There are days she doesn’t have enough money to take care of her needs and perhaps her parents don’t have money to give her at that moment. The hard-working ones will look for opportunities to earn money on campus. University girls engage in various gigs, trades, and services to earn money for self upkeep; selling products both on-campus and online, part-time job, creating a room for her talent in any form of trade be it in tailoring, hairdressing, makeup, room services, and weekend gigs like an usher in events. The lazy ones will make friends with the rich kids on campus and literally live off them, and some will become a “runs girl” sleeping with rich men, having sugar daddies that will take care of their daily expenses.
Days at university are also usually awkward when she finds it really hard to make friends, and mix in with the crowd. First days at school are usually the worst because it feels like she just doesn't belong there and everyone just gives her that same awkward feeling till she settles in and starts mixing in with a few people and have enough courage to boost your confidence. Days at university are never complete without those special occasions like the matriculation day, when she officially becomes a student of that institution, the faculty and departmental orientation events to welcome all new students to the faculty or department, and the final year which is the most stressful. The projects – carrying out researches and experiments, running after her supervisor for directives and supervision of her progress, as well as working hard to maintain a good grade.
The best day of them all is the day of her convocation, her years at university has finally been drawn to a good end, she has made her years a blissful one. And there she is remembering what the few years have been like; like her eighteenth-year-old birthday, when dad gave her a very lovely gift and her close friends didn’t hesitate in throwing her a birthday party, in fact on preparation for that day, she had a free lunch from a close friend and an all sponsored photoshoot (Nigerian girls like to take photoshoot to post on social media on the birthday).
There are days she is sick, and her mates and friends don’t ever lose the opportunity of coming to check up on her and as well send her goodwill wishes and gifts. The days she fails to wake up and end up running late for a lecture. The awkward days when she nurtures feeling for a guy who is already in a relationship or with her friend’s boyfriend, and she can’t help it.
The day she finally gets to meet her mister right who happens to be in a different department. Days she will be lured into going to a party and she is forced to take for the first time and she ends up getting drunk. The days when everything she thought was working out, suddenly crumbles before her very own eyes, days you just keep on having bad moments “bad days”.
There she is now, officially graduated from the university.
From the start, I had said, living in Nigeria is more about adaptation to your environment and resistance to bad influence, accepting all good values and living life in the order of their stages. Mum and dad had always said good morals should be the principle every woman stands by. The girls life started from the first day she became a zygote in her mother’s womb, went on to her first breath of fresh air, the Nigerian air, till the first lessons her parents had taught her, the first time she had her first social interaction with people at school, the first time she got scolded and in fact flogged by her parents, her days at secondary school, her first argument with her parents especially her mom, the first guy she dated, her first kiss, university days, partying days, her first drunken experience, here she is now finally a university graduate. Looking towards the next stage, getting prepared for a whole new world of experiences.
Interesting 💚