How Being Educated Brought The Biggest Shame Of My Life

I grew up in a town where there were four government primary schools. Note that there was nothing like private schools there in those days. I was a popular pupil then, because I was winning inter-school competitions for my school. I was a class captain throughout, and senior prefect.


I repeated this feat in my secondary school, and became almost a household name in a town of over 50 thousands dwellers. My type should have worked harder to earn good grades in the university, and probably get retained. But I was hustling to fund the education, and consequently shared my time between earning money and lectures. So, handouts and photocopies were my learning aids. I graduated with second class lower.

My fame soared when, during my university days, my school principal invited me to teach finalists Mathematics due to dearth of teachers.

Fast forward to 2017, no job is forthcoming. A brother of mine from a different mother now owns a car and an auto-mechanic shop. He was known as a very poor student because people wondered at such discrepancy in IQ of related brothers.

To keep body and soul together, I'm doing a job that requires me rendering a service from door to door everyday. I make at least 25k in this job monthly compared to 13k these proprietors are offering me--their argument is that B.Tech degree is not suitable for teaching. It's a common knowledge that only the uneducated and street urchins do this kind of job I do now.

Now I rendered the service to a couple who happened to know me back in the days. I couldn't recognize them at first. The wife was a classmate of mine with four children while the husband was a senior student in our high school then. The husband recalled how the then English teacher used me to ridicule the SS3 students to which he belonged. They couldn't pronounce 'colonel' correctly. So, he shopped for me in JS1 and I got it right. Living in a city now, I didn't think of it that I could easily run into my contemporaries.

"Is this not Yemi?" he asked rhetorically. "Didn't you proceed to the higher institution? How come you are doing this kind of job?" he continued.

The wife reminded me of her name, and I recognized her.

If 17k is used for feeding, 2k for consumables monthly, how much will I be able to save to start a decent business? Note that responsibilities like parents and siblings in needs make it difficult to have savings.

Venting one's frustrations on keyboard these days is soothing, so I'll advice you be like me.