chapter 1

Ever since I became a teenager, I had always thought that everyone needs a day off from what they do for a living, like a day when they will have to stay home without doing anything and they would have to choose when they can have this off day at least once a year

As unimportant and impossible as it may sound don't you think it would be fun if everyone was given a day off and the get to choose when they want to have it.

As for Mellissa Harts growing up and life has not been as easy as one might imagine tuff life strengthened her from a very young age.

My name is Mellissa Harts aged 21 I was born on the 15th of November 2000 , am the first born of the family of five I have four siblings two girls and two boys, I started primary school in 2003 and completed my secondary school in 2019 and studied law at king's college in London I love what I do and I do what I love but one thing life has taught me is that its not always that you get what you want but situations make you adapt to what you never liked and then you develop passion for it . most are the times when I feel that life is too unfair but in the end I realise to say I was being taught something and I actually learn from it .

Education is so wide to the extent that every situations try by all means to be a teacher , we learn from mistakes , joys , accomplishments , hardships and so on .

It was just 5 years ago when I lost my dad life hasn't been easy and its two years now after I finished my studies I have not found a good job to take care of my mom and siblings

My dad was a district commissioner before be past away we had everything we had ever needed, nice clothes , money in short we lived a luxurious life not until he past on and things started getting tuff each day that past , we stopped paying our helpers and they left , I couldn't cook, or if even make tea for myself, not talking of cleaning my own room mom got sick of stroke so she uses a wheel chair she can hardly do any house work .

When I was still in collage I played quite a lot my dad would give me everything I asked for, I would miss class just to go on vacations with my friends who are now doing well financially and are having good jobs , I would wait for them outside while the are having a lecture so that as soon as the are done we go parting , I would even pay them to write my assignments while am their doing nothing and I always got good grades .

I didn't even understand the course I was studying let alone understand the importance of the course. When time for final exams had come, I didn't know what to write, I had no idea and didn't write anything in the paper so the exams finished and I still passed because I corrupted most of my lecturers with money and they faked my grades. so now I can't find a good job because I didn't know anything about law, and I was employed as a secretary at a certain small NGO here in London which payed me a small monthly salary, my boss was always on me because I couldn't even put anything in order. My collage mates that used to help me spend my dad`s money, are doing well and have now forgot about me I remember finding one of them called Morris in the supermarket who actually ignored me and after I approached him, he denied and said he never knew me , in front of his classy workmates, 'What an embarrassing moment it was !!', his friends shook their head as I walked away in shame, one of them asked him to say " Morris do you know that lady ?" he was like " hell no!! I guess she is crazy or something " I was so heartbroken as if that wasn't enough I went to look for my collage best friend who was doing well and happily married with one kid , to ask if she can help me find a good job but after I found her she did not look happy it seemed like she wasn't happy to see me and so I explained to her about my current situation but then she said she couldn't help because I was not experienced . one of my greatest regrets is the fact that a I never prioritised my academic life, but rather played too much with friends that never advised me to do the right thing.

A few months later mom passed away and the bank which my dad was owing some money came to get the family house from us and so I began to rent a small apartment while working as a waiter at a certain cafeteria, each day things were getting more tuff and even though I wasn't quite familiar working I started coping with my job . I remember at one point I even chose to work for two shifts ,day and night in order to rise enough money for groceries and same new cloths because my close were getting too old and out of fashion , the apartment I lived in was cheap and not neat and nice because it had a bad smell as if no one has been living there for so many years before I moved in and the toilet and bathroom were so dirty in such a way that can not be explained I even failed to use them but rather went to bath from work so mostly I had to work double shifts in order to raise money to even work on the apartment, then after maintaining my apartment I felt relieved and my house smelled fresh and peaceful.

It was one faithful evening after work when I felt that I needed to take a walk so as I was walking I realised that some strange thoughts of doing something valuable with my life clicked.

