My fantasy…
Let me take you back to my fantasy moments while growing up. I really wanted to be the best (am sure you did as well) just like every other child. I don’t just want to be the best because I come from the family of four where I am the only male child, always very inquisitive to know how a VHS tape could have some content in it thereby showing in the television – for me that was uncanny. How can a box called the T.V contain human being not just static but talking, fighting and shooting guns at each other. Finally, in all of these inquisitiveness, I wanted to know if pushing down the T.V box from the table and breaking it could help me meet the people in real life, relate with them and eventually touch them like the woman with the issue of blood touched the garment of Jesus. In a nutshell, hell was let loose on me that day, shapes were drawn on my body with my father’s special ‘koboko’.
The question is this ‘did I learn any lessons from this bitter judgment?’ the truth is I never did. I destroyed virtually all the home appliances. My father thought I was taking after him as an electrical engineer, he only saw men as trees. My mom thought this is an evolution of an engineer with my destructive skills. I found myself as a science student in my senior secondary school days. I never missed physics, chemistry and biology classes not because it was fun but because I wanted to mark the register for each subject. So I struggled as a science student for three years, wrote my O’level examination, cleared my results at one sitting – interested in how I passed? It was over night memorizing of definitions and formulas.
My story…
In 2005, I gained admission into the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro to study computer engineering, I don’t know how the admission was given to me. The first time I stepped into the lecture hall I felt like a hen in the midst of eaglet. Days later, I told Kunle Vincent- a friend who I just met that ‘I am here because my preferable is not available; but the available becomes my preferable’. I was so eager to adjust to my new environment even when I was aware that the polytechnic was an amusement park for me. Unfortunately, I was always looking forward to practical sessions relating to my course since I was a certified destructive engineer. The authority of the institution made matters worse by not providing the compiler to run Fortran programming language, so the experience begun with assumptions. Gosh! I hate assumptions. I wanted to loose and couple systems, to troubleshoot systems, to get the skills as the name of the course implies. I was subjected to putting on a lab coat for Mechanical engineering science & Electrical engeering sceince courses. OMG! I became an iron fabricator. Mr. Alausa will not stop telling me obsolete stories about the invention of computer which I have heard countlessly in my primary school days. I consistently looked forward to classes coming to an end. The truth is that I was never excited going for lectures, but I found it very interesting when I met other students sharing topical issues on purpose, discovery, passion, enterprise, skills development and more importantly I felt great when I counseled them. I learnt one great lesson that helping people around me to be happy is like the Chinese bamboo tree that may look like nothing will spring forth from it.
In 2006, It was time for the second semester examinations, I knew going back home was the only option left. The outcome of the first semester results were grey flag for me, so this helped me to manage my expectations ahead. Trust me, I prayed and fasted like never before but that could not solve the problem at hand. Please don’t get me wrong, the outcome of our prayers is equal to the input of work, discovery and planning committed into it. Result to our prayers aren’t rocket science.
Few months later, second semester results were released, you can guess what I saw, I was asked to go back home. I felt so glad that I would be free from what I called mental detention. At the point when I checked my results, I walked up to some friends saying if I had graduated with you as a computer engineer, I would get most of the contract. That sent a signal to them that I had checked my result.
On getting home with my luggage, it was a family high court which my father preceded as the chief judge. So what do you want people to say when you are seen around? you can imagine how sad he was. His dream of seeing me become an engineer was rumpled and truncated. In her words, my mom could not hold back ‘this does not define you as a FAILURE‘. I felt like a champion, I really wanted to go back to tell the authority of the polytechnic that I am not a failure.
Indeed I went back on May 19, 2007 to host the first ever Take Charge Students‘ Summit. It was a great time for students present to help see beyond the campus walls. Life isn’t all about credentials, it is all about potential.
My dream…
Finally, I settled to studied Mass Communication at the Lagos State Polytechnic after writing SSCE three times again. One interesting thing is that I was never timid writing those examinations. I knew that it was a transitory period for me. In 2010, I attended LEAP Africa‘s employability programme where the quintessence of volunteering was emphasized. So I wrote on paper my dreams and aspiration, if I will achieve all I wrote I needed necessary skills to be acquired. As a student I looked out for organizations to work for free. I Volunteered at Eko FM for over two years as a pidgin presenter and got an offer at MITV on a platter of gold to present a weekly campus show. At that time, my course mate told me that I was wasting my time. Today , I am making my dreams happen, you can also make yours happen as well.
Key takeaway:
- Deliberately make your life a World Trade Centre NOT an Amusement Park. Life is not just a place for fun alone, it’s an avenue to trade with your gift.
- Call those things that are not like they were. I am who I am today because of the understanding I have about myself. I have never settled for less. People might say you are proud, it’s just an opinion.
- Never give up when you are standing alone.
- Don’t let your present condition define your destination.
- Make your life count. Live a life of legacy not a life of vacancy.
Adeyemi Asaba is one of the leading lights at LEAP Africa. You can follow him on Twitter: @Adeyemiasaba1
**The first three people to comment wins 2 books each for themselves; the book titles are 'The Record Breaker' and 'Woman, This is How to Choose Your Own King'**
(Young Voices is a quarterly 15 days campaign on this blog where 15 notable young role models will share their story – today is the sixth day in the first season of #YoungVoices. It continues tomorrow with another inspiring young role model)
OLATUNJISPEAKS.com is Africa’s Number One Blog on Inspiration!
Would you love to get our FREE eBook in your mail? GET it HERE – http://bit.ly/1nYEET8
We will love to hear from you! Follow our blog on Twitter: @OLATUNJISPEAKS and add us on
BBM: 2BAC2A15 | Send us a mail: olatunjispeaks@gmail.com
Thank you for this post , I'm encouraged
ReplyDeleteEven though I am a University graduate, I found my way of thinking in your write-up!
ReplyDeleteI advised a younger one recently that it is not about the CERTIFICATE but the VISION!
You recognised yours and ran with it...Kudos!
So so inspired by this piece because i was opportuned to know part of what the writer went through while in his first institution. He's always an spoken person.
ReplyDelete