The Long Road to Purpose
James graduated with a First Class, the kind of result lecturers used as an example in class. His parents cried with pride the day his name was announced. Everyone believed his future was settled.
But after graduation, reality hit hard.
Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years.
No job. No interview. Just rejection emails or worse, silence.
Every morning, he stood at the bus stop with his brown envelope, CV neatly arranged, shoes polished, hope thinning day by day.
What hurt him most was not poverty it was comparison.
Some of his female friends, who never finished school and barely attended lectures when they were around, suddenly had good jobs. New phones. New clothes. Big smiles. They mocked his “book knowledge” and whispered that school was a scam.
Rumors reached him too that some of them used their bodies to secure those positions.
At first, he ignored it.
Later, it began to eat him up inside.
“How can I work this hard and end up with nothing?”
“Was reading till midnight a waste?”
“Did I choose the wrong path?”
Frustration pushed him close to giving up. He almost believed the lie that integrity and education no longer mattered.
One hot afternoon at a bus stop, tired and lost in thought, he heard his name.
It was an old schoolmate someone he hadn’t seen since final year. They talked. Laughed. Shared stories. Then the question came:
“What are you doing now?”
He told the truth. No job. Still searching.
The old schoolmate paused, looked at him carefully, and said:
“Submit your CV to me tomorrow. There’s an opening at the Government House. They need someone who can actually think.”
No promises. No bribes. Just merit.
The interview was tough.
Policy questions. Analysis. Pressure.
But this time, his books spoke for him.
He got the appointment.
Not long after, news spread. A new administration reviewed contracts and staff competence. One by one, those same friends who once laughed at him were sacked.
Reason?
Lack of skill. Lack of knowledge. No capacity to deliver.
What they used to enter could not keep them inside.
He didn’t celebrate their downfall.
He only understood something deeper:
Education is not a scam.
Integrity may delay you, but it never denies you.
Shortcuts expire. Knowledge endures.
While others entered through the back door, he walked through the right door and it stayed open.
Moral:
What you use to get a job determines how long you keep it.
The world may mock patience, but in the end, competence always wins.
#truestory #livestory #buchinwa
