The Graduate; Lockdown Journal Part 1

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is felt by everyone throughout the world. The lower class is suffering more as compared to the upper class. During my final year, I had an internship, which later turned into a paying job. I am an aspiring copywriter with hopes of one day working for an established advertising agency or starting my own. Writing is not my first love but one of the things I love doing. It has been four months since the lockdown regulations were imposed. As a result, I lost my job after 3 weeks of working as a copywriter for a digital platform. Since then I have been doing job hunting: sending emails and hoping for the best, I had no luck.

Normally I don’t dwell on missed opportunities. However, I recall this other time where I received a call from a friend on Wednesday evening; all he said was “come to my place tomorrow at 11 am and bring your documents”. It is Thursday morning, it is load shading. I take a bath with cold water while I hope for electricity to come back so that I can make copies and head to the police station to certify. Electricity returned around 9 am and I had to rush to the police station. When I arrived there the line was not that long, there were at least 20 people in front of me.

I stood in that line for almost two hours as a result I missed out on a job opportunity. Trusting the public service to assist you on time is like watering a stone and expecting it to grow. So that friend of mine went and submitted his documents, was interviewed on the I stood in that line for almost two hours, as a result, I missed out on a job opportunity. Trusting the public service to assist you on time is like watering a stone and expecting it to grow. So that friend of mine went and submitted his documents, was interviewed on the spot. Luckily he got the job and the income is very good. Although, you will never master being on time on every occasion, respecting time is an important principle.

While still unemployed and trying to figure a lot of things out, my enterprenual side kicked in. I started to sell cigarettes at the corner: Tobacco was banned, it became a need for smokers. I only sold in the afternoon, targeting people from work. Per day I would sell 2 packs, which was equals to R200, as one cigarette was R5. This was in winter and the weather was not polite. Like any other business, some days were better than others. I recruited two of my other friends to sell for me, in a nutshell, I had a small company. I gave them 5% of the profit per pack sold. It was not much but it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, the business lasted only a month as some of my associates started to screw me over. In addition, Tobacco was unbanned and prices went back to normal. I don’t smoke, but I saw a business opportunity and I capitalized on it.

Selling is not something new to me, growing up I used to sell fruits and veggies in the village. My granny used to stock fresh fruits and veggies, almost every afternoon we would go and sell door to door. On weekends we woke up early to sell some more. I enjoyed selling avocados, as compared to bananas or oranges. People from my village loved avocadoes!

Writter: /PP.Selolo