Uninfluential friends I grew up with said I would never graduate college. About 20 different people that I know, who have taken a break from college, find it very difficult to go back, and never end up finishing. Throughout my life, I ran into a lot of problems that made it difficult for me to continue with my education. I pushed through it. Every situation I encountered, I did my best to see it as motivation and turn negative situations into positive situations. I made a promise to my mother, brother, fiance, and also a close friend who passed away three years ago, that I would finish college no matter how hard it is, and my life has not been easy.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Coney Island to be exact. My mother and father immigrated here from Nigeria, to live a better life and give their children better opportunities. When they came to New York, they had three children one girl and two boys. When I was 10 years old my father left my mother and married someone else. This surprised my mother because she was left with all of us and no one to help her. She ended up having  to turn to the state for financial assistance, because supporting three children on her own was very expensive, especially living in New York City. She worked as a security officer while going to school part-time to earn a college degree so she could earn a better life for herself, and children.

Watching my mother at a young age motivated me to always work my hardest and do my best at whatever I was doing, which was playing basketball and going to school while I was growing up. Since I was the oldest son (between me and my brother). Growing up,  basketball was everything to me. The neighborhood I grew up in had a lot of violence, and gang activity, so I used the sport to keep me out of trouble and wanted to go pro. I did whatever it took to work my hardest; I played no matter what the weather was, rain, snow, or sunshine, I was outside all day after school playing basketball.

During my senior year of high school, I had many schools recruiting me. SVC was one of them, but I chose SUNY Canton, a division 2 school that offered me a partial scholarship. I was so far from home however, about an 8-hour ride from NYC. I wasn’t really focused there. I partied a lot and got really bad grades. After the first semester, I failed off the team. After the first year, I transferred to Southern Vermont with a more focused approach.

Once I got to SVC, I lost my focus, I was getting bad grades, and almost ended up getting kicked out of school, and that is when I decided it was time to give up my love for basketball, and focus more on school. It was too hard for me to balance doing well in school and playing basketball. So I decided to take a two-year break, and I began to start working and moved around the area of Bennington.

After taking a two year break from SVC to save money and focus, I returned determined. I work full-time and also go to school full-time, and maintain good grades. But, there were many times I wanted to give up, but I knew that I couldn’t because in order for me to be successful, I need a college degree.

This is my last semester of college, and I will have my bachelor’s degree in business at the end of December. Once I finish this semester, I want to go into the corporate business and maybe get a job working with TJ Max, or IBM corporate office as a sales operator, or maybe a purchaser because I am really good with number and projections. Hopefully, I will have my own business one day and also have my own corporate office.