“I Started Struggling Since I was 17 to Support my Family

I started struggling since I was 17 to support my family. I said the day I sell my body to a man for money, may God strike me dead. I was determined to make it on my own, never let any man take my dignity.

 

I was 19 years old, in my second year at the University of Lagos. I’d been a model for about a year and a half then….

 

It was early 2000, I hadn’t done any modeling jobs in a bit. I didn’t have any money in school, hadn’t ate a proper meal in days, there was no money at home… My sister called and asked if I could send money home…didn’t have any. I wondered what to do…then I thought of this ” aristo” who had been chasing me for months now…old man…married.. .rich…in his fifties.

 

I said to myself, why don’t you call him and beg him for money. Tell a lie, say you need it to go to the hospital ‘cos you’re sick or something that desperate. Which was what I did. What he said to me was ‘you know I like you. I don’t know why you’re behaving like a child. You need someone to take care of you blah blah blah’.

 

Eventually he said I should meet him at a hotel. I will never forget that hotel…Ambassadors hotel in Ikoyi. I was apprehensive about going but I was desperate…I said to myself what’s the worse that can happen? It’s not like he will rape you and there was no way in hell I would sleep with him, so I figured even if he didn’t give me the money I asked for, at least he would give me money for transport fare to go back home…that transport fare was what I was looking forward to honestly. I didn’t have a dime on me, in fact I borrowed small money from a friend to go to the hotel.

 

So when I got there, he bought me hotel food (my first real meal in days…:-)) and after I was done eating, he made his move. I shoved him off. He kept trying and I kept pushing him away and after a while he got angry and said something like, why did you come here then? Are you a child? He was angry that I made him pay for a hotel room, spent money on food etc and not give him what he wanted. So he got up to leave…and I told him I didn’t have any money to go back to school. If looks could kill, I would have died in that moment he turned to look at me. He left the hotel room, and I followed him. I kept begging and trying to explain to him that I didn’t have transport to go back, he didn’t say a word to me as he entered his vehicle and drove off.

 

Anyway, after standing in front of the hotel for a few minutes, I went back in and saw a young man at the front desk. I explained my situation to him…he was kind enough to give me N100 and that was the money that took me half way home. By the time I got to Yaba, I’d run out of cash, so I trekked from Yaba bus stop to UNILAG Akoka. I remember saying to myself while I was trekking with tears in my eyes, that one day I’m going to make something of myself…every money I make in this world would be my own hard earned money…I don’t care how bad it gets, no man is ever going to take away my self respect…that’ s all I have!

 

And that’s the way I lived. Determined to make it in life. On my own terms. As my own woman. I kept struggling and struggling until God finally blessed me.”

“The first time I stepped foot outside of Nigeria was in November 2011. I was 31. Before then, I’d never entered an international flight. I never had the opportunity to travel abroad and definitely couldn’t afford a holiday. I always wondered what the outside world looked like.

 

Fast forward to 7 years later. Now I can travel to any part of the world I want…maybe even take 10 people with me and give them a luxury trip. And throw in shopping money inside sef…lol.

 

I have learnt through my own journey that delay is not denial. Sometimes things will come when it will come. You can’t hurry it along no matter how much you work, plan or pray. What you need is patience and trust God’s perfect timing for what is meant for you. God will come through for you as long as you keep the faith, refuse to give up and keep working. Sometimes the delay is God preparing you for greatness beyond what you even envisioned. So don’t be down that you are not where you want to be now. Your breakthrough is coming! It may be taking a long time, but God didn’t bring you this far to leave you and you didn’t bring yourself this far to give up. So increase your determination, increase your drive, do everything with all your might and be patient.

 

Your time is coming! Oh, it will come…and soon! The question is; are you ready?”

Linda Ikeji is a Multimillion dollar blogger, born September 19, 1980. She is from Nkwere, IMO State, Nigeria. She started blogging in 2006 on the free “.blogspot” blogger platform.

It isn’t hard to estimate what Linda is worth when you visit her blog. She should be turning in nothing less than $130,000 a month (don’t quote us, just do the math yourself). Linda Ikeji’s blog main sources of revenue are Direct Advertising, Sponsored posts and google Ads.

 In September 2018, she gave birth to a baby boy, who’s father is Sholaye Jeremy.