needed. We all grow up as little dreamers, wishing for things beyond the ordinary. I'm sure you remember the quote,"If you can dream it, you can have it. It is like a background song on repeat at the back our heads. Back then, we were so hyped on it, till we were overcame by reality.
The most beautiful thing on earth is being able to dream, you could be anything in your thought. Our imagination is so wild, to the extent you could grow wings if you wish to but then, the most beautiful thing becomes sad when we are awake, what will be the point of dreaming, if we can't try as much as possible to make it a reality? even if it is just a fraction of it. The best definition of literature I ever came across was, "it is an escape from reality. This is exactly what most dreams are.
They say everything in life is risky, so I dared to dream. I was born in a family that believed so much in the principle of hard work. Working smart is not alien to us but before you can think of having the opinion of working smart in my family, you must first have a skill to back it up, or else, you would end up sounding like a fraudster and God knows, my family doesn't tolerate such. That is how strict my family is, so it is not new to any of us. Probably it has something to do with being a Christian family or just a trait we inherited from our cultural heritage.
In order to ensure every member of my family understands what hard work means, immediately after we finish secondary school, each and everyone of us is asked to learn a skill for a year before pursuing any career course in higher institution. My brother was first, he always dream of studying medicine but he wasn't aware of the family tradition. My family have a funny way of breaking the news, they wouldn't tell you at the early stage so that you wouldn't have time to come up with a way to avoid it.
To cut the long story short, my brother end up learning painting and how to make paint. It was the only thing he was a bit passionate about apart from studying medicine. So when it was my turn, I already knew about the whole family tradition, so I didn't let them waste their time in figuring out what I would learn, I already had one in mind.
My mum learnt hairdressing but after finishing school, she decided to use are education to polish up the hairdressing she learnt, after learning other beautification skill like makeup, manicure e.t.c she became a cosmologist of her own making. Since I spent a lot of time with my mum apprentice before going to boarding school, I had already mastered few things about hairdressing e.g weaving, weavon fixing e.t.c I thought why not try to learn barbing. The funny thing about both hairdressing and barbing is that, these two skill are intertwined.
So when it was time for me to embark on learning a skill, I chose to learn barbing. Funny part was, the boss I chose to learn from, who happens to be a colleague of my mum based on the association they belong to. He runs a unisex salon, which means while learning barbing, I was also learning hairdressing too. I used about 6 months there and I had already mastered all there is to know about barbing. Though the practice was meant last a year but it was obvious to everyone that I already mastered the skill.
How long have I had this skill? It has been really long, about 13 years if I'm not mistaken. The skill didn't go inline with what I studied in school, so what intend to do with the skill confused me a lot. I guess I should have studied a digital skill like photography but then, though I used the skill to make quick cash few times when I was in school and in many cases, I had to barb my close friends for free 😅. Having a skill is quite beautiful because there are times I feel like I had forgotten but anytime I hold a clipper, the vibes comes back, right there I know I still got it.
Do you plan to get better at it? Like I said earlier, the future is unpredictable. With my current issue with being unemployed, I have thought of doing something with the skill but I still have a lot I'm involved in at the moment, till someday my thought settles, then I would be able to clearly decide which direction I wish to go. Right now, all I want is to keep acquiring more digital skill and become more knowledgeable about the crypto space. Who knows I might wake up some day and I would just decide to have a barbing salon.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Practical skill in hive learners community.
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