Reflection Speech- The Me I'm Becoming By Shalom Otuene

"Many who were seated in the commencement hall during the ‘Seniors Award Dinner’ were lost in laughter as Shalom gave her “humorous speech.” From where I was seated, I could see as the founder, H.E. Atiku Abubakar shook his head in total amazement, perhaps, wondering to himself, “Who’s this lady? Why isn’t this girl an actress in Gollywood or better still, Bollywood?”

More than the humor of the text was the thought provoking question in Shalom’s speech, “What does tomorrow mean to you? Deep question I would say. Shalom Otuene is indeed a raw talent with a great sense of humor. 

Please check out her speech below and leave a comment if you so wish:

Today marks a great milestone for members of faculty and staff; all of whom are happy we are moving on with our lives. It is equally a moment of joy for our dear parents who have shouted their hearts out and footed the bills; and of cause the extra-ordinary class of 2013 - as we collectively celebrate our achievement of another landmark for our glorious future.

Your Excellencies, President Margee Ensign, members of faculty and staff, proud parents and well-wishers, I say a big thank you for being part of our commencement ceremony.

Coming to AUN is a fulfilled dream - the dream of our parents to give us the best and our own dream of having the best. Before I came to AUN, my favourite phrase was ‘I don’t know!’ With so much apathy and nonchalance I would quickly reply even before any sentence sounding like a question is completed… ‘I don’t know!’ One day immediately one of my elder sisters said ‘When are you…’, I immediately replied ‘I don’t know!’. With a deep sigh she continued ‘… going back to school.’ And just to prove that I really do not know, I said I would have to check the school’s website as resumption date wasn’t announced. I knew this attitude of mine wasn’t a good one. But I enjoyed the fact that it saved me from work.

Coming to AUN, I tried the ‘I don’t know’ pattern in my classes. Oh no! What a big mistake I had made!

From instructors like Prof Ajayi who would call you out to write on the board, to Prof Imade who would praise you with names I have never heard before like super jumbo fly student, just for answering a question, I knew I had to sit up.

To make matters worse, ICP my major wouldn’t just accept my ‘I don’t know’ attitude.

Prof Imade would make me imagine I’m a senator and so I should produce a resolution to an on-going national or international issue, Prof Lim would make me write reaction essays for in class readings; stating clearly what I agree with and where I felt the author was wrong, not forgetting my own conclusion, Prof Gbara, would make me discuss with details, breaking news I felt was of no importance to me, Prof Mayer who in trying to make me understand him would give a joke and still laugh all by himself, Prof Sims would make me produce a thesis and solutions including theories for problems I did not create, and of cause the fear of being in Prof Hansen’s class left me with no other choice than to do all these. From people who took his class, I hear he would give 50 pages of work to read and write on right from the first day of class. 

Out of class we had to think of community service projects to carry out. We had to belong to one club or the other; all into developing the university and the community, which justifies AUN’s unique development focus.

This meant I had to know! I just had to know at all times! And even when I sincerely did not know, I had to think and produce an answer quickly! There was no chance to be silly anymore.

Gradually from my first year to my last day in AUN, my favourite phrase became ‘What can I do to help?’ this question was anticipated even before my classes.

This has made me, or rather the ‘Me I’m becoming’: the me who would seize any opportunity to impact a life, the me who would no longer do things brashly  but would take a minute to critically think and provide empirical examples alongside.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as “doing the same over and over and expecting different results”. And so ladies and gents, I am honoured to humbly introduce to you my new-found lifelong friend from AUN, which is called: ‘Improvement’. 

We must seek to improve our lives every day no matter the little progress we see. Improvement brings about change. However, “no man is an island”- John Donne. Therefore, if we seek to improve ourselves only, we would only be prolonging change. Selfishness amongst other egoistic characteristics has become the order of the day and so today strife and bitterness is inevitable.

