First Year University Experience (2)

Hello everyone. I decided to make this a series and if you haven't read the first part, I urge you to so that you can understand it better. My experience really can't be told in one article so I will try to spread it as much as possible.

I stopped at the last part at the point where exams were approaching and I wasn't ready so let me continue from there.

A week to exams and my preparations were a total mess. I didn't even know where to begin or start from. The whole registration and settling down had taken a lot out of my time. Only God could save me. Oh did I forget to mention, I made sure I attended all the social events on campus.

From fresher welcome to gyration to departmental week and parties. Take this from me, there is no shortage of parties on a university campus. Always one going on at any particular time. I unfortunately made the unwise decision of attending most of them. I wanted to be the social guy, didn't want to be the socially awkward guy I was in secondary school. I also thought that since this is my first year, I better make the most of it as I won't have this luxury again.

I'm not going to lie, the parties are lit. Lots to eat and drink and there are lots of ladies if you get what I mean. The music, fun and women will make your night. Also the fresher welcome are also nice as you will get to eat proper food there and you also get souvenirs. Most of them are organized by fellowship as a way to get new members especially among the 100 level. I just like almost everybody attended not because I intend joining them but because of the goodies I get just by attending the event.

But take this from me, all of this is not worth it because I paid for it. The time that I could have spent reading and studying I decided to waste it on parties thus, putting myself in a very dicey situation. So another word of advise, always plan/spend your time wisely. I am not saying that you shouldn't have some fun but you should not do it at the detriment of your academics. Like my father always says, there is time for everything.

Back to the story. I didn't plan my time well and it was almost time for exams. So like any normal student, I resorted to TDB. If you don't know what the acronym means it stands for Till Day Break. It is loosely defined as what students do when they need to catch-up with their academics. They spend the whole night doing nothing but reading their books. They literally not figuratively bury their heads or even their whole body in their books because desperate times call for desperate measures. This method isn't ideal or even recommended but it is every student last resort.

I started TDB a week to the start of exam and it wasn't easy at all. I had to subject my body to a lot of discomforts just to avoid falling asleep. I could seat on the most uncomfortable chair or drink a cup of only black coffee or I will put my feet inside a bowl of cold water just so that I wouldn't sleep. Some times it worked most times it didn't, I just had to do something I couldn't just watch myself fail. I had to enlist the help of some of my friends. We read together and also solved questions together. This really helped me as I was able to study well.

It was already time for exams and I could say that I was fifty percent ready. I knew that I had tried my best and left everything for God, maybe he will show me favor.

I wrote the exams and did what I possibly could do. I don't think in any paper I answered all the questions. If it was objective I would just guess but if it was theory I left the space blank. I didn't resort to cheating or maybe I should use the word examination malpractice at all not because I am a man of principles (the parties should have told you that already) but because I was simply not good at it.

I tried it a few times and got caught but thank God the invigilators weren't strict. They allowed me to go without an hassel. But everytime I tried I got caught so I decided to just stop completely, guess I wasn't built to cheat.

The exams were finally over after two weeks and we were done with the first semester all that remained was for us to see our results. I wasn't hoping for anything good but let us wait and see.

I would like you to take a look at my sponsor, aren't they the best? You too can become one.

So that is the second part of this series and of course there will be more, I hope you are learning one or two things from my experience?

Till next time and once again Happy Holidays.