A PERSONAL STORY (FROM GRACE TO GRASS)

Looking back and seeing how far I have come, I can only be grateful for the man I have become. If you follow up on my posts you will know how often I talk about how grateful I am for being where I am today. This is because I have grown up with a number of experiences, enjoyed the pleasures of life at a point, and suffered the turmoils and sufferings along the line. To date I still find it difficult to believe I had gone through some of the things I went through in life because at a point in my life, I could never have imagined that I would even be in such a position talkless going through the situation itself. So with no further ado, I will be sharing the story of how my family moved from grace to grass right in my very before and how I contributed to the situation.

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My dad use to be very wealthy, upto when I finished my secondary school and even gained admission into the higher institution into the higher institution. I went to one of the biggest secondary schools in the city of Lagos Nigeria even though my family lived in Warri Delta state Nigeria. My school fees alongside other fees I was paying then was about 1,200,000 naira ($4,000 at that time exchange rate was 300 - $1). I enjoyed the luxury of life and never needed to think about my finances. Even though my mum did everything to keep me in check, I was hell bent on living life to the fullest. My dad had about three Petro stations, a number of hotels, and investments I don't even know about.

Time came when my dad saw a need to invest his business, he needed to establish a petrol depot and against my mum's warnings went for a loan. The investments he made didn't push through, and he needed to pay back the loan he had collected. That was when he started selling his properties and businesses still against my mum's warnings. He felt it was his business, and he could make the final decision despite the fact that my mum was a major partner in the business. When he started complaining about these things, I didn't really care because I only knew how to spend money and even went on to stealing from him when ever I needed money and he said he wasn't having to give at the moment.

Within three years, my dad lost everything he had because he refused to listen to my mum and that was when life began to dawn on me and I realized he was going bankrupt. I started thinking rightly and tried to advise him on working with the few assets he had left when he had lost the businesses, but my dad felt I was too young to understand, and my mum who advised him was trying to control him. All hell broke lose in my family, and I had a fight with my dad because he had sold two of his houses and was still about to collect another loan using the duplex we were living in as collateral. I went as far as hiding the house papers, but he found a way to sell those properties.

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A year later we became homeless looking for a place to lay our head as a family, I had dropped out of school to find a way the family could survive and that was how we moved from grace to grass. This story is quite sensitive and too long that I can't begin to open up epistles of how a lot of events came to play, but if for anything, I hope anyone who reads my story would learn a life's lesson. This story formed the foundation of my life decisions and purpose which is to rise to the top, and never live in ignorance and pride, but always open to learning and growing as life teaches new things. It has also thought me never to make a mistake twice, but rather learn and grow.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO THE HIVE NAIJA'S PROMPT FOR THE WEEK