Contest Alert ⚠️: What I would do better if I can travel back in time.
The past they say is the past and the future is not certain. We only have the present. We all definitely have one thing we would love to change about our past.
The truth still remains that we can't change the past but we can definitely learn from it and make better decisions in the future.
Looking at my past, I only have one regret.
One thing I regret
It’s been quite a long time since I sat down myself to take stock of how much time had passed since I missed the opportunity to upscale myself, increase my value and gain financial intelligence as well.
Even though it is said that regrets does not actually changing the past, I am still very much aware that one of the wrong choices I made and regret as well, is not acquiring a skill as an undergraduate.
While I was an undergraduate in Imo state university, studying History and international relations, in my school, which was part of ASUU. Had gone on long strike breaks three consecutive time in the four years duration of being a student.
In all the times that we were on a forced break from school because of the ASUU strike, I didn’t invest my time in ensuring I got a skill, that is, handiwork. I spent more of my free time from the ASUU strike break, working as an employee, a teacher in a primary school.
Even though I had earned a salary during the months of the ASUU strike beaks, the salary I earned was paltry compared to the immense value that I would have acquired if I had learnt a skill.
It is more sad to tell but the reason I would regret not inculcating a skill or handiwork as an undergraduate is because while I was still working as a teacher during the breaks and holiday period, my older sister who had gotten a skill in hairstyling had enjoined me to apply for acquiring a good skill in fashion designing because I was someone that was that quite handy with a needle and thread.
I was quite headstrong at the time and much of an intellectual snub, so I didn’t really take the suggestion into consideration. I had already laid out plans to pursue a career in my current course of study. I really believed that I was going to get a good job after I graduated from the university.
Alas my decision to focus on my studies and my disagreement to utilize my time in ensuring I got a skill in fashion designing turned out to be a very wrong decision.
My plans on graduating got a little awry and I eventually never got a job and a stable career in international relations.After about 8 years, which is right now, exactly at this point where I am putting these regrets down on ink, with the dwindling economy and scarcity of job opportunities, I discovered that not acquiring a skill when I was still young, single and an undergraduate with a lot of free time on my hands was one of the most unwise decision I had ever made.
Indeed this is a decision I regret profusely.
One very important advice I would give to young single ladies who are still undergraduates in the university is that they ensure that even though they have a desire to pursue a career in their current course of study, they should aspire and attempt in every ramification to get a skill that would help them gain value for themselves and make them useful to themselves as well.
I would end with this, the current Nigerian economy is not open to help job seekers, it’s only open to job creators, hence the need to have a handiwork.