Dear Diary,

Today, Tuesday 5th November 2017, I have made the decision to move into the big City of Lagos. I am scared and worried because I do not know what my future holds in that city. However, if there is anything I am certain about, it is the fact that Osogbo cannot contain my dreams.

My name is Tomisin Ajaguna. I love to describe myself as a storm child made of the wild and flames and I am sure you will understand why as I tell my story. As a 21year old lady filled with dreams, passion and determination, I am starving for success because I know what it feels like to wish the stories in the Bible where Jesus turned water to wine and multiplied bread and fish could happen again, remembering the days I was tempted to eat my own skin out of starvation. I come from a family of four, I have a younger brother Semilore who seems to understand the curves and bends of poverty and looks pretty comfortable with it, and my parents, who I wonder what they did with their youth when their mates were hustling and struggling to be successful.

Nothing hurts me more than waking up everyday to realize they are actually my parents. You mean I wasn't switched at birth and no millionaire family is looking for a lost child? How pathetic! How then am I so different? How did I get this craze and mad passion for success? How am I so choosy and desperate for a beautiful and glamorous life? How and why do I want more when everybody else in my family is okay with Akara [bean cake] for breakfast and eba for dinner? Having lunch is even considered as an abomination because eating three times a day is just being a glutton.

Today 5th November is another birthday. I am 21 today, and I have decided to leave Osogbo where I was born and bred for the big city of Lagos. I have it all planned out, my mother is an "alajo", she helps people save their money for a particular period of time till they are ready to use it. She usually keeps it under her bed in a wooden box, I have seen her put money in it several times when she thinks no one is watching. All I need to do is to go there, "take" the money and run away. It can not be considered stealing, because this family owes me all the money in the world for bringing me to this world to suffer without having a plan for my life.

Especially my mother, a very beautiful, tall, and light-skinned woman with thick, long, black hair.

How did she decide to marry my poor father because of love and ignore all the other wealthy bachelors who wanted her hand in marriage. My mother has told us this story several times just to make us understand that "money is not everything" and that "love conquers all".

That is exactly why I can never forgive her for dragging me into her foolish decision by bringing me to life with my poor father in the name of love. I have decided to rewrite my mother's wrong and make a better decision by chasing a better life and wanting more. If there is anything I am grateful for, it is the fact that God gave me my mother's beauty and even more, and that exactly will be my weapon for success.

Tomorrow, 6th November 2017, I will take what is mine and go find that better life for myself. Wish me luck!

The street will know me as Olushure and this is my story.