Do not think only of your own good, think also of others and what is best for them. Helping improve others should move beyond the need for recognition or followership. It should be a necessity; needed for global change.

The change story has become redundant as I sometimes felt I had heard enough. I sometimes thought why it was so important anyway and why have we not seen it yet. Then I realized change is happening whether we like it or not. The world is not the same way it was yesterday, which path it turns to - negative or positive depends on us. With one person here, another there all effecting positive change, soon change would have evolved all round. Like Tola - another brilliant graduating student would say in Pidgin English, “that one no be today”. And yes I agree with him. “Tola, na tomorrow”. What does tomorrow mean to you? Our parents worked hard yesterday so that ‘the you’ they had not yet seen could have a better future. And so if we do not live to see the all-round change at least our children would, if they don’t our grandchildren would! Change must occur.

The moment you stop improving on yourself, you are no better than a dead man.

Just the same way our dream of having a good education and graduating has been fulfilled; we must also work towards achieving the dream of having a better world.

Live your life in such a way that tomorrow, somebody somewhere would thank God for creating you."

Shalom Otuene

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Twitter: @huntlya

2013 Class Speech By Farida Ibrahim (American University Of Nigeria)

 Over the past week, I was in Yola where I attended the graduation ceremony of a few friends of mine who had become ripe enough to say good bye to AUN. It felt so good to be back to where I had spent four good years of my life. Reuniting with friends once again was a thing of joy for me. I sure had a wonderful time to say the least. Usually, every year, in the American University of Nigeria, hundreds of graduating seniors assemble together in the commencement hall as they await to receive their diploma.  

Like previous commencements, this one was no different as Farida Ibrahim, a graduating senior was selected to share with parents, students, faculty, staff and the entire world the collective stories of the graduating class of 2013. Her speech was not only intriguing such that it captivated everyone's attention but it’s depth left some persons who were present in the commencement hall crying and some shaking their heads in total amazement. undoubtedly, her speech was sophisticated enough to have impressed an intellectual like Prof Pat Utomi as he tweeted “As I tweet I am on the platform at the graduation of AUN in Yola and liking what I am hearing from the class Valedictorian, Farida Great kid”

Please find below the text of Farida Ibrahim’s speech:

Flying in a plane is not exactly a phenomenal event. I mean, there isn’t really much to look forward to when you’re hovering 6, 000 feet above sea level and your heart is pumping at a rate you didn’t think it could. Once in a while however, a plane full of people flies across the Nigerian sky, and during that hour, something phenomenal, almost magical, happens.

 Arik Air Flight W3905 was one such phenomenal one. As it took off from Abuja on the morning of Saturday 16^th  January 2010, there was no indication that history was about to be made, until you realize that it was coming to Yola. You see, it wasn’t just any other usual flight to Yola, it was among many odd flights that week, during which a good number of the people who sit here today arrived in Yola to write our collective history. And so it is on a Boeing 737-800 that our story begins.

In the week during which that flight came, and in the 171 weeks following it, 280 people have thrived in Yola, in every sense of the word. We’ve eaten and slept here, we’ve laughed and cried here, we’ve been successful and failed here, we’ve loved and loathed here. 280 beating hearts, 280 brilliant minds and 280 fascinating stories converged here, and so it is an honor more than any I have ever received to stand before you today and tell a story of hope, courage, and the triumph of the human spirit. Our story is like none you have ever heard. This is the story of the class of 2013.

You see, our being here today is not a mere coincidence. The inevitable implication of our standing today is that we stand on the shoulders of giants and are shaded by the trees they spent their lives planting. We stand because Balewa and Awolowo, because Ahmadu bello and azikiwe stood. We stand because the Funmilayo kuti's the shehu yar'aduas, the Dele Giwas and Saro Wiwas stood. We stand on the tall and valiant shoulders of the Soyinkas and the Achebes, of the Adichie's and the Alkalis, we stand because many have made sacrifices and paid dearly for us to have what we have.

