I went back to school at 27 for my first degree in Mass Communication & Media Studies. First time in a classroom in 10 years, studying online while juggling work, my personal brand, my projects and my personal life. For context, I left secondary school in 2016, at 17. Two years later, I became a mum. My daughter is 7 now, and I turn 28 next month. Over the years, I have realised how many opportunities I may have missed out on simply because I didn't have a university degree. I had the skills. I would see roles I was obviously qualified for, but I couldn't even pursue some of them because I didn't have the certificate they required. That's one of the reasons I decided to go back to school. A degree gives me leverage. It opens doors and gets me into rooms I might not ordinarily have access to. I am very much an advocate of "school is not a scam." Around the same time, I made another big decision, moved out of the rent-to-own condo I had lived in for two years into a two-bedroom flat. My old place was a self-contained room where my bed and work desk occupied the same space. For two years, I tried to make it work, but I constantly felt restrained. I remember telling my friends that the neighbourhood felt like a prison. As a creative, freelancer and remote worker, I needed an environment that would help me thrive. There was very little around me to support that. Most people in the neighbourhood were business owners, petty traders and market people, and it took time for some of my neighbours to understand that sitting in front of my laptop at home meant I was actually working. There were no co-working spaces, no libraries, and hardly anywhere to go for leisure or to meet people in my industry. To access those things, I had to leave the neighbourhood, and that came with additional costs (we are talking almost 500% increase in rent). I wanted more comfort, more room to think and work, and an environment that gave me a better chance of becoming the person I was working towards. So I moved. Of course, there's the question I haven't completely answered, what happens when the rent is due again a year from now? What if I can't afford it? That fear is real. But so was my need for a different environment. These decisions haven't come without consequences. I am still trying to find my feet, juggling school, work, my brand, my projects and my personal life. I have been away from the social scene for about a month because I have been moving my things, setting up the new place and trying to settle into this new phase of my life. Both decisions have cost me a lot of money. Honestly, I didn't know how I was going to afford either of them. Can I comfortably afford everything right now? No. I am still a broke Lagos babe. But I made the decisions anyway. And somehow, as I said yes to these challenges, provisions kept coming. I definitely do not have everything figured out. I still have questions, fears and days when the weight of everything I'm trying to do feels like a lot. But I also know that staying where I was wasn't going to get me where I wanted to go. @moonshotbytc invited me to this year's event, and its theme, Courage & Conviction: Building for a New World, has had me thinking about these decisions. Sometimes, you have to commit to the future you believe is possible before you know exactly how you'll get there. Not because you're certain everything will work out, but because you know why you need to try. What's a decision you've made before you knew exactly how you would make it work?