PAKO

     Last year when I was interning, I usually took the normal route to work but after a while, it became financially burdensome on me. I asked and found there was a cheaper route to work. That route involved a lot of walking and passing through Pako.

Pako is a wooden bridge(for humans and sometimes vehicles) built over a canal or river. There was a condition to that. Anybody familiar with Lagos State will know that there is no free road in Lagos, including Under-Bridge and paths along the main roads. To cross to the other side, there were men waiting for me to hand over the huge sum of 10 Naira twice a day.

At first, it did not seem that giving out 20 Naira a day was a big deal until one day I realised that I had spent more than 500 Naira in one month just for walking a bridge. In a year, I would have spent 6000 Naira. I decided it was time to apply financial wisdom to the situation. I started watching the actions of those who passed without paying. I watched and learnt. the first time I tried to pass without paying, let's say it was unsuccessful. I figured that if I brought out a 500 Naira or 1000 Naira note, they would not have the balance. It worked but I had to find a permanent solution.  I had to appeal to the human side of the 'tax collectors' using my charm and voice. Anytime I passed, I ensure I greeted whoever was in charge to the hearing of everyone and asked after their welfare. It worked the first time and subsequently.

Sometimes, it may seem that you can not get through a situation but there is always a way. Appeal to the human side always work even to the most wicked soul on Earth.

ALWAYS A FIRST TIME

     Today was a day of many firsts for me.  I made my first appearance in Court as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. At that moment, I felt really proud of myself and exhaled deeply. Beginning of this year, I always felt sad whenever I came across pictures of my colleagues in court with interesting captions. At that time, I had no idea of where I was going to work. I contemplated going into a company and applied for some company jobs. But there was always this nagging voice that came at me, 'So you don't want to wear your wig and gown after spending so much money.' It was painful considering the amount of time, study, efforts and money I spent.Thinking of it now, I plan to drop the wig and gown in about a year or two. 

      Secondly, I saw a passenger-coach train passing at |Ebute-Metta. It was my first time. Watching the train as it passed by was so surreal. I was fixed rooted to a spot till the train passed by. the train was not as fast as I imagined it would be but it was really long with many coaches. However, it did not look as half as fine as the trains advertised on TV. If we had a functional railway system in Nigeria, I would not feel much dread as I usually feel whenever I want to leave the house. 
     I met one of my classmates in Court today and we had a pretty long conversation on the disappointment we felt having entered into the profession. But we were hopeful. There are so many things one can do with a law degree and we must not all practice or go to court.

A pretty good start for a week.

Hasta luego!!!

I Finally Made It Here Again

I am welcoming myself after 3 years of running away from this blog. I used excuses such as Law School, life etc as reasons why I went AWOL. Anyway, I am back and I am rebranding. I have decided to bare my soul here, track my daily sojourn o this earth, experiences, life lessons, career paths and everything that has to do with me. I plan to update this space daily by God's grace.

Now to the story so far:

After university and while waiting for admission into the Nigerian Law School, I went to Lagos. While in Lagos, I discovered programming. I talked to my brother's friend then and now a friend and a subtle mentor(he does not know that anyway), I started this journey. I started learning how to code, spending night and day coding, not deterred by the ecliptic power supply and poor internet connectivity.  I had to be up every night to make use of MTN's daily night plan of 25 Naira. I used my family's dinning table as my work space. 

At that moment, I was studying really hard to get into Andela. that didn't happen though. Andela had this condition that you must have obtained your NYSC Discharge Certificate, but that was not all. My mother had this dream of being 'Mama lawyer' (dream accomplished *winks), we were trying to raise my Law School fees and not to disappoint her, I dropped the dream of working at Andela and started focusing on Law School.  This was 2016.

One of those nights in Classroom 72

New hair

Convocation party

Modelling

First Law School cocktail party

When you need to use that snapchat filter to model yaself

Birthday,, Yaaay!!!!!1

I eventually got into Law School and went through a mechanical year of reading, listening, lectures, listening, reading and reading again. I had to turn down social events, calls e.t.c. However, I attended a BOT party organized by Facebook Developer Crircle, Lagos( my friend Cent is a lead). It was my first Tech meet up and I went there without a laptop. I was lost doing the codelab session. I learnt an important lesson. Law Shool was interesting. I challenged myself academically, stuck with my timetable, avoided distractions and made it. Salute Effua F Esq( drum rolls pleaseeeeee!).

After Law School, I found myself a job as an intern at a Law Firm in Lagos. However, it was time to re-ignite the tech spirit in me. I attended tech events, discussions and meet ups. i started learning coding using freecodeCamp but shamefully(hides face), I ran away from completing the final project.

Anyway, I finally got myself into ALC 2.0 for the web beginners course. I started pretty late, had a couple of challenges and I don't think I am going to be able to complete the final project. I don't have a phone, no internet. I had to put myself in an AI(Artificial Intelligence) Hackathon I know nothing about just so I can use the Wifi. I am currently using it to update my blog.

Tomorrow is the start of another working week(sighs). I am going to tell you about the awesome people I met at Facebook Developer's Circle, my health scare this year, NYSC journey. 

We are being called for the final presentation. Wish my team luck..

Ciao, Hasta luego!!!