And so long before this moment, long before we ever came to AUN and our paths collided in beautiful disorder, the future started. As we sit here right now, at this very moment, we are already late. Therefore, the ability to waste any more time is no longer an option available for us.

Over the past few days, we have heard again and again from so many people about the wonderful and life-changing experiences we have had here, and so there is no need for me to reiterate that. It is in that spirit that I bring you a slightly different message today.

My fellow graduands, we leave our soon to be alma mater at an extremely crucial and troublesome time for our country. As I speak to you at this very moment, 70% of Nigerians live on less than 2 dollars every day. 2 dollars a day is about N300 naira. 2 dollars a day, ladies and gentlemen means that millions of children will go to bed hungry tonight. That hunger will prevent them from paying any attention in school tomorrow, thus preventing them from thinking as much as they should and can. That hunger will deny them a future long before they can even imagine one. More than one-third of Nigeria’s children who should be in primary school are not in school. For all of those children, it means that a future with limitless possibilities like ours has been violently snatched away from them, never to be recovered and restored. Nigeria remains one of the 3 countries in the world where polio is still endemic. More women die from childbirth here, than in some war zones. Millions of women are unable to improve their quality of life and those of their families because of structural and institutional sexism which manifests in so many different ways. I could go and on about Nigeria’s problems, but all of these are not new to our ears.

Every human being deserves to live with dignity and with hope and with possibilities available to them. Do most of the people in our country live like that? How many Nigerians can wake up every day and be sure that their rights and dignities will not be stripped away, or that their poverty will deny them all hope and possibility?

How many of us have a contextual and critical understanding of our history as a people. If we do not know where we are coming from, where we are will make no sense. If we do not understand where we are, we set off on the wrong path on the road to where we should be. If our priorities as a nation with regards to where we should be are wrong, then where we can be will forever be out of our vision and out of our reach.

How long will we keep making excuses for Nigeria’s relative lack of progress? Why do we continue to take one step forward as a people, and 3 million steps backward? Why do we punish and vilify good people and values, and reward and uphold mediocrity and evil? What are our obligations to the Nigerian project? Is it okay for some of us to see service and holistic citizenship as making money and just paying taxes and occasionally voting? What are our obligations to fellow citizens? What obligations arise out of our privilege?

 Make no mistake, we are privileged. In a country whereby everyone should and can have the opportunity to grow and prosper, yet only so very few do, we are unique products of the unfair and unjust nature of the postcolonial state in Africa. We represent a category of Nigerians with more power and privilege than we are willing to admit and take responsibility for. We are part of the problem, but like the strange paradox that Nigeria is, we are also a major part of the solutions.

Nigeria has come a very long way since 1960, but we have a far longer and more difficult journey ahead of us. We can no longer afford to kneel under the destructive spell of mediocrity and fear. In the wise words of Achebe, our elders say, that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. If the sun will shine on our generation and on the Nigeria we seek to create, then we must stand up for what we believe every step of the way.

We have everything that we need to build something far bigger than ourselves. Why then should we settle for anything less than excellence?

My fellow graduands, our time has come. Ours has been an education for peace, truth and progress, and for a truly unified country. Our education must bring justice to the unjust. It must fix our economy, tell our stories, find cleaner sources of energy, build ethical businesses to take over the forbes list, make academy award winning movies, develop technology for the next century, and bring hope and justice to those that shall come after us. And it is possible. In our day, in our time, with our work and through our hands, that Nigeria can move from a mere possibility, to a reality more powerful than we ever imagined. Ours will be the time when Nigeria’s children will hunger or thirst no more, where our brothers and sisters will not be cut down by violence in their prime, where our uncles and aunts will not burn in the attempt to clean out a fallen fuel tanker.

Ours shall be the generation to fulfill Fanon's prophecy of discovering our mission and fulfilling it, because there is no more opportunity for betrayal.

