Fuelled by Sacrifice

There are days when my guys and I get lost in conversations about life. You know the kind of talks that start with football banters and inside jokes, but somehow end up deep. Most times, it is about money, cars, houses, vacations, and all the things we dreamt about while growing up. One random scorching afternoon, someone would drop a sweet gist about a former classmate from high school who just got a brand new Lexus Rs350 or finished building his house. Then, we all go silent for a minute or two and say, “God when?” Or “God I must make it in this life.” I have felt like that many times. There are days when I go out to buy something just around my hostel and I see a sharp car, a sleek white car and I go, “Guy, I must get this car one day.” Looking back, one of the reasons why I keep telling myself that I must make it is because of something my parents did four years ago.

In 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, things were going really slowly for my family. Business was slow for my dad and everything was pretty much in my mom’s hands. At that time, my sister gained admission into a private university to study nursing. We were all happy for her. Who wouldn’t be? It was a childhood dream. But our happiness couldn’t pay the fees. My parents had to struggle. My mom had already spent almost all her savings on this and that. She had no other options but to take a loan from her work placeI was there when my parents sat down to calculate the fees that will be needed for my sister’s admission and everything amounted to over 1 million naira. Within days, my parents managed to raise more than half of the money.

It was at that third time that I also enrolled for JUPEB. The Jupeb program is very expensive. Just think about Jupeb Luke your first year in the university. Students who pass the Jupeb exam will be given admission directly into second year. I had to pay for accommodation, school fees, online and physical registration. Everything was more than six hundred thousand. There was no way my parents could raise such a huge amount, not when they had just raised that much for my sister. They hadn’t even completed her own fees. I told my mom not to worry and that I would just stay at home and enroll for the program the next year. But my mom wouldn’t let that happen. She had a conversation with my dad and they decided to sell the family car. Our car! Just like that!

The very next day, they sold it. And yes, the money was more than enough to cover everything my sister and I needed. Whenever I think about the sacrifices my parents have made, the things they gave up without a second thought, one thing I think of is that I must make it in life. Not just for me, but for them too.

This is my entry to the Hive Naija prompt. The topic is: What is your biggest “I must make it moment in life?”

Thanks for reading.