Writers 
*THE YEAR LIFE BROKE ME AND STILL BUILT ME*
It was 2023. If you had told me at the beginning of that year that I would lose almost everything I loved, I would have laughed at you. I had plans. Big plans. I had a job that paid me well, I had a woman I was planning to marry, I had friends who called me every day, and I had dreams that felt so close I could touch them. I thought I had life figured out.
Then January came with a query letter from my office. February came with a salary cut. And by March, I lost my job completely. I will never forget that day. My boss called me into his office and said, "We have to let you go." I walked out of that building with a small box containing my things, and my whole world felt like it was inside that box too. I had bills to pay. My rent was due. My younger ones were looking up to me. And suddenly, I had nothing to offer.
I tried to be strong. I told myself, "Something better will come." But life was just getting started with me.
A month after I lost my job, the person I loved the most left me. She said I had changed. She said I was no longer happy, no longer funny, no longer the man she fell in love with. She said my stress was choking our love. I begged her. I told her I was just going through a phase. But she had already made up her mind. She left. And that night, I cried like I had never cried before. Not because she left, but because I knew she was right. I had lost myself.
Then came the real breaking. I went broke. I mean completely broke. There were days I would wake up and there was no food in the pot, no granulated cassava in the kitchen, no money in my account. I would carry my phone, press it, pretend I was busy, just so my neighbors wouldn't know I hadn't eaten. I called some friends, they didn't pick. I texted some, they said "Guy, things tight for my side too." Life humbled me in a way I never imagined.
There was a night I sat on my floor in the dark because I couldn't afford to buy fuel for my small generator. I looked up and asked God, "Why me? What did I do wrong?" I thought that year would kill me. I thought that was the end of my story.
But that was actually the beginning.
In that darkness, something started building. Since I had nothing to do, I started praying again. Since I had no money to go out, I started reading again. I picked up my small phone and started learning a skill on YouTube — writing. I started writing my pains down. I started posting them online. One person read it, then ten, then hundred. People started saying, "Your story is my story."
Slowly, I started rebuilding. I started a small business that failed. I started another one that failed again. But the third one gave me small money. That small money became bigger. I started smiling again — not because life was perfect, but because I realized I was becoming a stronger person.
That year broke my pride, but it built my patience.
It broke my plans, but it built my purpose.
It broke my relationship, but it built my relationship with myself.
It took people away from me, but it brought me back to me.
Today, when I look back, I thank that year. If life didn't break me, I would have never known how strong I was. If I didn't lose everything, I would have never found myself.
So if you are reading this and you are in that breaking season, hold on. Sometimes life has to break you completely, to build the version of you that you prayed to become.