All of these are possible, but like all other solutions, they come at a price. In the words of Kaushik Basu, people say unfair societies are self-destructive. In truth, they can last for centuries & that is why we need vigilance & conscious action.

My question to us all is, are we willing to pay the price of action? If we assume that we have nothing to do with the fate of our country and our continent, we are greatly harming ourselves, the legacy of those before us, and the capacity of those after us.

We are all that we have. We have no one else, absolutely nothing else. If we refuse to believe in the Nigerian project, if we refuse to take on the Nigerian challenge, ours shall be a generation unforgiven for eons to come, carrying with us a mighty burden of failed promises. Because we have lost the privilege to be ignorant or to choose inaction, this is a promise we must fulfill. May we never forget that our choices matter.

It is in reflection of all of these realities and in celebration of the future of possibilities that lies ahead, that we gather here today.

However, make no mistake, today is not just our day. Today is in gratitude to our mothers, who have spent countless nights in prayer, on their mats, holding their rosaries, in mosques and churches, in our living rooms and in their bedrooms, praying tirelessly during the night and working ceaselessly during the day that we may have an education worth having. Their prayers will never be in vain.

This is in gratitude to our fathers, who continue to give everything and more so that we may fulfill our potential. This is in gratitude to our families, who have given up so much in order for us to be here, who are the true definition of sacrifice. This is in recognition of our teachers, who have dedicated their lives to bringing knowledge to us so that we may fulfill our purpose. Today is in gratitude for the American University of Nigeria, and all of its staff, its administrators, and its leadership, who continue to give everything they have without hesitation so that our tomorrow is better than our yesterday. Today is in gratitude to our founder, our board of trustees, and our president, who continue to provide strong and committed leadership to our development and growth as an institution. We are only because all of these people are, and to them our gratitude and thanks are eternal and boundless.

As I conclude, it is important for us to remember that in our quest for a greater future, we must never place perfection over progress.

Nelson Mandela said that sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. The only true way to let your greatness blossom is to dignify it via action. Dear class of 2013, how will we use the education we have been given to act for the greater good of us all?

Will we have the courage and dignity to act and to serve no matter the odds? Will we serve ourselves or will we serve our country? These are questions each person must answer in their own, and yet its answer will affect us all.

Dear class of 2013, a very very long journey ends today. You have crossed the finish line and the world awaits your contributions. As you go forth and conquer in strength and in faith, I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Congratulations!

Farida Ibrahim

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Twitter: @huntlya

Farewell Message To The Class Of 2013 of The American University Of NIgeria

To the class 2013, I celebrate you. It was like yesterday when you all left the comfort of your homes and flew thousands of miles to a place you weren’t so sure what you were up against. Despite the many bombings and killings of innocent souls in the north, which ofcourse was enough to have discouraged you from embarking on a journey that would forever change your life and make you a better person, you took that great risk not knowing what the future had for you. For some, you said to yourselves “I will make it through all of these.” Not knowing the path you will be traveling.

It is no doubt that you all have come to the end of “college” life and are about to start an entirely new life different from what you were used to. May I use this opportunity to remind you that it is not so much the destination as it is the lessons learnt along the way. We are trying so hard to get to the destination when infact the real message is in the journey. It is the things that we learn along the way that is the most beneficial to us. So may I ask: what lessons were you able to learn while you were still an undergraduate?

For some, coming to AUN was easy, but graduating from AUN was what they weren’t so sure of. It wasn’t an easy journey. I’m not talking about the high academic standard that is enough to make it difficult for a lackadaisical person to graduate neither am I talking about the many rules that each student had to live by, which when violated would lead to either suspension or expulsion from the university. No! No! What I’m talking about is those students who weren’t sure where the money for their next semester fees would come from; those students who were sent numerous mails threatening to be dropped from their classes if they didnt pay up their debt by “Friday.”; Those students who lived in uncertainty throughout their four years in AUN while professionally camouflaging the pain going on inside of them by smiling and hanging out with “friends”.

