Who am I?

Hello, I’m a 20-year-old graduate in Nigeria. I wrote my final exams about three weeks ago. I didn’t exactly study what I wanted. Mass communication just seemed like an appropriate course when I was about to enter university. I’m self-diagnosed with ADHD. I’m not so sure my family believes in mental health so I can’t check myself properly. I’m an atheist and a feminist. I’m still trying to know my myself by deconstructing default beliefs we have in Nigeria and relearning things that I consider beneficial to my growth mentally, emotionally, socially and physically. 

I grew up with different families at different points in my life. I’ve learnt a lot from each family and I’m sure staying with them has also helped me build values and shape my attitude towards life. Right now, I’m trying to learn as much as I can and apply for communication related jobs in Nigeria before my service. Then while serving I want to apply for scholarships in Canadian universities for my masters. Preferably a course in philosophy or psychology but I know that my family will not let me study philosophy. They don’t know that I’m an atheist and I don’t think I can tell then right now because they take Christianity seriously. 

Honestly, I can’t really say I have a dream for myself. The only thing I see ahead of me are ideas to help women and children in Nigeria when I’m done with masters and have a good job to fund my ideas.

Being a feminist and an atheist in Nigeria is a struggle because the default belief is Christianity and Islam so any other belief that goes against them are considered foreign and not acceptable. There are a lot of misconceptions about feminism and in my class in university I was the only vocal feminist in a class of 200. The other feminist in my class who was my friend decided not to engage the class in any conversation. I thought I could change some common misconception about the cause but that only made my class unbearable for me and certain comments from people became triggers. I had to learn to live with it 

I believe that feminism has influenced my life immensely. Atheism also played a part in it, and it has shaped me into who I am today. It’s hard getting people to understand me, so I’ve learnt to coexist with just myself. I’m socially awkward most of the time but when speaking on things I’m passionate about I’m quite vocal.

I believe that feminism has influenced my life immensely. Atheism also played a part in it, and it has shaped me into who I am today. It’s hard getting people to understand me, so I’ve learnt to coexist with just myself. I’m socially awkward most of the time but when speaking on things I’m passionate about I’m quite vocal. Most times I am misunderstood and taken as someone who is aggressive because I am quite passionate when expressing my feelings. This has proved to be a problem in my life. It has negatively affected my platonic and romantic relationships. Because of this, I decided to work on my interpersonal conversations so people do not misunderstand me while communicating.