TALES OF A KANO CORPER- MY SALOON EDUCATION

     

"Sister you wan make your hair?",  I turned and I saw the light skinned woman trying to take my weavon pack from me. I managed to smile at her shaking my head, "No, I get customer already". "ahh, I sabi oo, I go do am well well gaskiya!", she said while she pulled me towards her shop. After several turns we reached the shop. Her thick accent made me know she was an igbo woman.

The heat was so much I had to blow myself with my weavon pack. She had a neutral smile on her face as I stared at her through the mirror in front of me, making me wonder if a permanent smile was part of her services. I was bored and I saw nothing wrong in engaging in a conversation with a smiling lady. "you sabi hausa very well", I said, "but you be igbo". "I don dey here for long. Na my husband bring me come here", she replied. Then there was a brief silence while I thought of the next thing to say, she continued. "But you dey lucky oo,veeeery lucky", she said, "why you talk so?", I replied curiously, "you be corper,I like am when I see young girls wey go school,I like am well well gaskiya". I gave a generous grin while she continued talking "like me nau, I no go school because I no get money to pay,I finish for secondary school but you now when you finish NYSC you go get job and na una go dey chop all the money, una get luck". I then asked her several questions and we giggled and had a lengthy discussion.

I was not sure of her age because she had the built of a well grown woman, plumpy and thick yet her voice and the way she smiled often could tell that she was young. And then I looked around her shop with the corner of my eye, she managed to make a saloon out of a very little space. She looked tired but with the way she convinced me to patronize her, I knew she was a hard worker.

In the world we live in today hard work and consistency is a key to becoming successful and here I was sitting in front of a young lady who possessed the same success key but she couldn't really see the power she had. If only she developed the right mindset and channeled that same passion towards her career she would be successful beyond her wildest imagination. She was trapped with the fact that she only needed education to become very successful. She had a point, my lucky tool was education. After NYSC I could get a job somewhere and get paid. That sounded like a good plan. But the big question that kept ringing in my head was "is education really the key to success?" Is education a gate way to living your dream or a gate way to living someone else's dream? We all go to school to please our parents and fit into the society's standard and yet our reward for that is to live the rest of our lives on a rat race from one pay cheque to another. I felt sorry her... for the people out there who have let their success become a mere fantasy just because they never attended or completed their education. Education is good but it is not the sole key to success. For me, education has destroyed many dreams more than it has created, it has intimidated people to become small thinkers.

My deep thoughts were cut off by the lady's tight weave. I grumbled in pain, "sorry, ee too tight?", she asked after she saw me wince. I then shook my head trying not to think too much because the lady's hand was firmly fixed to my head. As she completed the fixing, I paid her and I promised to make her a customer.  I walked out of her shop with a lesson. Education is not only gotten from the four walls of a school building, it is simply a way of life. When I thought of how dedicated she was to making my hair come out fine, I saw that as an amazing education. It simply taught me what I needed to become a successful girl against all odds. Determination.