Nothing is impossible, you only have to put your mind to it

 

On Monday the 7^th of September, 2020, I submitted my Final long essay for my Masters’ Degree programme in Contemporary English Studies. I am so glad that I have done this.

 

I have always wanted to do a Masters’ degree either in a psychology related field or language related programme (being a practicing journalist, language is a great tool and I don’t miss the chance to improve)

Earlier, I applied for a Masters’ degree in a psychology related programmes, but I wasn’t admitted, (lol) well….so I told myself, perhaps, it is not time or I shouldn’t even be trying this.

I had also doubted if I can ever decide on pursuing higher education, I was anxious and thought of so many things that could hinder me from completing a Masters’ degree programme successfully.

 Here is a mother of three young children, one of them lives with cerebral palsy and takes a lot of my time and strength for her daily life.

How am I even going to combine studying with all the things I already do, working as a full time journalist, a columnist, being a Special Needs Mama and a regular Mama, being a wife and building a home, running a full time advocacy programme –The Special Mothers Project (www.specialmothers.org) the questions were endless.

But before I could say jack, my husband bought the forms, I was reluctant to fill the forms, he told me I will be wasting his money if I did not apply for the programme, just apply, he said, if you don’t get admission, you still have your life, so reluctantly, I applied.

I went to write the entrance examination, on my last daughter’s, 2^nd birthday, I missed her birthday party because that day was just too packed but I had made arrangement for the day to be celebrated without me (poor me)

The Masters’ programme was to start sooner than expected. When I got the admission letter, I panicked, Should I defer? How am I going to do this? I had to be going to school Monday to Friday, 8AM to 4PM thereabout, I already had a very tight schedule, how will this fit in, it was a mixed feeling, on one hand, I was happy that I was enrolling into a Masters’ degree programme, on the other hand, I thought about my children especially Eyram, my daughter living with cerebral palsy, how was she going to cope?

Somehow, my younger Brother, Kob, as we affectionately call him, took his accumulated leave from the office which gave him about 7 weeks, I told him to come stay over, he took care of Eyram while I did schooling, it wasn’t easy though. I prepared breakfast and lunch before I left the house, I had to make sure Eyram bathed in the morning before I leave the house and sometimes I had to feed her and toilet train her, I always got to lectures late, some of my mates felt sorry for me, I always had an excuse for the early morning lectures and always missed a part of it but the first half of the programme ended well and smooth with all exams taken and term papers submitted.

Then I thought of the second half of the programme which was scheduled for this year 2020, I was still thinking about how I will go to school when the time comes then COVID came!

All three children were home with me and I wasn’t so sure if school was going to come on or not but it came on, when we were called back to school to complete the second half and final part of the programme, I panicked again.

This time, I didn’t just have Eyram to deal with, I had the three children at home, I looked for options, getting a teacher to be with them 8AM to 5PM, hiring a Nanny for a short term, getting a Caregiver, etc. but finally had to take the children to their paternal grannies for the first two weeks, it worked out perfectly

There were Ups and downs and oh there were many times I would ask, but me too, why am I doing this? Honestly, I do not know why I decided to enroll in a Masters’ degree programme, perhaps, I just wanted to do something new, because, at this stage in my life, I am not looking for a new job, neither am I looking for promotion at work, yes, I have ambitions but I have also learnt to be content and not freak out about another person’s seemingly good life.

I did learn a lot, I improved tremendously with doing qualitative research work, (hey, I am open for business if you ever want someone to do a qualitative research for you especially in the area of children with disabilities and families nurturing children with disabilities do get in touch)

I was taught by Prof. Anyidoho, someone, I really respect for his work and his achievement and I did learn a lot from him and all the lecturers I met at the Department of English at the University of Ghana.

You cannot go through the Department of English without being Africanized, we took courses in Culture and Arts criticism, a course taught by Prof. Anyidoho, Literature in critical thinking and analysis and you will read African literature whether you like it or not.

I am also very thankful for my classmates, most of them English teachers in Secondary schools, ei, these teachers can learn o, I learnt a lot from the informal class discussions and as a journalist my analytical skills has been sharpened.

Nothing is impossible, you only have to put your mind to it, where there is a will, there is always a way, there were times my younger sister had to come all the way from Kumasi to sit in for me to be able to do something because there was no one.

As for my husband, Agbeko Awadzi, I can’t even count the number of times he had to skip work to enable me go to school, write exams or spend time working on my long essay, and oh, he paid for the course, (I really appreciate that and I am so grateful)

I sincerely believe that having a child with special needs should not stop your dreams and aspirations, that is why I advocate, I believe that we need to put in place as a country, social support systems that will support families nurturing children with disabilities especially mothers.

I believe that as a nation we can develop a comprehensive caregiver support system where we train professional caregivers to help families like mine, we consciously need to develop respite programmes for families especially mothers of children with disabilities and that is why I worked to register as a Psychologist Assistant with the Ghana Psychological Council to support parents especially mothers of children with disabilities emotionally through counselling.

That is why I continue to run the Special Mothers Project Whatsapp platform where rich experiences are shared among families and where a lot of learning takes place besides the fact that you know that you are not alone in your journey of nurturing a child with special needs.

I only see possibilities

Errrm, I always miss my graduation ceremonies, I just go after the ceremonies to pick up my certificates, I don’t know yet if I will be going for my graduation ceremony this time.

PS: My Father, Mr George Owusu Asomaning says I should start dreaming of doing a PHD (Huh), this man has big dreams, but he inspires me o