I started thinking on the ways and means that can help me to get to the level of wealth my dad had though it seemed impossible the next morning I started thinking of how I can make it possible.

And for the first time after a long time I thought of buying a note book ,days later after buying one I would write my plans every morning before I got out of bed and as I wrote those plans I still didn't figure out a way on how I would raise funds to accomplish my plans,

And so one evening as I was heading home from work I came across a poster that stated " get your loans here " after I saw that I immediately stopped to get the contact information and then on wards I went home and gave them a call and the told me to pass by there office first thing in the morning and then just after talking to the loan givers I called my boss to ask if I can delay a bit before reporting for work and gave him a reason , then he accepted and gave me only 2hours and then if I come after two or more hours I will have to work over time to cover the hours.

So early in the morning I prepared myself took a cup of tea and went to the loan office after reaching they called me in asked me a few questions which included what I would love to do with the money , when am I likely to pay back the money and what I do for a living and not forgetting my monthly salary , and I told them and answered there questions and so after all the talking they said they are only able to give me 80% of the money I was expecting because my job wasn't good enough and then they said I will be give n a year to repay the full amount but they will be deducting from my salary every month for 12 months , I had to agree and I was given the money the following day , later on I had I one on one talk with my boss at work, because I needed a one month leave break he told me he would give me one in a month time and so every morning in before coming out of bed I continued with the same idea of writing down my ideas in a note book and then one morning I had come to a conclusion of opening up a ladies boutique and then I looked for a phone number of moms old friend from Dubai and after contacted her she asked me how I was doing and how she might help me then I explained to her that I needed some help from her because I wanted to start ordering cloths from her country but I didn't have enough funds to enable me to travel by flite so I wanted her to be ordering some ladies close for me then I just get them from the boarder and only pay petty amounts of money at the boarder which costs less .

And to my surprise she agreed I was so happy and thanked her with tears in my eyes I felt so emotional and happy.

And so I had to purchase a small laptop for easy communication since she was far and so we communicated almost every day on the internet then each day she would send me some pictures of the beautiful collections she came across so that I take a look at them and I loved most of them , the following months my boss gave me a leave break of 1 month 2 weeks because I had explained to him the main purpose of me taking a leave break , and so in the first week of my leave break I moved around town in search of a shop to rent to that I can place my boutique there finally I found one in the second week which appeared to be so affordable to rent and very neat and so I paid for the shop 5 months in advance and started buying hung wires ,wooden stands and some simple laundry machines after buying these things in the space of 1 week I was done preparing the shop before ordering the cloths , I named the boutique "THE BEAUTY`S BOUTIQUE " I was only remaining with two weeks to report back for work and so I quickly spoke to moms friend and sent her the money to order the clothes for me , I ordered up to 300 pairs of clothes different designs and colours but yet beautiful and then after 3 days the cloths arrived and I went to collect them from the boarder and then I reached the shop and displayed them on the stands and hung wires alone and guess what!! ? they really looked beautiful , I was so happy that for the first time in my life I had done something productive and I thought to say my parents are gonna be happy be happy with me wherever they her. And so I spend the last week of my leave break at the shop and ladies came like crazy to check on my collections and I knocked off really late and was tired each and everyday then a lady came who was looking for a job I employed her because I just felt a sense of seriousness in her and decided to try her if she will manage so she worked with me for 3 days and then the following week on a Monday I reported back for work.

The business was going so well I was able to save some money every day and I would order for more clothes every week , I had a rapid number of ladies who visited my boutique so hade to employ one more lady and they both worked really well together . as months had passed I needed to move into a big house for security purpose and also I needed to move into a big shop because my orders had increased from 300 to 1000 collections per month and so I found a shop at a certain shopping mall which was three times bigger than my old shop so I moved in and informed my customers and also I moved into a big house .

A year later I resigned from my job at the cafeteria and focused on my business, at a later stage I got a passport and visa.

