Throwback Thursday. "My NYSC Experience"

Hi Steemians, hi bloggers, vloggers, Hi all, been a while here, I've really missed you all and all Steemit activities.

It's a cloudy Thursday here in Port Harcourt and I decided to drop a comeback post and my post today is all about my NYSC experience. It was a whole one year one of stress, frustrations, hard work, fun, good moments and memories, achievements, I can go on and on but to cut it short, I'll simply say, it was one mixed with bad and good experiences.

Source
2017, few months into pursing my passion, (ie, make up), when when I felt it was becoming a reality, NYSC came calling. It wasn't funny I must confess.
Though service was every students' dream,
like putting on the NYSC uniform, travelling to another state, making new friends etc, but at that moment if I had to make a choice, I would have settled for an exemption, yes cause I was so broke. It was that bad. I had to accept it and pray I don't make the first stream for that batch (batch A).
The portal came open and I filled mine, few weeks later, we received our posting. Kaduna state was selected for me and I was in the first stream, it was a sad news but had to accept my fate. All this was in April.
Somehow, I got money, to and for camp, which was for the period of may 23rd to June 12th.

In summary camp was interesting, met people from different tribes, both Christians and Muslims, employed, self employed and unemployed graduates. Made friends, though not so much and had fun. .
Camp brought us together, I mean the "West Africa curator", @nmalove, we just bonded.

We left camp, June 12, with our posting to different places and organisations within the state, some redeployed and for some, we never got to see or talk again, officially service started individually. I was posted to NDA, Nigeria Defence Academy, it felt great, little did I know that I was in for serious wahala.
I met fellow Corp. members who were also posted there, we got familiar with ourselves and anticipated our acceptance and work moments.
The journey of acceptance wasn't funny, it was then I knew for sure that life is all about "who you know". It came to me like a shock, I was like, "I know to get job no easy but this one na NYSC". At this point, I was surprised and confused, cause first of all, I had no idea who I could speak to, to help and to make matters worse, it had to be a Senior military personnel, my confidence failed me as I saw people getting rejected and some who weren't even posted there at all, been giving acceptance. I just decided to respect myself, sit-down one place, think and pray.
The following day, those of us who were yet to know our fate went back to the Admin office and it went the same way as the previous day but this time we were called in together and asked about ourselves with regards to school and course of study.
One question they asked got me a scared, "who is your Godfather?" but thank God I wasn't asked that day. Same as the previous day, some where rejected and few accepted.

Yes, I failed to mention, we were like 80 Corp members, sent from camp to NDA>

This kept on for days until it got to almost 2weeks, the only thing I did that period was to pray to God constantly for Favour and try other places, just when I had lost fate and gotten a "Plan B" (Nigeria Air Force). My then roommate, named Queen, somehow got an insider to speak for her and she talked me into joining her.
We went on our own that day, in the office, we we asked the normal question, "Who is your God father?, we told him, he went further to ask him current appointment and place of service, we answered and the Admin officer went as far as verifying.
Queen was later rejected and I, accepted. It felt so bad but I gave her my slot at Air Force which even covered for two (ie, she and her friend). I felt justified. A total of 66 of us were accepted in stream 1 and later 33more we added from the stream2 of same batch.

Activities commenced in NDA, with compulsory parades as key activity, (Parade is a military term for all gathering, it included both regiment, sport, social, arms, drills, bush etc). We took part in almost every parades. The regular of them all was Sports, it was a weekly routine and was for minimum of 2days in a week.
Work commenced a month after with those in the Admins unit resuming duties, as for those in the school section of the Academy, were I was, we resumed in September.

Due to the nature of activities in NDA, I barely had time for myself and activities outside NDA, so I made friends within NDA, we got so close cause we stayed together in the lodge but my tight schedules didn't stop me from keeping close contact with my close friend from camp @nmalove, she was serving in a ministry, which was in town and a bit far from me.

My primary job was teaching, I started with teaching Mathematics in SS1 and later taught Agricultural science in JSS1. It was interesting to work with kids as it brought back those good old-growing up memories.
I could remember how the JSS1 student loved me coming to their class even in their free periods.
I was also in the NICAAC CDS, (Nigeria Anti HIV and AIDs Awareness Campaign) where we create awareness to the public on issues related to HIV and AIDs, I remembered we visiting 44 (A renown military Hospital in Kaduna, where we had interaction with their Patients living with HIV and AIDs. This part wasn't good at all.
We had rallies, did campaigns and outreaches, we carried out test and lots mores. CDS was interesting.

While in service, I held two offices though stressful but I was able to mange them, Public Relation Officer (PRO), in my PPA's asscociation (NDA, Youth Corp. Association) and Auditor General in my CDS group.

With all these activities and work, I still had strong drive for my Passion and somehow I still managed to carry it along.
The hustle and hurdle became real, my passion became known and as such I had to create a business of it. So officially I started making wigs for Corp members in my lodge and outside, as this was another skill, make up as a business didn't favour me there, so I focused on hairs and wigs and trust me it paid but it took a lot of my spare time.

Trust me it paid but took a lot of my spare time.

I had lesser time for friends and focused more on Official work, CDS, leadership office and business.
Sometime in December, I joined Steemit, after much invite from @nmalove, (wonderful platform), I wasn't consistent but I still tried writing at free times. It added to keeping me busy. With the help of her and @casweeney, I stood a chance of working and earning more.

In my busy time, friends kept coming, though non Steemians, Marvis, Ada, Faith, Oma, Linda, Monsu, Ukeme. Giving me reasons to catch fun once in a while, visited some places in Kaduna, courtesy of them, met people and make more friends. These friends turned to sisters and Chidinma joined the family(@nmalove) as we cooked and ate together, scolded each other, watched movies together. We had bad times and good times, we shared so much love. We gossiped a lot, about ourselves and others, about our past, relationships, heartbreaks, we had times when we talked of life after service and imagined what it was like.

POP was getting close and the fear of what comes next came, we kept imagining what it will feel like and hoping for favour. We shared plans and visions, Visions of reuniting bigger and better, Big businesses and Family. We all wished to be together but only if wishes were horses.

POP day came, 12th of April 218, lots of pictures, after the ceremony came out regular girls sitout.

In all, I could say service experience is interesting as you get to meet a whole lot of people and things. It could get tough, challenging and cracky, but with the right mind and perseverance, you'll achieve a lot.
And bear in it mind that you need the right people as friends in order not to loose focus.

I Came, Saw and Conquered.....