As you step into 2018

                                              

It’s  the end of 2017, oh no no! You are reading this in 2018. Anyways, this season is usually characterized with a lot of talks, songs and pictures that depict the mood and set the pace for a new year and a new beginning. This period of the year, people are more inclined to lending their voices and sharing their stories (lol that’s exactly what I am doing). Some folks either close or not so close to you, might want to give advice on what you should or shouldn’t be doing come 2018, before you give a listening ear to such advice please read.

It was in a past not so long ago, I was a17 year old ss3 student in a, not too promising secondary school. I had a lot of questions and doubt, but that is understandable I was just 17. My classmate all had ideas of what they want to do with their lives, some want to get married, others want to further their education and some just want to make money any way possible.  I belonged to the second group, not because I was so excited about education, but because it was the only ticket I saw to become what I really wanted to be in life, A Journalist.

I mentioned earlier that my school was a, not so promising secondary school; it was a public school, still is. We had teachers that had no faith in us or what we might become; it wasn’t all that bad though. We had good ones too and luckily for me the good ones liked me. So in my ss3 about to write my WAEC, I was determined to register for all external examination possible and that include Almighty JAMB. I don’t know if jamb still has that omnipotent presence these days, but in my days it did, it was dreaded like the bomb of an insurgent.

I am a girl that loves to consult people before I do things, even though I feel strongly about it. So I consulted one of my favorite teachers one whose opinion I valued so much, I asked him if it was sensible or rational for me to sit for jamb when I just finished ss3. Is there any possibility I might pass it. And his reply was (I can’t remember the exact words but it sounded like this) “how do you want to pass jamb? You just finish ss3! You need at least a year to prepare for jamb to be able to pass it; don’t waste your parent money”.

Need to say I felt bad that day; those words dampen the little confidence I had in myself and the abilities my circumstances could allow me to have. However I knew they were born out of good intentions, and what he had seen through the years teaching student from my school, I said earlier little faith was had in us. I don’t know where the strength came from or the strong will to prove a point came from, on a second thought, I really didn’t want to prove a point I just wanted to do something. Probably to prepare myself for the one I will get right, so I decided I was going to register for jamb no matter what and I did.

I finished my WAEC, NECO was to start a week later and in-between that one week break I was to write jamb. It was crazy believe me, I had no time to sign up for extra classes that would prepare me for jamb, because I thought and according to several stories flying around about jamb it was a different ball game entirely. However, I was able to take a literature class for just three days before my jamb examination because the texts required for jamb was different from what I studied for WAEC. In my head this jamb was bound to be a disaster.

Jamb day came; it was on a Saturday (the night before that I fell asleep when I ought to be reading) in a secondary school much like mine. A lot of people were there older people, all sharing the stories of their last jamb and how jamb failed them some even had new ways of cheating this time. Most of them looked at me with disdain probably thinking ‘what is this smally doing here” For a fact I didn’t know what I was doing there. Moving on, we were all ushered into the hall to write our papers, I was sited beside a guy much older that I am and the next roll to me was a girl in a recommended glasses looking very studious about to conquer jamb. I thought to myself, this girl probably went to a private school and I definitely can’t know what she knows. Exams started my sit partner brought out his orijo, expo, cheat or whatever you want to call it. He asked me if I had mine, I said no then he offered to share with me, but then I realized that everybody had a different question type how can we be sharing the same orijo? Its not possible, I tried explaining to him but he won’t have it. He said “next year wey you con write jamb again you go know”.

To my surprise though, jamb questions were not set in heaven, I mean they were earthly questions, some of them I had even answered in my just concluded Waec, so I did what I could and left the exam hall. A week later as it’s jamb usual practice result were out, I was not scared to check it because nobody expected me to pass anyway, it was meant to be a trial. However when I did checked, I got scared I mean how can i score 250 in jamb! That definitely can’t be my result, I mean have heard stories of people being given result that are not theirs so I decided to check back in a couple of days before making it public. I checked again and it was still 250! I could not say it was dreams come true because I didn’t dream it; I was just giving it a trial and my trial turned into what I never dreamed. So the story goes that I wrote jamb just once and I got into the university that same year, so much for a girl from a, not so promising secondary school.

What is the essence of my story? You will go in search of advice and guidance because it is a humanly thing to do, you will get those advices and admonitions, but darling not all of them are for you to take. First all, Sieve it and do what you feel strongly about, maybe for a trial there is no crime in trying out what you feel you can do. It’s a new beginning after all leap, jump make mistakes and get back up.

So as you step into 2018 sieve that advice.