PROGRESS OBERIKO BLOG

    My hand luggage and backpack were meticulously packed for the journey, and since they were pretty portable, I decided to keep them with me instead of getting them checked in.   On arrival at security checks, I was asked to declare all my liquids, and with a clean conscience, I brought out all my deodorants, perfumes, body lotion, liquid soap, toothpaste, makeup foundation, etc... It took me by surprise when, at once, the immigration officer gathered together all the above items (excluding one of the smallest bottles of my perfume) and said to me: “we’ll have to trash these”. 😳 You said…? I asked him like I didn’t hear him quite well the first time. And he firmly repeated himself: “We’ll have to put these ones in the bin”, he paraphrased. At that point, I was like “trash”? “Bin”? What’s the relationship between my newly purchased body cream and the bin? I really wasn’t clear what he meant and why for goodness sake he’ll want to shove all my stuff in the bin. Maybe the...

So I’ve always wanted to model, to be on a billboard, do fashion, makeup, or something. It’s a passion I had low-key. Not because of the cliched assumption that “every tall slim girl should be a model”, but because I loved myself so much, and wished to put myself out there.   This pushed me to apply to many modeling agencies back in Nigeria. I applied left, right and center, but with no luck. Though I had reservations. And my reservations were that I didn’t fancy bikini modeling or pageantry. I knew what I wanted, so I just kept pitching and reaching out to loads and loads of agencies, but without any success.   So one day, I found an advert on a billboard, by a modeling agency calling for models. I showed up on the day of the audition amongst many other young girls, but I got turned down because I asked questions. Lol Here’s how it happened:   So after the audition, I was selected. And part of the process required filling some forms and signing off a contract. I sat down...