Atinuke who is currently running a successful make-up business in Lagos has narrated her story on Instagram with the moral lesson that everyone deserves respect.
Read Atinuke's touching story below:
Pree that Honors behind that class of degree. Yea, that's 3rd class Honours, therefore ladies and gentlemen, don't pronounce 3rd class without respect.
It's 3rd class Honours! That was what I presented my parents with after 4 years of hardwork.
While some parents Will say "is that what all your mates are bringing home?" my parents knelt me down and prayed for me. Lemme take you on a quick trip to my educational background. I remember one afternoon when I ran to my mom's shop in Iyana Ipaja garage with one of my books on my hand to show her that I can now write the number 8 correctly.
Lemme not confuse you, for a long time you see, I always wrote the number 8 by putting two zeroes on top of each other though I was the best in class. My mom and the other market women laughed at my childishness. You can never know how happy I was on that day. In JSS1, I was enrolled to a girls only government school in Agege. I was in JSS1p and we were 150 in my class. Yes 150. After our first term exams, my class teacher, a woman whom I had never seen before came to the class to share our report cards. She started calling positions from the 10th downwards and asking us all to clap as they identified themselves.
When she got to the first position, she called out my name. I didn't stand up because I was somewhere at the back, seated on the floor among many others whose parent couldn't afford that pako locker. When everyone pointed to me, she urged me to follow her, took me to the staff room and showed everyone her best student with a percentage of 96.6.
Don't doubt it people, it was 96.6. She got me a locker afterwards and even customised it with my name so it won't be stolen. You would understand this if you went to a government school. Later on, my parents took me to a private school. lol, those kind of private schools that you would have to stay in the area where they are located to know they existed.
I was the headgirl for 3 years (sss1-3) because my head was big. OK you know why already. On end-of-session parties, which we barely paid for, I would participate in every program on the list of activities.
All parents knew me, I was hard to miss. On one of these occasion, my mom was called out to take a picture with me as the best student in English. As she turned to leave, they called the best in maths-me, and she had to turn back. Best in chemistry,physics and biology. I remember one woman shouting to my mom as she turns to leave everytime "kuku stay there till they finish".
Oya lemme not lie, I don't know maths, just that the other students in the class were even worse than I was in maths. Lol. I wrote WAEC twice simply because my maths was cancelled the first time. I wrote jamb twice too with an aggregate of 223 and 216 respectively. Am I ya mate? clap for me jor.
Don't mind me. Fast forward to my higher education. This was when I started making bad choices. I chose the wrong course. I wanted to study Medicine so bad and when I couldn't get into Lag, I chose the wrong school. TASUED was a bad choice and studying biology when I couldn't get medicine was an even worse choice. Before TASUED coman withdraw the certificate they gave me, let me say TASUED is a great school.
It is in fact the premier university of education in Nigeria. Oh so you don't know? Well I told you already. Medicine was a childhood dream. I didn't realize in time that science wasn't my passion. Even if I had studied medicine, I would have failed woefully. After these four years in school, I realize I wasn't built for science. I am a talented pencil artist, a makeup artist, I sing well and I would love to learn furniture making.
Where does all this fit into science? Medicine was a mere fantasy and I let societal pressure of going to the university affect my choice. I could have gone to a technical school, a home furnishing school, an art school and instead, I chose a science course I wasn't really interested in. At this point let me educate some of us on our failed education system.
Do you know that after JSS3, we were supposed to chose between spending 3 years in technical school or spending 3 years in senior secondary school? I bet some of us don't know this. Yea, because our society has found a way to surpress technical school. I wish I knew this earlier.
I left the things I loved and ran after what people expected me to do. Money was another factor. This was in fact the main factor. I remember in 200l when I wasn't allowed to do 5 exams out of 8 in first semester and 3 out of 9 in second semester. God, I almost packed my bag to leave cos I was done.
My mother, hmmm, God bless this woman insisted I stay. I told her my CGPA has been affected and I might never recover from that blow. That maybe I needed to start all over. Over just hissed and said "Atinuke, if they give you pass, just bring it home. If they give u 3rd class, accept it greatful" Mind you, she said this in yoruba ni o her English can break windscreen.
It was her voice in my head that made me continue. People who didn't even know anything were having 2.2 and 2.1. Lol. However, my non-challance played an important role too. Since I got that blow in 200l, I lost faith. I became unserious. I would go for test,even if I went, I won't read. I lost focus. Now when I look at some of the dullest students in my class in secondary school, I understand what king Solomon said "time and tide happened to them all.. "
The race is not for the swift or mighty, but for God who showeth mercy. Success for me isn't going to happen within the four walls of a school or within the confines of education because I am not regular, I am VVIP.
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