Today, those 8 words (I will make it through all of these) they said in faith has become a reality as they will now say, “I made it through all of these”

As you embark on yet another journey, may I advise you to stop gazing at where you have been and instead, start gazing at where you are headed. AUN was fun I know and saying goodbye can be difficult not at times but every time… it’s an experience one would want to have again and again and again but truth is, outside the walls of AUN is a place to look forward to. It can be scary to death and sometimes because of the fear of stepping out, it is easy to be caged into what “used to be” and be blinded to what ‘could be.” So, I say boldly to you, FEAR NOT for you were born for this moment.

Don’t limit yourself to how you came into AUN. You must embrace the fact that you are now a changed person. So stop seeing yourself with the eyes with which you saw yourself four years ago and start seeing yourself for who you are becoming.

This farewell won’t be complete if don’t celebrate those who couldn’t graduate with the class of 2013 not because of poor academic standing but because somehow, they couldn’t pay up their debt. It is important you know that you are no less than those graduating today. While you may still be saying to yourself “I will make it through all of these” I’m sure that someday you will look back at all you’ve been through and would say to yourself “I made it through all of these.”

Congratulation class of 2013… Go out and make your world a better place. Have the thinking of a champion

Gracias

Huntly Anabs

Twitter: @huntlya

A Pep Talk from Kid President to You

Things like this inspire me to a fault. I said to myself after watching this video "I just want to be MORE... I just have to come out of my cave and climb to the mountain top of my life..."

Please Check it out and most importantly, look out for the lessons. I bet you will like it.

Gracias

Huntly Anabs
Twitter: @huntlya

The 5,000 People Drive

I consider myself to be an incredibly blessed person-not because of anything tangible or touchable or even concrete, but because I have had so many rich and powerful moments and experiences in life. Although still very young, I have been privileged to see people at great moments in life; a case study was when a little girl whose parents couldn’t afford to pay her WAEC fee later graduated with a Law degree from the University of Port Harcourt. I have also witnessed someone who couldn’t pay his rent at some point in his life later dedicate his first house. Great moments! Priceless moments! 

But I have also been there in some tough and dark moments. I have seen people who just in their final semester, dropped out of school because their widowed mother couldn’t continue paying their fees. I have been there when life was so tough that people couldn’t be phony. And because I've been there when those crises begin to occur, there’s a level of transparency I have been able to witness that has made me appreciate life more. 

Life sometimes can be tough.  Life sometimes brings people to a point where they scream “Help! Help!! Help!!!" as tears drips down their faces. Such is the case of this young man called Vincent Nwokedi who was diagnosed of Acute Lymphoytic Leukemia (Blood Cancer) just a day after his first semester exams, precisely on the 10^th of April 2013.

Vincent Nwokedi, a 600 level (final year) student of pharmacy is currently undergoing Chemotherapy in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), awaiting to be flown to India where he would undergo a bone marrow transplant  to cure his condition and the required sum  for his treatment is N10, 000, 000 (10 Million Naira). 

Vincent is at a cross road of his life and in dire need of help. While N10 million is an amount some people would comfortably spend to purchase just one car, it is all that’s needed to save Vincent’s life. I know N10 million is quite a huge amount of money, but if five thousand people will sacrifice N2000 (Two thousand Naira) each to assist Vincent, we would have saved a generation. This is that time when we need to walk the love we’ve always been talking.  

I have spoken to Vincent myself and he told me that as at yesterday, 24th April 2013, 2.6 million naira (Two Million Six Hundred Thousand Naira )had been raised and he is hoping that he gets people like you and I to come to his aid before the deadline. He needs this money! He needs you! He needs to be alive. 

