Dear Reader,
2007 was a defining point in my life; Joy enveloped every nerve in my body as I was about to resume secondary school. Passing the common entrance exams was like executing UTME on the torture stake. It was time to join the league of big boys - JSS 1 students.
It was a warm feeling of pride and anxiety; I was finally at a different stage in my life but everyone was taller. The teachers were not smiling and for the first time, I beheld the egregious sight of student authority - School Prefects - Soul-searching beasts with the intent of eating you raw if you defaulted one of the school’s rules.
How I missed the sweet smile of aunty Stella in primary five urging me to run quickly to the assembly line, here everyone had canes. No one said anything about canes or prefects or intro tech teachers, it quickly dawned on me that with the new level of secondary school came responsibilities to shoulder as well.
But that was not all…
Different subjects, 11 different instructors and at least four assignments to take home each day! This is not what I signed up for! I imagined a baby boy lifestyle without stress. So where did Integrated science come from? Who removed moral instructions? Everything just continued to seem worse, I couldn’t wait to go home.
I had anticipated the secondary school environment as a completely different Disneyland adventure, apparently, it was Nollywood with some perceived reality.
What I had not come to understand was that life is in stages (same as this article series). It does not get easier on the way up, the solutions to your problems breed a pathway to greater issues, and then you anticipate the next level all over again.
So while trying to tag along the new ride that wasn’t freedom as promised, another agenda was introduced. JSS 3 is the class of salvation, no problems at all, just cruise and a graduation party. This is the beginning of a journey, this is the story that grows into adulthood.
Next article: We continue in 2010, introducing Mrs. Franca Oliseyenum.