Campus Connect Engagement Contest Week 5 - Side Hustle On Campus As A Student || by @simonnwigwe

Hello guys,
I welcome you all to my blog once again, it is a great pleasure to write on this amazing topic titled, Side hustle on campus as a student. Every student who passes through the university also allows the university to pass through him or her and has a story to say about this wonderful topic.

The campus is normally the survival of the fittest, even the most wealthy sometimes feel the economic situation. This is the main reason why most students on campus engage in an extra curriculum activity to be able to keep body and soul together. This article talks about the side hustle I did as a student to survive the economic meltdown since the money sent to me by my parent most times don't settle half of my needs.

As a student who came from a very poor background, I did a lot of things to ensure that I continue my studies. While in school, since I was not good at hard skills, I decided to look for soft skills to engage myself and also provide some earnings to myself in the support of the little token sent to me from home. As a computer literate, I was privileged to work with one of my lecturers in his shop which mainly is used for typing and photocopies of documents.

I work alongside other of his employers. My job was to ensure that all the systems and printers, as well as the photocopiers, are in a good condition. So it was my duty to ensure I check and service them daily. I do this as early as 6 - 7 am before students start coming for any work in the office. The pay was not much but I derive joy in doing it because I was able to encounter new problems and also make research and solve unfamiliar problems.

Aside from working with this lecturer in the school, I also got a job with a computer training centre outside the school where I go three times weekly to deliver some lectures about computer maintenance and repair to those studying in the institute. They lay here too was very little but I had to do it because the money generated here too goes a long way to help solve some needs.

To be frank with you all, managing a side hustle with education was not too easy for me at some point, I feel like quitting the side hustle, but because I need money to solve some problems I have no option but to continue. As I have stated above, based on my timetable I work in the computer shop in my school in the morning whereas I go to the training centre outside the school three times weekly based on the times I have a schedule where I don't have lecture.

Frankly, most times I may be in the lecture hall, and a call will come in or a text message telling me that the photocopier has broken down and there are many works left undone. With this, I won't have a choice but to hurry back to the shop abandoning the lecture at that period to meet the need of customers. Though, whenever I don't have work in the shop, I do my best to study my book very well to cover the lapses I left behind.

I designed my schedule such that every free period, I either work in ensuring that I read my books and make some research to cover up or I go to ensure that I perform some maintenance activities on the printers and the system. This keeps me busy almost every time in school. I hardly had enough time a day because from the start of the day till it ended is normally filled with activities.

I have already stated this above. Daily, before 7:00 am, I make sure I have performed maintenance checks on all the devices present in the shop I was working on. Secondly, in the training centre, I go there 3 times weekly where I get to spend not more than 2 hours teaching and carrying out practicals. In total, we can conclude that I spend at least about 2 - 3 hours daily in the place of my side hustle. Though, most times I spend more depending on the situation at hand but most frequently I spend less.

A side hustle is a part of most students on campus today. Most times, we have a lot of needs that the money sent to us from home could not solve hence it is normal to start learning how to survive outside your parents. The University does not only teach us how to read and write, it also teaches us how to survive by subjecting us to stress and hardship. In this way, we are made even stronger to face the reality of life. I want to specially invite @dave-hanny and @josepha to also join this contest.