Think about the incredible difference you will make in his life. Think about the inexplicable joy that’s comes from being there for people in their time of need. Undoubtedly, we’ve been to the bank many times to deposit money into our personal accounts. Again, we can walk into the bank, pick up the deposit slip, inscribe on it Vincent’s details, and walk up to the deposit stand and pay in whatever amount we have to help save Vincent’s life. Betterstill, you can use the Quickteller button on the ATM to do a Funds Transfer or even online banking like many of us do. 

When we give out what we still have need for, that is GIVING.

Below are his details together with a supporting document from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital:

BANK: Zenith

ACCOUNT NAME: VINCENT CHUKWUMA NWOKEDI

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 2100053461

Please help share this information with as many people as possible. Let’s help save Vincent. Be part of the 5,000 people.

Gracias

Huntly Anabs

Twitter: @huntlya

A Must Read:How Owning A Blackberry Helped Ruin My Life

 After reading this story on Emeh's blog, I didn’t know whether to call it a mere work of fiction or a true life story. Well… I decided to share it here on The Journey Begins because I believe to some extent, stuffs like this really do happen in our society and there are one or two lessons that can be learnt from stories such as this. 

They say its a true life story and as unbelievable as it seems,with the recent inhumane treatments being meted out on innocent girls by some heartless men..one cannot doubt the authenticity of this story...

Please read and share your views.

Read below
My name is Chinwe, I am 26 years old, I never graduated from the university, simply coz I was stupid and careless, on my 24th birthday, I received a nice gift, it was a blackberry phone, I always wanted one, it was like a right of passage, my ex-boyfriend got it for me, he was a student like me, didn’t have a job, and I really never cared to ask as he could afford it, my concern at that point was, yes I had finally arrived,......



.... other girls in my hostel had blackberries and I would always get pissed when I heard sounds of pings and messages coming into their phones at all hours and I would stare at my Nokia phone and wish I could throw it away, but half bread they say is better than none, so I hoped and even fasted to get a blackberry phone, looking back now, if I had the opportunity, I’d have a landline with no internet activity what so ever, anyway I got the blackberry phone and even got free

BIS subscription, at that moment my life was complete, no more going to the cyber cafes to check my emails, my face-book or twitter, I had it all at my finger tips, life indeed was complete, or so I thought.

Anyway, I became addicted to my blackberry and also my social media applications, and since I had constant access, I quickly gained enough followers, and especially guys, mostly because I had a lot of er*tic pictures on my timeline, I was popular, finally I felt I was the main girl, everyone wanted to follow me, I didn’t care if it was virtual, it felt good, checking out my profile and having well over 8,000 followers, more than half of which were guys, but one particular guy caught my attention, till this day I don’t know what made him stand out, but we got chatty, he sent me direct messages and I replied, he was quiet a gentleman , and I can’t remember him ever asking for a nudè picture unlike the rest of them, so this made me comfortable with him, his name was Tobi, he said he was a doctor , I didn’t have any cause to doubt him, he had extensive knowledge and even gave me some medical advice from time to time, we eventually moved from twitter to blackberry chat, we chatted all the time, I got so comfortable with him, I gave him my number, and that would come to be the biggest mistake I ever made.

Tobi called me every day, some days he called more than once, at night he would call and I would lay on my bed and have phone sèx with him, his voice was so soothing, he made me do things I never thought possible, he had gained so much access into my head, I realized later I had done some very sick and twisted things just to please him, I would take nudè pictures of myself, I would send him videos of me touching myself in private, and send him voice notes of me making moaning sounds and simulating orgàsms, and all this while we had not met, not face to face at least, eventually I played into his hands, I began pestering to meet him in person, at this point I had lost my mind, I assumed I was in-love with him, and when my boyfriend at the time broke up with me, I really welcomed it, for me it meant no more sneaking around.

