An unforgettable difficult moment

Greetings everyone!
Happy lovey-dovey season to you all!

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When I was growing up, I had the mindset that there were actually some people on Earth who were living their lives without problems, and that's because these people had everything they needed. The example I used then was not far-fetched; it was one of my uncles who was living well with his family, eating all manners of food, meanwhile, there were days when we had to manage just a little food to get through the night.
But my eyes were opened when they lost two of their children to sickle cell sickness.

That's life for us; everyone, at one time or another, faces difficult issues, it's just that most of us cover it up with smiles.

I've had a lot of difficult situations, I mean a whole lot of them, and at some moments, I wished to give up on the goal I was pursuing.
Among them is when I was pushing for admission into higher education.

The battle started when it was time for me to graduate from secondary school. My school then was a very well-known strict school with no trace of malpractice in exams, especially in general examinations such as the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO). The school hardly produced up to 10 successful graduates in a year, and they were very proud of it.

When I wrote my first WAEC and NECO, only one person merited the required subjects to move forward. Others, including me, had almost all the subjects except the key subjects of Mathematics and English.
How did the other guy pass? That's the question we asked and still ask till today, and no one has an answer to that. The most interesting thing is that the person who merited the subjects, including Maths and English, is not the most intelligent student in the class. It was a low-level guy, which made us believe that the result was given out of luck... because we all did well (we tried our best).

The following year, I enrolled again, both in WAEC and NECO in the same school. I was very much prepared to ace the key subjects I was looking for: Maths and English.
Before the exam, I enrolled in a mathematics tutorial where we were taught the basic topics that come out in the mathematics theory part. English was not left out; I also joined English tutorials, and that was when I learned deeply about oral English.

The exam came, we did as normal, the same pattern of strict invigilation allowing no form of malpractice, and the ones caught were dealt with on the spot with a written and stamped note on their answer booklet. The result came, and I got all the subjects without Maths and English again.

It sucks!💔

I didn't give up; I enrolled in a different exam body the following year. Although the exam is somehow supposed to be less tough than WAEC and NECO, it came with the same pattern of tough questions, which I tackled with ease, coupled with the fact that the school I wrote the exam in helped (should I call it malpractice?). When the result came, I merited almost all the subjects except Mathematics and English.

That was the moment I almost gave up on furthering my education because I had deeply eaten into my parents' purse, and the result had not been positive.

As fate would have it, I decided to enroll for the very last time, and if it didn't work, I would leave school and pursue other things. This time around, I decided to go to another state to enroll for the exam, a 'miracle center' for that matter. When the exam day came, especially on mathematics day, the supervision was tight as hell. Our intended approach to bribe every supervisor that came with a huge amount of money didn't work; in fact, the supervisors were deeply rooted church people.

I did the exam on my own, just the way I had been doing it before. When the result came out, I merited all the subjects, including Mathematics and English.

How it made me stronger:

I have a good knowledge of mathematics today because of how seriously I took it upon myself to study mathematics during those times of failure. Although I'm not a pro in mathematics, I can boast of writing WAEC with my two eyes closed and getting 100% if asked to write any WAEC exam...

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Thanks for reading

_{This is my entry to the Week 101, Edition 02 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community}

_{Image used is mine}

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