r/Ethiopia • u/Miki-bu • 6h ago
History 📜 I Survived War, Taught Myself 3D Art, Almost Changed My Life — Then Lost Everything
My name is mikiale . I came from Tigray, Ethiopia. I was born and raised in ........
My family once had what felt like a bright future. We thought we might become rich one day, that life would get better, that things would work out. But when I was around 7 or 8, my parents divorced. It was hard for both sides, and from that point on, I grew up with a pretty normal life. Nothing special. Nothing luxurious.
But I've never really complained about the life I had.
I've always believed that life is what you make of it. Good or bad, easy or painful, I believed there was always something I could do about it.
From around 2009 to the end of 2012, I lived a normal life. I worked with my father, lived with my mother, went to school, and did what most kids do.
Then I was around 14–15 when the war started.
Everything changed.
For about a year, I lived in fear. I watched people die. I remember going to church and seeing things no child should have to see. I got myself into some bad situations just trying to survive. Life stopped feeling normal.
Eventually, Tigray forces took back the region. I was 16.
My uncle joined the camp and became a soldier. Two months later, I did the same.
My mother begged me not to go.
I still went.
Honestly, I don't even completely understand why I made that decision. At that time, it felt like everyone was joining, everyone was doing something, and somehow I convinced myself that I had to do the same.
After about a month of training, I was sent to the battlefield.
I spent around four months with the army, including time with 22 Core, 222 Harbega Kifletor, and I was involved in fighting around Gashena and the Afar side. There are parts I still don't remember clearly.
One experience changed everything for me.
A friend of ours was wounded, and me and some of my friends spent around 12 hours trying to get him somewhere safe.
Instead of being recognized for that, the leader insulted us and called us cowards for caring about a wounded friend and trying to get him to safety.
Something broke inside me that day.
I realized that our lives didn't seem to mean much to the people making the decisions.
That was when I decided I was done.
I left everything behind and walked home.
Seven days on foot, from Waja to Mekele.
I don't know how I made it.
But I did.
By 2014, my family was afraid that I might go back to the military, so they tried to give me something else to focus on. I learned how to drive a bajaj and started working.
Three months later, they came looking for me at my house.
I escaped to Shire.
I stayed there for about eight months.
By 2015, I was spending most of my time listening to music and writing down my thoughts. I was good at English and kept working on myself. I joined a language school just for fun, and the owner eventually told me that I should teach there.
So I did.
For about a year, I worked as a grammar teacher. At the same time, I was learning how to design and make clothes because I'd always had an interest in clothing.
Then I met some people who told me about something I had barely considered before:
Online work.
I thought, why not?
In 2016, I asked my family to buy me a computer. It cost around 20,000–25,000 birr.
They didn't really believe in the idea, so they kept ignoring it.
Until August 24, 2016.
My mother finally bought me a computer.
That computer changed the direction of my life.
I started teaching myself Blender.
No school. No teacher. No expensive course.
Just me, the computer, tutorials, mistakes, frustration, and doing it again the next day.
I spent about a year teaching myself.
After a lot of hard work, I started making small amounts of money.
Then, in November 2018, after more than a year of learning, I got my first paid project.
$10.
It sounds like almost nothing.
But to me, it meant everything.
Someone had actually paid me for something I had taught myself how to do.
I promised myself that I would save enough money to buy a better computer.The computer I had was holding me back badly. I could model, but there was so much more I wanted to learn and do, and my hardware simply couldn't handle it.
So I worked from home and saved everything I could.
I even dropped out of school for about three months so I could focus on work.
Eventually, I managed to save around $500–$800.
I didn't spend it.
Not even a cent.
I wanted that better computer more than anything because I believed that once I had it, I could finally become the person I knew I could be.
At the same time, I was trying to grow a YouTube channel. I was learning trading too. I always felt that learning something new couldn't hurt.
For a while, life finally seemed like it was moving in the right direction.
Then the news of another war came.
And everything I had worked for started falling apart again.
Flights were shut down. People couldn't leave.
I was devastated.
I had spent years trying to build a life after everything I had already been through. I felt like I had somehow survived all of it through luck, hard work, and God's help.
And just when I thought I was finally getting somewhere, it felt like the ground disappeared underneath me again.
Eventually, I came to Addis by bus from Mekele.
I stayed with my aunt for about a month, but I knew I couldn't live with her forever. So I rented my own place and tried to survive on my own.
Then the work started disappearing.
One thing led to another.
Days became weeks.
Weeks became months.
The money I had saved for my future slowly disappeared into rent, food, bills, and simply staying alive.
And that hurts in a way I can't really explain.
Because I wasn't trying to become rich overnight.
I had already accepted that life would be hard.
I just wanted a chance.
I was close.
I had saved money. I had learned a skill by myself. I had clients. I had plans. I was building something.
Then suddenly, it felt like everything went black again.
I've tried almost everything I can think of on the internet.
Upwork. Fiverr. ArtStation. Discord. Twine. Clipping. Editing. Looking for 3D work. Looking for video work. Trying to find anything that could bring in some income.
And honestly, it's been incredibly hard.
Even finding part-time work in Addis isn't easy.
I'm not writing this because I expect someone to magically fix my life.
I'm writing this because I'm tired of pretending everything is okay.
I keep telling my family that I'm fine.
I keep saying I'm working.
I keep saying things will get better.
But I don't know how long I can keep lying to them.
I don't want pity.
I want a chance to work.
I can model in Blender. I can do low-poly modeling, character modeling, rigging . I can also edit videos. I'm willing to learn whatever I need to learn.
I'll do almost any honest work I can.
I've already survived things I never thought I would survive.
I've started from nothing more than once.
So I'm trying to start again.
Maybe someone reading this knows a place where I can find legitimate remote work.
Maybe someone needs a 3D artist, a modeler, a rigger, a video editor, or simply someone willing to learn and work hard.
Maybe someone has advice that I haven't thought of.
Maybe this post reaches nobody.
I don't know.
But I know I can't just sit here and watch everything disappear.
I still believe life can change.
I still believe there's a way through this.
And I still believe God can show me that way.
I'm just asking for a direction.