Tobi eventually agreed to come to Lagos to meet me, all this while he had made me to believe he was in Calabar, and would take time off work to spend a weekend with me in Lagos, when I heard this I was excited, he told me to book a reservation for him, stating he would pay me back as soon as he arrived and also he said it would make him more committed to the visit and would convince him of my seriousness, I bought it all, he was smart, he was cunning, and I was stupid, oh how stupid I was. The funny thing was I had sent him tons of pictures, and all I had was just one picture of him, and whenever I asked he would claim he wanted to be sure I loved him for him, and not for his looks, and sheepishly I would try to convince him of my undying love, and would try to appease him with nudè pictures of my body.

He eventually made it to Lagos, I met him at the hotel, he was tall, handsome and had a wonderful smile, he made love to me over and over, and convinced me to spend the night with him, I told him I couldn’t, because I had a test the next morning, now at this point I don’t know what triggered his anger, don’t know if it was because I couldn’t spend the night, or maybe I said something else I can’t remember saying, but whatever it was, brought out a very ugly side of him, he called me foul names, and kept going on and on about how he always knew I was cheap, and he knew I was sleeping with other men, the same man whom had swept me away, slammed me on the floor, he told me of how he had shown his friends all my nudè pictures and how they had watched the videos and listened to the voice notes, he told me he had made a bet with his friends, that I would actually pay for him to have sèx with me, just to prove how stupid I was, well you can imagine how I felt, I was confused and shocked, but I attempted to regain any little dignity I had left, and so I tried to mouth off at him, suddenly he punched me in the face, and I tripped over, and hit my head on a stool.

The next thing I remember was waking up on the bed, I was tied up, and he was staring at me, his eyes were dark and he had a sinister smile on his lips, he stood up and walked towards me ,I tried to scream and realized my mouth was tapped, my head was racing, the unfortunate part was that no one knew where I was, he turned me over, and told me he was going to teach me a lesson, at this point I was unclad, he rapped me from behind, and I mean my anus, the pain was mind blowing, I struggled, and he hit me, when he was done he brought out a small blade, and he looked at me for a minute and said, this scar is going to always serve as a reminder, for girls like you always trying to be more than you are, for stupid fools like you, he put the blade to my
bosom and cut it off, and anytime I think of it, I still feel the pain, it was like nothing I had ever felt before, he was calm, like he had done it a million times, I could feel the warm blood dripping down my mutilated chest, tears of fear and pain running down my face, and suddenly he turned around again, this time
all I saw was a flash.

I don’t know how I survived it, but I woke up in a hospital days after, well I was awake, but my eyes were swollen shut, It took a couple of days for me to open my one good eye, and realize d damage he had done, he had plucked out my eye, and cut my face,
he had cut my breasts up real bad, they had to it out, like I had cancer or something, there was no record of who I was, coz he had taken everything, he had taken my bag, containing everything I had. I was able to tell the nurses about what I could remember, and also give them my mum’s phone number, the hospital felt so much pity, they actually treated me for free, hard to
believe right?

Anyway I was taken home after weeks at the hospital to recuperate, it was tough, I was blind in one eye, I had one chest and a hideous scar of my face, talk about your sinage, he did a number on me, how dumb was I, sometimes I wish he had killed me, but there are fates worse than death, and I guess this is one of them, he was gone without a trace, the receipt
from the hotel was in my name, so yes he had played me from the start.

I didn’t dare go back to school, I was sure everyone would have heard, and I was not going to become a statistic, so I decided to stay home, and mind my business, besides what do I need an
education for, I’d rather stay home, because there is no rising from this, there is no happy ending to this story, this is the simple ending, I was a victim if a sèxual predator, and I let him into my life period, and I take full responsibility for that, I was driven by greed and lack of morals, I allowed myself fall into an abyss, but well saying all this doesn’t change anything, it’s a memory I will have to live with for the rest of my life, well not a memory, because I look at myself in the mirror everyday, who would want to see a nudè picture of a woman with one chest, one eye, and a stub.

I have decided to publish my story, because with the rise of social media atrocities being committed, every story can go a long way in saving a life, so while you read, SHARE and help someone back to the right path, these internet predators are real.





Twitter:@huntlya