The diary of a fresh graduate: Finding my tailoring skills

You know what they say about forcing what you don’t want? That was exactly me, I had all the resources that could make me learn how to sew while growing up, but I always saw it as a very tasking thing to do and of course definitely not for a lazy person like me. My mom always frowned at this I must confess, it was a ‘tailoring is a good thing and I am not interested, is it by force’ between both of us.

After the disappointing promises from uncles and aunts, I had a PEP with myself where I told myself I wasn’t going to be the forever house maid till thy kingdom(Nysc) come. I had to choose between skill development and professional development. It wasn’t funny at all.. considering the fact that companies around wouldn’t even take you in or rather enslave you all in the name of the internship. Trust me! It’s real when people tell you, ‘oh! that place? I learned nothing’. It was a personal boss internship thing, where the boss only knew my name when it was time for sending to buy amala, bitter kola, sweets and gum, soft drinks, bank errands e.t.c and tell you to keep the #50 or #100 change feeling like they have given you the world and you must forever be grateful.

So I went around different offices to learn few things so as to add to my experience but none was going to take me in without a certificate/statement of result.I couldn’t provide any because my school hasn’t issued certificates and they stopped issuing the statement of a result because certificates would soon be issued.so this was the moment I said ‘let the offices be damned’.let’s go for plan B. I informed my mum about my decision to start learning and she was glad, let me add I might be the fourth or fifth generation of a tailor in her family, so even my grandpa was happy I choose his profession. She took me to a relative and I started the next  Monday.

Remember what I said about bosses in the offices? looks like it was even worse in the apprentice area. For a  month all I did was tack buttons, which I did perfectly well since my days in boarding school. I tried been smart so it got me few errands, unlike the other girls who were asked to pick children from school, go give them snacks in school, get lunch for boss, get for the children, make sure their buttocks were cleaned after they consumed so many junks, weekend house duties.e.t.c., I found my way out of the place in less than two months because I had a short time to learn and I wasn’t going to use that in parking poops or running errands for my bosses or her friends.

Buttom line is nothing is honestly programmed in Nigeria, NYSC  isn’t fixed at all, some people wait forever to be called, just before you graduate it is okay to have plans, ask yourself the “What next” question. What will I be doing prior to NYSC? This is the only way you won’t be frustrated at home.

Oh yea! am I am now doing something with my tailoring skills, Yea! I found it but somewhere else..What did you do prior to Nysc? Did you have to run unnecessary errands for your boss? please feel free to share your experience in the comment section, I will see you guys in my next post In shaa Allah…