Growing up was tough because my dad is very strict and relentless. He raised us to take after him, and this has helped me in life. As the firstborn, each time there was a holiday during my secondary school days, I usually worked as a kindergarten school teacher, with a monthly earning of N2,500. My earnings enabled me to save up for school needs, out of which I was also able to make payments for UTME (JAMB) fee. Writing UTME was a big deal to me, as the goal was to receive admission from a university of my choice. But unfortunately, I could not gain admission into the university.

As a result of this, I had a conversation with my parents about learning a trade while waiting to proceed to the next phase of my education. At first, they disagreed, but eventually agreed only on the condition; that I decide precisely what trade I was looking to learn. This was a relief, as I had already planned to learn how to repair gadgets.

I went on to learn how phones and other gadgets can be repaired, and after 7 months of learning, I gained independence from the apprenticeship. With this independence, I started working in a cybercafe where I was paid N7000 per month via a cheque. Earning some money at a young age was not the basis of my motivation, but gaining competence, and vast knowledge of everything I needed to learn became relatively important to me. So I made sure to learn a lot at the cybercafe.

After months of working at a cybercafe, I decided to challenge myself again by applying for UTME (JAMB), the second time. I was still unable to pass. I kept on trying, and every year, I missed the cutoff by a few points. I got tired of this and decided to register at LASPOTECH. My parents decided they will not finance my LASPOTECH ambition because they considered it an inferior school. Hence I decided I was going to fund my way through school.

This did not work as I had to stop in my second year because I could not bear the financial burden. I see myself as an independent person; thus, I do not often like to ask for help. So I quitted schooling and decided to return after I’m able to gather some funds.
I found some new jobs that earned me some money, of which I was able to sit for another UTME (JAMB) from the earnings I made. I passed this time, wrote the entrance exam to UNILAG and made the cutoff mark but was still not granted admission. Out of frustration, I went to the senate building to lodge complaints and inquire why I did not get admitted. The officials checked the records, found my name on the list but found it was ruled out because my subject combination was invalid for that course. I had written subjects that worked for economics and not psychology.

The only solution, according to them, was to do a change of institution.
I did the JAMB “change of institution”, and switched from UNILAG to the Federal University.............

Learn more about Quadri's story via: https://fundall.io/blog/hardwork-and-resilience-the-quadri-olatunji-s-story-6550[i][/i][b][/b]