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I was elated at the news. The chords of my heart were vibrating with pure joy. My hands ruffled the paper on which my JAMB score was written. This was the highest I had ever scored in a JAMB exam. JAMB exams are required for admission into the higher institution in my country. Most of my friends and family members talked about what I scored in the exam and my parents couldn't contain their joy that I would be off to the university at last. They congratulated me with broad smiles. My friends lauded me. I felt as if the dark clouds of failure that had stalked my academic life were fading at last.
I had graduated secondary school some years ago. The several attempts I made to get into the higher institution all failed miserably. Mathematics was the subject that held me back for years. But finally the spell of failure had been broken.
I remember the day of the exam, Dad drove me to the exam centre in his ash-brown Mercedes. The grounds where the exams would be taken was flocking with people when I arrived. When I entered the exam Hall I composed myself and started answering the questions. Some of the questions were hard to take down, others too easy. I took four courses namely: English Language, Government, Literature-in-English and CRS. As usual I didn't read anything in CRS but it was the course I scored the highest.
When I was done I went home with assurance in my heart. I had done my part, surely Providence would help me out. And of course it did.
An admission into the higher institution to read Law was the obvious path now. I waited with bated breath as the events unfolded. I was more than excited to go to the university. When the results came out I scored below my expectations but I was nonetheless happy. It felt like life and vigor was injected into my dreary academic life. The Cobwebs had been blown away.
“Law is what I want you to study.” Dad was saying one afternoon. He was reclining leisurely on the sofa, his hand resting on the cushion. “I want this family to have a lawyer.”
“Ok.”
I said with an undertone of indecisiveness in my voice. I had put in law as my first choice for a university course. English Language was the second. I was still in high school then in my final year. My hopes was that whenever I graduated high school, admission into the higher institution would be easy for me. But Providence had other plans. I was to wait up to 7 good years before landing a university admission.
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Those were 7 dreary and dreadful years. I met several of my highschool classmates who had graduated from the University that time.
“I'm in my final year,”
One of my friends named Walter told me casually one sunny afternoon when we met. I was going to the market to purchase or repair a digital device and the sun was pouring down intense heat. I was happy for Walter.
“Wow, that's great.” I replied.
He was a good friend back in those days and he looked every bit the same, with his gleamy dark complexion. Though I felt genuinely happy for him, the Cobwebs of dreariness was forming in my mind. All my academic plans were put on hold. My first two attempts at writing JAMB succeeded significantly but my WASSCE wasn't complete yet. So I waited under the unbearable weight of mental torture.
I failed to secure admissions in 2012, 2013, 2014. In 2015 I enrolled for JAMB lessons in preparation for the upcoming exams. The lessons were pretty lively and interesting. I enjoyed every bit of it. A few months later exam time was close by and we wrote them. My score was pretty high but not close to what some people had scored in the exam. 270 was more than enough to hand me a university admission on a gold platter.
The clouds of failure that had congested my life were at last drifting away.
“If you get all the necessary requirements, it would be easy securing an admission for you.” Dad said one afternoon. “There are people at the University I can meet to help with that.”
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Days before the results were published, my heart palpited wildly and diverse sorts of imaginations passed through my mind. The day I went to check and print the result was a Sunday. The result was printed and as I held the paper in my hands, a smile lit up my face…