AIR CLINIC WRITING CONTEST: STRESS, A QUEST TO MAKE ENDS MEET

Fresh out from serving my father's land, I was excited to finally enter the labour market. My family was laden with debts and unpaid IOU's. The least I could do was assist my father in giving to my siblings, the best education. Father has tried with me, now there are debts to pay.

I embarked on a journey to Port-harcourt, somewhere I have never been before to live with a family I have never met before all in the quest to make ends meet. Luckily, I got a teaching job and then had home lesson pupils. My daily routine was leave home 6am, close from work 3pm, head to the various homes for lesson and then come back home 9pm without eating or eating just snacks with a bottle of la casera. The family I lived with were poor and so I didn't want to be burden so long I could find a place to lay my head.

There were days when the only thing that seemed consistent in my life were stress and total chaos.

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My lesson days were Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and the rest days of the week I go to help out a lady in a salon nearby and she pays me for my help. It was one of those days while making a customer's hair that I felt dizzy and slumped. There was total blackout and from a distance I could hear shouts of cry and my name being called out loud. I woke up drenched with water used in resuscitation. On finding out I hadn't eaten all day, they quickly bought food for me to eat and insisted I went home.

After all, it is not that load that breaks you down, it is the way you carry it.

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Stress is a part of life if you want to make ends meet but budgeting, cutting down on expenses, not being wasteful can help one manage the little we have. Also, finding alternative means of less stressful way of making money like blogging etc can go a long way to help one manage life and stress.