I grew up in a family whereby my parents hold a firm control over the children. It is the expected norm as the joy of every parent is to see their children turn up as good children. Then they can be rest assured that they will eat the fruit of their Labour.
With a family deep into the Christianity religion, and my parents close to the altar, their parenting system can be choking at times compared to other children who are free birds at least more than you. This fact makes me look forward and yearn towards independence.
The first time I tasted a bit of independence was when I gained admission into the university, but my dad blocked me during my first year by making me stay at home and my independence was delayed. I did this for a while and after the first year, I asked for a review of it. It was disturbing my academics and I needed to stay close to school. It was granted and I moved to the school area but didn’t really become independent.
I was still within the batting eyes of my parents, I go home frequently and my close is in the same town where they live and they have the leisure to visit anytime they want.
My dad once visited me in school, it was a Sunday, a dark Sunday as I remembered. He complained a lot because my roommate, who was a church member, snitched on me. I was humiliated and I just know I’m not yet an independent person. This made me look forward to being independent and I bided my time.
After I graduated from school, I ventured into being a brand strategist as I’ve always wanted to be a creative in the marketing industry.
After a while, my cousin hit me up for a collaboration to build up a clothing line, I was very happy as this might be the beginning of something big.
I packed my stuff and left home to start a new journey with my cousin. My parents weren’t really happy about the idea of starting a business, since I don’t have the experience and money making shouldn’t be my priority. They feel continuing my academics should be the way to obtain a masters degree.
My cousin and I started planning and it felt good at first and then I realised building a business isn’t a small feat. It is way bigger than what I thought. I started making different contacts with people, pitching creative ideas with different other businesses and it was something I was doing out of my comfort zone. Prior to that, I love being inside and being alone in isolation.
This experience gave me a sense of independence and it was a time I felt I was in control of my life. I did all I wanted to do and all I needed to do, not because I wanted to please anybody but because of a dream I wish to achieve in the future and it felt surreal.
For the business, talks stale with the investor and it looks like we just can’t do enough for him to finally be at rest with our idea so the business came to a failure but I love it because it’s a good failure.
