If the Internet Disappears Today, I’m Still Covered

Skill means the ability to do something.

Practical or real-world skills are offline skills that are valuable outside the online space, enabling an individual the ability and competency to navigate everyday situations and challenges to survive. There are lots of them; ranging from barbing, hairdressing, cooking, roofing, sewing, painting, plumbing, baking, gardening, etc.

Practical skills have been developed for a very long time, and they are created solely for survival and to gain hands-on experience. Before the internet and digital space became widely established, these skills helped individuals build personal development. It is believed that when an individual knows how to do something with any of these skills, particularly to fetch some money, they can never go hungry.

I have many skills I could talk about, which I believe, even without the internet, are there to help me survive and make money. I will limit them to these three; soap making, cleaning/organisation and making snacks such as chinchin, puff puff, pancakes and doughnuts.

For the soap and snacks making, I learnt them some years ago, precisely in the year 2016, watching YouTube. The idea came on when I needed something to do alongside my teaching. I couldn't raise money to learn them outside, and because I had a phone that could browse them, I made up my mind to learn by watching different videos. I made a lot of money through them because I focused on wholesale distribution, which saved me time and relieved a lot of stress.

For cleaning/organisation. I have been taught how to clean the home from a younger age, and so, I love seeing everything clean and tidy. This is something I find so easy to do. Cleaning is a skill I learnt through moral upbringing by my parents and relatives, and every day, I get better at it, even though it's a hard job, especially in companies and events.

Even if the world lost the internet today, I believe these skills and many others would make me enough money. It's all about being creative and doing my best work. Just yesterday at our house fellowship, the need for entrepreneurial skills was taught, and the young ones were encouraged to build offline skills and not rely only on white collar jobs.

I have thought of going back to soap making on several occasions, but I used to think there's no need for it since we have the internet to build digital skills, but at the same time, resuming it wouldn't be a bad idea. I still have the knowledge of soap making, which I believe wouldn't be a difficult one to do, even after many years of trying it, even if it's for home use, and perhaps make into souvenirs at events.

But getting better at making snacks like chinchin, puff puff, doughnuts, and pancakes is something I have been working on. For a while now, I have been trying puff puff just to be perfect because who knows, an opportunity could knock anytime for me to make some for events or mini parties. I'm definitely working on being better at it, plus other snacks I would love to learn alongside.

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