And a few months later I started traveling to Dubai on my own and ordered for clothes , a few months later I started planning on having a cafeteria of my own I went to my previous boss to ask for advice and also some ideas on how to start a cafeteria ,he gave me and he was so happy that I was doing well , so I ordered some restaurant items and looked for a shop as soon as possible and then on wards I looked for 5 people who were experienced to work at my new café and in three months' time the business was progressing I had a lot of customers and my workers were committed . after 10 months I bought a house of my own and a car to help me move safely and there was this man a neighbour who always stared at me whenever I was in my garden relaxing and so I wonder why he did that until one day he came to my garden saying " hey my name is George am your neighbour can we be friends ?" , I accepted and we became friends and most of the time we would go out for launch or tea , I was enjoying it because the last time I had such was when I was a fool and in collage studying a course I new nothing about till now .

The guy was funny we talked about a lot, I told him my past life and all then he also disclosed his information too, it was really fun having a friend.

Eventually I started trusting him and he to started trusting me we would use one car when going somewhere and we became best friends at some point then we stayed as friends for a year surprisingly I started noticing some changes in our friendship , I failed to live even for a day without talking to him and I realised it was same with him and so a say came which was on his birthday trust me I didn't see this coming he proposed to me on his birthday and we got engaged that very day , ooops I was so happy , shocked and shy at the same time I thought I was dreaming I got emotional and cried .

He cried too while hugging me and he whispered in my ears saying "I love so much Mellissa".

After 3 months we got married and started a family together, in one year of our marriage I conceived and gave birth to a son we name him after my husband " George" he was so handsome just like his dad months had passed as I was with my husband and son in the garden a certain girl looking helpless came to our home asking for left over food we served her food and after she was done eating she thanked us for the food and said she is taking her leave , I said " hold on little girl what is your name and were do you stay ? do you have parents or family?

Her: no ma I stay in the streets my parents died two years ago and I had to start staying in the streets because my relatives don't want me ,

Me: oh this is sad news would you accept if I ask you to stay with us here and we take you back to school?

Her: yes yes ma I would be the happiest person on earth if I join a family like yours,

She was even shading tears then we showed her a room and gave it to her , the next morning we went for shopping and bought her some clothes we stayed with her for 3 months and decided to enrol her in collage she was very happy she said since childhood she has always wanted to study business management and so she applied and was given admission at the school of business in London.

A year had passed and she was doing well in her studies not until I and my husband noticed a sudden change of behaviour in her, she came home late and sometimes she would not come home till the following day we tried to have a word with her she said it wont happen again but she kept on repeating the same thing over and over again .

Little did we realise that she had been abusing drugs with her friends and not only that , we heard rumours that she had been abusing drugs and alcohol since the age of 14 and that was the main reason why none of her relatives were willing to stay with her after her parent`s death and also she was the one that influenced most of her friends in collage .

I was so shocked I couldn't believe because her looks were different from what everyone was saying and it really broke my heart because I had developed so much motherly love for her I even wanted to legally make her my daughter but after hearing such bad news I was so disappointed and heart broken .

So I waited for her to reach home so that I can talk to her and explain om how broken I was, then after she reached home I followed her to her room and shut the door then she was like "mom how are you? and why do you look so disturbed? "

Me: Jennette I have heard something bad about you !

Her: what`s that mom?

Me: that you abuse drugs is it true?

Her: yes mom

Then she throws herself down and broke Into tears and said she was sorry, she has been a drug addict for so many years and mostly tried to stop but failed.

And then she said am gonna stop but I need your help mom, I want you to help me stop I don't know how you will do it. the I sat next to her and hugged her tight and told her to wipe her tears and then we sat in her room and I started telling her about my life story and as I was telling her she cried more and went to her closet got a small plastic of drugs and throw them in the bean and said I will never abuse drugs or take alcohol ever in my life then weeks later she stopped completely and we were all happy.