SEC17 WK:#4: the effects of economic hardships on families

I've often had these thoughts times without number, "Are the people online not part of this economy because why do things seem they are living on a different planet with the lifestyle they seem to portray?"

Then I remember that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Everyone is feeling the heat. It becomes worse by the day with the weather not helping lessen the blow.

You go out every day with no idea which you are feeling the most, the heat of the economy or the heat from the scorching sun burning down one's skin.

The hardship is really hard. Even when you want to make sense of the things happening you just can't because you keep wondering how did things get so bad.

When it hit me that this has reached my side was 5 years ago when my mom who is a pensioner which already made things difficult, wasn't paid her pension for 18 months, can you imagine that? I thought the government couldn't do worse but after that time, it kept getting worse by the day, now we are not surprised by the way things keep getting worse by the day.

Fortunately for my mom, she had previously started a small vegetable garden in our backyard, so that helped ease the load of finding food to eat. When you're well-fed, you can have the sanity to think of the way forward.

This was happening during my penultimate year in school, where I had to pay for school fees and other bills and no money was forthcoming, I was lost.

In Nigeria lingua, we would say e choke
(meaning when something has gotten to you and you are overwhelmed.)

God being God, I was able to raise some money to sort them but one can't truly solve money problems at all, right?

To help out, my older siblings proceeded to send money to the house to ease the load on my Mom and helped sort out my school issues.

I had to get creative with ways of how to start making money for myself because right now, you can't depend on anyone which prompted me to get to work

• By learning content writing, which enables me to write social media content for businesses and individuals.
• I learned copywriting by writing advertising copy which they use on Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram.
• I became a social media manager, helping my businesses connect and engage with their customers even when they are not there.
• By working on my personal brand on LinkedIn, which has helped me built an authority and gain visibility in my field and also more work ok the table.

These skills have made me earn some income to get through the hard times.

I invite @ogechukwu-martha, @preshglam1, and @rubina203 to participate in this contest.