There is Light at the End of the Tunnel: My Story

Sometimes the pressure of life make us yield to undesirable acts just for survival but if we can just hang in there, we will find light at the end of the tunnel.

Many years ago while still an undergraduate at the University, I desperately needed a financial sponsor or scholarship as my mum was unable to support all her nine children. My father had passed away years before then. We were forced to earn our own living which was difficult, coupled with the desire to school. Bills came pouring in and they went unpaid.

I sought help from a family friend who I knew had the means. He owned a thriving business, a Bereau de Change and which was doing pretty well. I didn’t need so much. I only needed Five thousand Naira at that time to return to school. I did some petty jobs here and there but it was either I earned me very little or they owed me. Life was hard.

So, I sought help from this man, a family friend who told me to come to his office to get some money. I was overjoyed and hopeful.

Getting there, he kept me waiting until all his workers left one after the other. Soon, I realised that I was the only one left and it was about 6:30pm already. He called me into his main office and I went, thinking he was going to give me the money I came for.

Well he didn’t. Instead, he came around to the other side of the table where I was and started to touch me. Then, I knew immediately what this was about. Money for hand, back for ground. God forbid, I thought. I would rather leave empty handed than allow him sleep with me even if he wanted to give me more than the 5k I’d asked me for.

For the next couple of minutes, he chased me around his table in circles until I managed to grab my purse and ran out of his office. I know this man very well. He knows my suffering mum, knows my story and he is also a member of my church who sings in the choir. To crown it all, he is married.

As dashed out without a dime in my pocket, I had this huge sense of victory. I was pained, yet happy about the fact that I didn’t succumb to his demand for sex in exchange for money. I still don’t remember how I managed to pay my transport fare back home that day.

In less than two years after that, I got a scholarship in my final year. Someone who was moved by my story decided to give me 30k every month for one year without asking to sleep with me. It came at the right time because I couldn’t keep shuttling in and out of school looking for a means of survival. I needed to focus and write my thesis which required time and my undivided attention. And that I did.

Look at me going from looking for 5k a month to receiving 30k monthly. What only God can do.

After graduation, I got a well paid job while I was still a corper and they retained me afterwards because they said I showed great dedication. Today, I am married to a man of means who loves me without any shadow of doubt.

The essence of my story? When life is tough, take a tougher stance and do not give in to that desperation. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel.