Being a student is no small feat especially for students who hail from humble homes. I had to do something called side hustle in order to get by with paying my fees and meeting up with bill payments.
The side hustle I took up while in school was private tutoring. This involves going to people's homes and teaching their kids privately.
I was fortunate to have two kids who were both in junior secondary school, teaching them privately in the evenings, while I was still schooling.
I got this gig through a friend who was already teaching in a private school. She called me up to inform me of a parent in her school who was in need of a private teacher for her kids. My friend said that she was very busy and could not take the kids. So, she decided to pass the offer to me.
I grabbed the offer with my full chest because I was struggling with payments in school. I later found time to discuss with the parents and we settled on the payment and time schedule. I made sure that the timing would not affect my studies.
I began taking the kid three times a week in the evenings every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. At first, it was not easy because I had to shuffle between school work, assignments and tutoring the kids but my determination to successfully complete my education was greater and that egged me on.
I stayed and tutored those kids all through my years in school and I am glad their parents never defaulted in paying me on time. I am glad the children were also ready and willing to learn and that helped a lot because it didn't take long before the parents started seeing the effect of my tutoring.
They are one of the few parents that really appreciates the efforts of teachers not only with words of appreciation but also with thoughtful gifts.
I wasn't too happy when I had to stop because it was time for my Teaching Practice. Distance became a barrier and my free time also became reduced.
They were sad to see me go and I likewise because it had been amazing building a teacher-leaner relationship with the children.
In all, I am very grateful for that opportunity and side hustle because without it, I would not have been able to scale through school with ease.
Thank you for reading.
Images used was taken from my phone gallery.