Post 15: Do We Just Let His Efforts Go to Waste?

My Honours graduation was approaching, but there was one problem.

The university had withheld my results because of the unpaid debt.

My grandmother became worried.

She asked me:

“What are we going to do now?”

I didn’t have an answer.

“I really don’t know.”

A couple of weeks later, she returned from visiting her siblings in the village where she was born.

When she arrived, she told me:

“Makhulu vhari ni foune.”

Loosely translated into English: “Your grandfather says you must call him.”

She was referring to her younger brother, the sibling immediately after her. My grandmother was the eldest child.

I didn’t ask many questions. I called him.

After exchanging pleasantries, he went directly to the point.

“How much money is needed?”

I told him.

His response was equally direct.

The following day, I was to meet his son in town. He would give me the full amount.

I was relieved.

After thanking him and ending the call, I turned to my grandmother. She had heard the entire conversation.

I wanted to know what had happened.

How had she persuaded him to help?

She explained what she had told him.

“This child had finished his studies. He had done everything within his ability. He had worked hard. Now the university was withholding his results because of a debt that I clearly could not afford to pay.” Those were her words to her younger brother

Then she had essentially asked him:

What do we do? Do we simply let his efforts go to waste?

That was how my grandmother persuaded her younger brother to settle my university debt.

I could now graduate.

But the experience also strengthened a decision I had already been considering.

I did not want to put my family through situations like this again.

So I vowed not to apply for internships or entry-level jobs.

Looking back, there is something strange about that decision.

My response to finally overcoming the financial obstacle preventing me from graduating was to avoid opportunities that might create another financial obstacle.

Was I protecting my family?

Was I protecting myself?

Or had the struggle taught me to see opportunity itself as a potential financial risk?

Whatever the answer, graduating did not mean that I had escaped the problem.

Join the conversation

When someone’s education is made possible by repeated sacrifices from family members, does that support create freedom, or can it also create a fear of asking those people to sacrifice again?