Steemit Engagement Challenge S13W1- “What obstacles have you faced/facing to fulfill your dream?”

Steem greetings from the motherland-Cameroon to friends of the Hindwhale community. It is another great moment to share content in this community with a focus on the topic for the week 1 engagement challenge.

I will use this opportunity to discuss the topic "What obstacles have you faced/facing to fulfil your dream?” I hope we all find pleasure in reading through my write-up.

Write about a dream of yours that came true/or want to achieve.

Growing up as a kid, we all had aspirations in life and working towards achieving those dreams. I grew up in a royal family where traditional stereotypes were constantly limiting the girl child to not feeling free and dreaming big.

Despite that, I always dreamed of becoming a well-educated woman and also becoming an advocate to promote the rights of a girl child.

My mother saw my curiosity in achieving my dreams of being educated and she stood her ground to ensure that I went to school. Most of my siblings (girls) dropped out of school and got married at an early age because of traditional beliefs that education was not meant for the girl child.

Today, I am happy to be a human rights advocate, especially protecting women's rights and the rights of the girl child. Over the years, I have been able to transform the mindsets of my people about the negative impact of traditional beliefs on the girl child and women.

What obstacles have you faced/facing to fulfil that dream? How you overcame those obstacles?.

As I earlier mentioned, I had two great obstacles in achieving my dream. First was challenging traditional stereotypes and breaking the chains of servitude. In my family, my grandfather who was the fon had no interest in sending female children to school. My mother was forced into marriage because her father had the same traditional belief that investing money and sending a girl child to school is a waste of resources. My father, being a prince also joined the traditional school of thought of not wasting resources sending a girl child to school.

Another obstacle was the finances of my education, especially at the secondary school. There were moments when I almost became a school dropout because my mom could not afford to pay my tuition fees. Because of my curiosity to learn, she had to struggle by all means to ensure that I did not drop out of school.

I overcame the first challenge by believing in myself and setting my goals. Despite all the discouragement from my siblings, especially my uncles and aunts, I stood my ground and focused on achieving my goals. Anybody who comes across me with a negative energy was seen as an enemy of progress. I never for once entertained distractors.

For the financial part, I overcame this obstacle with the help of my mom and later on in high school my elder sister who also fought her way up. They supported me financially till when I was doing my master's degree.

Who encourages you to fulfil your dreams?

First, my mom and my elder sisters were constantly there to support me in achieving my dream of being an educated woman. They never relent in their effort to push me forward.

Secondly, my husband has also been supportive since I got married. He always tells me to take any obstacle as a challenge to become a better person. He has made me to be resilient to obstacles in life and focus on achieving results.

What are the top 3 obstacles to not fulfilling one's dreams?

Finance: This is the first obstacle in life especially when you are from a low-income family. Everyone is struggling for survival. Without money, your dreams will never be achieved in life because money is the key to achieving everything in life.

Bad Friends: I always believed that some dreams can never be achieved in certain environments due to the type of people you associate yourself with. This goes with the adage “Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are…”. Associating with such friends only brings negative energy and they have no contribution to your growth. Rather, they pinpoint your weaknesses to discourage you from progressing.

Cultural stereotypes: This is one of the reasons for most women, especially in rural communities in my country not achieve their dreams. They are limited to becoming housewives and do not think of achieving anything in life. They are kept at home to reproduce.

This is the end of my presentation and I would like the following to share their participation in the challenge: @pelon53, @fadlymatch, @mvchacin, and @aviral123.