SECOND OF ALL; INTRODUCTION

My name is Unekwu. ’Unekwu’ means ‘the will of God’. Look it up, it’s in the dictionary! 

When I got baptized, I told my mother I wanted to have a baptismal name since it wasn’t compulsory to be named after your baptism in my home church. She let me choose the name Sarah. I thought it was too conventional to spell my name as S-A-R-A-H so I decided to spell mine as S-E-R-A-H. The annoying thing though is that over the years, people always crucified my name, still do. I had all kinds of variations to the name; Onikwu, Oleku, Nneku, Inaeku, the list goes on. So I decided to further frustrate people by not publicly bearing my English/Baptismal name. Someone once told me that when most girls come of age, they drop their local names and take up a more ‘sleek’ name. I guess I wasn’t or am not so sleek after all. What I am is fantastic and unique, made in the image and likeness of God Almighty with a pocket full of dreams and all sorts of potentials to achieve them.

I happen to be the first born child into a family of four; two sisters and a brother, in that order. Being the first, I was recruited into the fields of leadership and responsibility by providence and parents.

Throughout my life I found myself being heavily responsible wherever I found myself. At home I had to lead several delegations, e.g. the emancipation of our domesticity, the delegation to wear trousers, among others.  From primary through secondary schools and into university, I took on several leadership roles as well. 

I haven’t quite reached a point in my life where I can tell a grass to grace story or a story that completely defines me. So I’d simply share a few things in my life with you.

I grew up in the serene town of Makurdi in Benue state. With a choleric mum & a phlegmatic dad which means we had a lot of comedic days. Whenever my father did anything that my mother deemed classless, she would say to him that that was the behavior of people who were not born in hospitals. (Meaning that she was born in a hospital which explains why she is so full of class and grace.) My father on the other hand would say that her being born in a hospital explains why she got ill so very often so he was proud to have been born at home and fed with herbs. 

Growing up was a lot of fun until the funds stopped coming in. By the time I was ready to get into senior secondary school, neither of my parents had a source of income. I can say that this experience of an abrupt turnaround of events affected me positively and negatively. Negatively because I found it very difficult to focus on studies in school with so little funds/provision being that I was used to having what I needed. But even more positively because those experiences toughened me & allowed me become very independent & entrepreneurial. At various stages I sold water, music CDs, clothes, shoes, bags and all kinds of stuff to support lean resources. During my University days, I volunteered at the school's radio station and whenever our school shut down for a religious crisis or the legendary Universities strike, I always found a job or a major activity.  

Archaeology was my course of study in ABU Zaria; another part of my life people found weird. In retrospect, I could not have studied a more fantastic course. It paved a new way of thinking for me and inspired ambition.

Fast forward into my NYSC days I’d barely served 6 months in Ogun State when I got employed into an organization in Lagos and had to relocate to Lagos.

Life in Lagos started in 2009. Adaptation was not a challenge for me. I quickly adjusted to the life style. Adaptation was one major thing studying Archaeology had taught me. Almost immediately I fell in love with the madness on the streets. I remember walking on the streets of Ogba one evening. My shoulder hurt from several people bumping into me as it was a very busy road. I remember laughing in my tracks at the thrills and excitement in the air and thinking of Alicia Keys’ "

New York". Everyone was in this town to make it by any means.

I've since then changed jobs, found NewSprings, joined Toastmasters, met the love of my life, gotten married and...everyday, there's a better version of me staring back on the other side of the mirror.

Life is beautiful.