I want to be the interruption.

I am tired of struggling. Not because I have given up, but because sometimes, after fighting for so long, even a strong person gets tired. There are questions I ask myself that I don't always say out loud. <ul><li>Why does everything have to be this difficult? </li><li>Why does one opportunity change someone's life while another person spends years knocking on doors that never open? </li><li>Why do some people get to think about the future while others are just trying to survive today?</li></ul> I have prayed for help, waited for someone to come through, and hoped that one opportunity would change everything. But I have also learned that sometimes nobody comes. And when nobody comes, you either stay there waiting or you learn to help yourself. So I kept moving. I know what it means to work because I need to eat, not because I am trying to live a flashy life or impress anybody. When money is little, even your dreams become practical. You start thinking about how to get through the week, how to handle the next expense, and how to make sure you don't become a burden to someone else. There is a difference between working to build a life and working just to make it through another day. I have felt that difference. When there is nobody to feed you, you learn to feed yourself. When there is nobody to carry you, you learn to carry yourself. Sometimes, you even become an adult before you are ready. Hunger doesn't wait for motivation. Bills don't care about your dreams, and school fees don't care that you're tired. Life does not pause because you are struggling, so you keep moving even when your strength is low and your mind is full. I have had nights when sleep refused to come because tomorrow was too loud in my head. What if I fail? What if I disappoint the people who believe in me? What if I don't become the person I keep telling myself I can become? Then morning comes, someone asks, "How are you?" and you say, "I'm fine."Sometimes, "I'm fine" is just a way of covering what is really going on. I can be making people laugh and putting smiles on their faces while quietly trying to hold myself together. But one thing has always pushed me forward: my family, especially my mother. When I think about her sacrifices, I realise that some of what I call my struggle is actually part of a much older story. My parents had their own battles. There were things they could not afford, opportunities they never had, and problems they had to solve without the resources I wish they had. And I keep thinking, it must not end here. I don't want to inherit their struggles and pass them on to my children. I don't want poverty to become a family tradition. I don't want another generation to grow up thinking that their background has already decided what they can become. I want to change the story. I want my family name to mean something. I want to reach a point where, if I have my last money and my mother needs it, I don't have to think twice about where it should go. She sacrificed for me before I was old enough to understand what sacrifice meant. One day, I want to be able to look at her and say, "Mummy, don't worry. I've got this." That means more to me than expensive cars, clothes, or anything else people use to measure success.Money, to me, is not just about luxury. It is food when there is hunger. It is school fees when a child is about to be sent home. It is transport when an opportunity is waiting somewhere far away. It is rent, shelter, security and the ability to solve a problem without first begging someone to save you. Sometimes, money is simply peace. That is why when I eventually make money, I don't want it to only make me look successful. I want it to do something. I want to build, educate, create opportunities, give my mother rest and help someone who is standing where I once stood. Because I know what it feels like to want something and first ask yourself, "Can I afford it?"And this is where I think differently about poverty. Two people can work just as hard and still live completely different lives. One person can work today and invest tomorrow. Another can work today and spend everything surviving. One has capital; another has hunger. One has connections; another has nobody to call. One can afford to fail; for another person, one mistake can mean going without food. So when I see someone struggling, I don't want to ask only, "Why aren't you working harder?" I want to ask, "What are you carrying?" Because sometimes the person moving slowly is not lazy. They are carrying things you cannot see. That is what worries me most about poverty. It is not only about having little money. Sometimes you inherit the absence of guidance, opportunities, connections, and people who can simply tell you, "Try this," "Don't make that mistake," or "Apply here. I know someone who can help." Some people inherit wealth.Others inherit the responsibility of figuring everything out alone. I don't want that to be my family's permanent story. I have seen what happens when a mother has to carry almost everything—food, rent, school fees, children, bills, and an entire household. Sometimes people look at a struggling family and think there isn't enough love. No.The love can be there and still not be enough to solve everything. Love cannot pay every bill. Love cannot fill an empty pot. Love cannot produce school fees for three children.That is why economic security matters to me. And that is why I don't simply want to become rich. I want to become capable of taking care of myself, helping my family, creating opportunities, employing someone, and helping a young person who has nobody to guide them.I don't want my success to stop at me. If I ever become the person I dream of becoming, I want another young person to look at my story and think, "Maybe I can do it too." That is the kind of influence I want. Not the kind that makes people admire me from a distance, but the kind that makes someone believe they can move forward. I want someone who is about to give up to hold on for one more day. I want someone who thinks their background has already decided their future to reconsider. I want someone who has started going in the wrong direction to realise that they can still turn around. Not because my life is perfect, but because I know what it means to keep going when you are tired. I know what it means to have little and still dream big. I know what it means to look at the people who came before you and decide that their struggle will not become your children's inheritance. That is the change I want to make. I want to interrupt the cycle of poverty, helplessness and lack of guidance. I want to prove that people from backgrounds like mine can dream beyond what they have seen. But I don't want to pretend I came from somewhere else. I want to carry where I came from with me and change what comes after it. So yes, I am tired.But I am not finished. I will keep learning, building, praying, and preparing myself for the opportunities I am asking for. When people underestimate me, i will keep working. When my time seems delayed, I will use the waiting period to become better. When obstacles come, I will not allow them to become bigger than what I am trying to achieve. Because I know what I am fighting for. I am fighting for my mother to rest. I am fighting for my family to breathe. I am fighting for the children who will carry my name after me. And I am fighting for the young person who needs to see that a difficult beginning does not have to produce a difficult ending. I am not chasing money just to say I have money. I am chasing the freedom to build, to give, to choose, and to make somebody else's journey a little easier. One day, I want to look at my family and say, "We made it past here."Then, when my name is mentioned alongside the people who came before me, I want to know that I did more than survive what I inherited. I changed it.I want my family name to be golden, not because I was handed gold, but because I refused to stop looking for a way to create it. So what will I leave behind?Not the fear. Not the hunger. Not the helplessness. Not the belief that poverty is destiny.I want to leave possibilities.A better road. A little more hope. A reason for somebody else to keep going. Maybe that is the greatest thing I can become: the point where the story changes.The point where struggle stops being an inheritance. The point where somebody after me can say:<blockquote>"Because he refused to give up, I didn't have to start from where he started."</blockquote> That is the story I am trying to write.And until I write it, I will keep my head up, keep moving, keep building, and keep becoming.

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