By Aisha Tofa
I was looking at life ten years ago; I was a broken young girl, ripped away from a lot of dreams. I had goiter at 17 and it led to a surgery and to taking drugs for life. I had my thyroid gland removed; this was a gland in charge of fertility, brain function and hormonal control. This gland was like a brake in a car!
Everything seemed okay for a while. The real nightmare began after I got back to Nigeria. The doctor told me to my face that I won’t be able to have kids ever! He blamed me for choosing to have surgery in Egypt than Nigeria (just imagine 10years ago).
Being an only child to my mum, she always told me that my kids would be my siblings whenever I asked her why I don’t have siblings. So all the hope was on me getting my kids/siblings one day. I think that was the beginning of my mum’s high blood pressure because everything changed from that day. My dad was devastated and I was just numb! I didn’t know what to feel then, I didn’t know what I felt actually because I can’t find the words to those feelings.
My life had to go on. I had to go back to my life, and so I did. The first challenge came, I repeated a class! I had never repeated a class before then, rather I was in the range of 1st to 5th position. But this time, being on medication for a proper brain function was difficult, and I repeated.
Fast forward to today, April 2020, my daughter is a year old and I run one of the best tech hubs / Coworking space in Nigeria.
My point is this: Life is too short to give in to not being vulnerable. Dreams don’t die.
*Aisha is founder of Startup Kano, a technology and innovation hub. She is the Director, Women Founders Conference which provoked conversations and actions that matter.
Joy, Inc. is a teaching and media company mainstreaming the research and evidence on human flourishing and positive emotions to transform the culture and build a new generation of Africans focused on the greatest happiness for the greatest many.
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