What do you want to be when you grow up?

 

Eyin fans mi,

Where is this year running to? In my last post, which was apparently 2 months ago I said I would try to post more and maybe even collaborate. Here I am keeping my word. This is a really touchy topic for Blessing(co-author) and me, but we have come around to doing it. This is only the first part of the series and the whole series will be available both here and on Blessing’s page (theafricanbee.com).

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as we did writing…

 

The First Dreams.

Bee

“I want to be a Doctor when I grow up!”

As a child, we all had those moments where the adults would walk up to us and ask “What would you like to become when you grow up?” A lot of the children around me would say things like Lawyer, Engineer, Doctor, and Banker. For me, I really had no idea for the longest time, and I realised that a lot of children were saying these things because that was what society literally groomed them to say. However, it was a little bit more complex for me. Because in a way, I felt like I had a lot of options but at the same time, I had none. Or maybe I was just a child who was so good at overthinking things at such a young age.

 So, I wanted to be a Doctor, a Banker, and a Lawyer. I couldn’t choose. I thought Bankers made a lot of money, and I knew I always had a creative/artistic side to me and love to help people, so Law made sense. My personal experiences with health issues sparked my curiosity in Medicine. Yes, my parents wanted it but I was also curious about my body and how I went through so much as a child without knowing what was going on. I spent way too much time at the hospital and so maybe I wanted to “fix myself”.

 

Gbenga

“Ah yes, Doctor, lawyer, engineer. The occupational trifecta…”

Me? I’ve always been a lil weirdo, I chose my first career path in 2004. It was a cool August morning in Surulere, I was on the balcony with my “big cousins” when one of them “popped the question”, and I answered without any shadow of a doubt “spidaman”. 

“I want to be spidaman when I grow up.”

 

Don’t judge me, I had just watched Spider-Man 1. I need not tell you that that path quickly faded away as I grew up. At the time I was in junior secondary, I had outgrown such childish nonsense. I was no longer a lil weirdo. I was now a big weirdo because now I wanted to be a veterinary doctor and/or a farmer.

 At first glance, these choices are also far-fetched, but what you don’t know is that I grew up in the nurturing hands of David Attenborough and Morris sofa (I probably have this misspelled). I spent my childhood watching as many wildlife documentaries as I could find on TV. I developed a profound love for animals. Everything about them was so alluring. To this day I’m extremely shocked when I see an animal I cannot identify.

 

However, no well-meaning African parent would let their child “waste his life” chasing animals around. So my dad tried to talk me into being a “real doctor” but I wouldn’t budge. Again, it goes without saying that these career paths of mine also faded into obscurity to give way to more realistic things in these climes.

Settling...?

Bee

I’m actually a little bit jealous that you had a genuine passion as a child. I find it quite beautiful because I know how much you still love animals. I might have just shed a tiny tear. For me, I carried my confusion into the University. When I started my application, Mum and Dad had chosen Medicine first. Then as it became more and more real, Dad got scared and felt the need to change schools. So, it became Obafemi Awolowo University from the University of Lagos, and somehow the chosen course also became Biochemistry, (because of a cousin’s advice). 

 I had absolutely no clue what Biochemistry even entailed. It could have paraded in front of me wearing a big red BIOCHEMISTRY PLACARD while doing a headstand, and I would still have been oblivious to its identity. Still confused and might I add, naive, I went to OAU and deliberately failed the entrance exam because I didn’t want to go there. Before I knew it, I was back in Unilag studying a course that I couldn’t care less about. Ironically, it happened to be your passion–Zoology.

I kept telling myself that when I got to my third year, I would be able to pick a major that I liked (which I did). I started Parasitology, but it was nothing compared to what I had imagined it to be. Should I start with the absent lecturers or the sexual harassment? Should I talk about how hard it was for me to maintain my health and encourage myself to keep showing up even when it seemed like my efforts were in vain? Do not even get me started on how I had to go through four years of my life studying a course I had zero interest in. I still cannot believe that I went through all that only to be failed by lecturers because they wanted me to sleep with them.

Gbenga

This got dark really fast. Running at the risk of veering off topic, I’d like to say sorry you had to go through all that. It’s crazy how some men can be. 

Well, I also had the same confusion. I really envy people who decided their careers as kids and had it all aligned. By senior secondary school, I wanted to be an engineer, because my dad was, and he won’t let me be an agbe anyways. He used to do civil engineering contracts – roads, drainages, health centres, and he was really good at it. He spared no cost, not even his profit. The job had to be perfect, he enjoyed it that much. 

At this point, I had discovered that I was capable of being good at many things. I might not end up being 100% good at any, but I’d be like 70% good at a bunch of stuff. This meant flexibility. I could literally do anything and succeed. It might not be fulfilling; I might struggle in some aspects but I’d still be one of the best at it. A Jack of all trades so to speak.

 So I figured, “If I want to be an engineer, why not be the type that makes the most money?”. Hence I selected petroleum and gas engineering, I mean I already came top 100 in Lagos (maybe even Nigeria I’m not sure now) in the PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge. It was a rational decision coupled with the thoughts of “chopping oil money”. After a couple of failed attempts to get into Unilag (because Post Utme was designed by the devil, and the cutoff was always through the roof), I opted for my second choice, Estate management and valuation at Yaba College of Technology.

Again, I believed I’d be good at it because I’ve always been a people person. So, selling them properties won’t be hard, right? Of course, I also thought about the moneyyy. I took one last jamb that year I started my National Diploma program so I could leave and go to Unilag to study chemical engineering this time as the cutoff was a bit lower than “Pet and Gas”. Foolproof plan, yes? I got an incredibly low score. No…I mean disappointingly lowww. I later learned it was an error and they were giving 40 points to everyone affected. Please tell me you know someone who experienced this so it’s not like I’m making excuses for being an olodo. I never even went back to check.

 After my National Diploma and during my 1-year compulsory IT year, my dad had me join him on site for a big road construction project not too far from home so “I could learn how it’s done”. I also worked as an accountant. I got enrolled for ICAN, from Medicine to Petroleum and Gas guys! I passed the first stage but didn’t continue for some issues, one of which included unwillingness to…

Gbenga…

This is the end of the first part. I hope you enjoyed it. Please if you can relate to this, let me know in the comment section how life gave your career choices reality checks.