The shege I saw to collect my first degree

Hi Hiveans, hi everyone 👋

I have been away from Hive for far too long. And now I am excited to be back! In one of my previous posts, I wrote about how my final semester seemed like the end of me. I have now successfully completed it.

I signed out of the university (meaning I wrote my last paper and participated in a common Nigerian tradition of signing on a white plain T-shirt that denotes completion of a degree).

I am super elated to be done with my first degree; it was a rollercoaster of a journey. My results per semester were a roller-coaster in the sense that I had really great semesters and I had really terrible semesters.

I spent six complete years on a 4-year course due to the ASUU strike in Nigeria and COVID 19. On entering the university for my first semester, we were hit with a strike for about two months before I resumed my first semester. I didn't feel it as much because we hadn't even started anything.

After the strike, the 2018 set resumed in January 2019 for its first semester. I completed that session around November ish. A full session without strikes in-between. I was happy and hopeful that my set would not experience any strikes or delays until we graduated.

We had two months of holiday in November and December, then we resumed a new session in January 2020, the COVID year. We were in school, in session for a couple weeks, until it all started with, "We need to go home for two weeks due to the COVID-19 outbreak.".

After the two weeks were coming to an end, an extra two weeks were added again because the situation hadn't gotten any better but got worse. And to avoid the quick spread of the COVID-19 virus, we need to stay at home where it is safest and where we can avoid the quick spread of this virus.

After the second two weeks, they kept on adding two more weeks and two more weeks again until no one was talking anymore, and we were just at home all through. I was at home during the COVID year for 8 months doing nothing. Of course, I was not the only one, and it was a worldwide issue, but I know some schools picked up having classes online early enough. My school didn't until after 8 months.

Although I will say that I am super grateful for the classes we had online, that was my first 5.0 semester. And that experience has given me the courage to excel excellently in my academics.

After that semester, we resumed school physically for the second semester of my 200L. After hitting that perfect CGPA, I was super elated to maintain such a performance. And so, I was super motivated to go hard and get it again this semester.

I was working so hard early in the semester, but then they sent us home again due to a COVID outbreak (this was already in 2021). That singular act felt like the end of me. Exams were approaching, and I wasn't motivated to study at home.

I had issues in some courses I was hoping to tackle together with my friends. But then we were sent home for three weeks. My three weeks of being home were totally unproductive. I didn't study as much as I should have. And also, I was feeling like I was falling ill already.

After the three weeks elapsed, we were called back to school to write our exams physically, not online or CBT that we did the previous semester. And that semester came out as the worst semester for most of my course mates and the worst semester for me too.

It was the semester with my worst CGPA, the lowest I have ever gotten. A CGPA I thought I could never reach It was that bad. Not only that, I didn't reach my goal for the semester; I fell way below it.

I had a life-threatening sickness. We were still within the COVID outbreak time, and I was experiencing the COVID symptoms. I felt like I wasn't going to survive it. Initially, I went to my school's pharmacy to complain that I was feeling well and get drugs.

I was given Pro-Cold (a drug that manages cold and catarrh), but I didn't get any better; I even got worse. I think I went to another pharmacy to complain again and get another drug. I still didn't get any better. I was feeling like I was losing myself. I was battling with all of this during my exams.

When I felt like I couldn't endure this feeling anymore, I went to my school's medical center to complain, and they treated me like trash. They said I had COVID-19, so no one wanted to come near me. The way I was feeling, coupled with my embarrassment and fear that I couldn't be helped, only made my situation worse.

In addition to feeling like this sickness was taking its toll on me, I felt mentally drained, wondering where I would run to, thinking that this COVID would just take my life.

And so, I had to call my mom from home to come pick me up that very day, impromptu, after leaving the medical center. I still had exams tomorrow, but I couldn't stay in the hostel any longer because I was told I had COVID.

So I had to go home that day. I was weak and tired, but I still needed to prepare for my exams tomorrow. I slept for a bit, and we had to journey all the way back to school again for my final exams for that semester.

The final exam was sort of dramatic because I had to put a bottle of hot water on my chest to help with the way I was feeling in my chest. My mind was processing that I had the COVID virus growing in my lungs, and that bottle of hot water slowed down the growing process.

I looked weird to my coursemates doing all of that. After the results were out and I calculated my CGPA, I was furious that the semester took me furthest away from my goal. My mom called me to order, and her words were, "Ah, se o ni ma dupe pe, sickness yen o mu life e," meaning, will you not be grateful that the sickness did not take your life? (Please manage my Yoruba.)

And those words stuck with me and made me think about it in a better light. Considering what is most important, My life over my academics. It made me a better person, and it made me bounce back from my academic fall.

Let's call this part 1. I will be coming back with Part 2, which will be my years 3 and 4 in my next post.

All images are mine