I Made It Through 5 Chapter Three: College Days Begin

With great grat.i.tude to my educator parents, I successfully graduated from high school and completed all admissions requirements and matriculation examinations for entrance into university at a younger-than-average age. I gained entrance into the University of Ife, Ile Ife, Nigeria, now known as the Obafemi Awolowo University, as one its youngest new undergraduate students. By age sixteen, having completed my GCE O levels early, topping it up with high WAEC (West African Examinations Council), and JAMB ( J o i n t a d m i s s i o n s a n d m a t r i c u l a t i o n b o a r d ) examinations scores, I was already in the university. A whole new and scary world of becoming an adult opened up to me. After surviving registration for my 101 cla.s.ses, accompanied by my fervent mother, who by the way got into a heated verbal exchange with my prospective philosophy professor, I was ready to call it a day on my ftrst visit to the university campus. The lecturer had challenged and rebuked my mother for not letting me complete the registration process on my own. He said many other students did so, and so could I! He stated that I now needed to more or less stop being attached to my mother's ap.r.o.n strings and start growing up! Mother disagreed with him strongly and told him so. Probably because of my younger than the norm entrance age, she had insisted on being there for my cla.s.s registrations to a.s.sist my smooth transition into college. I stayed out of their argument, enrolled in all my cla.s.ses, and mother ftnally returned home, leaving me on my own on campus at my new residence, Mozambique Hall, Room 01.

This was one of the many dormitory rooms set apart for new students, who were nicknamed Jambites, humorously named after the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) examinations we all had to pa.s.s to gain admission into the university. The ftrst night on college campus went peacefully until I heard some very loud shouting noises very early the next morning. It sounded like a war had broken out there. I was all alone; my other roommates had not yet arrived. So scared, I quickly got up, rushed to hide in a corner, missing the familiar and safe surroundings of my family's residence. I quietly waited for the noise to die down so I could ftnd out what the disruption was all about. Later in the day I had to laugh out so loud when I ftnally ventured out to take a look, and was informed that this was the "Man O War" students group doing their very strict early morning military-style exercises, which included marching routines. College life had begun in earnest!

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My ftrst set of college roommates were truly a bevy of beauties, and one of them, Rita Martins won the Miss Nigeria beauty pageant in 1982. There were a couple of Christians in the large dorm room, but they made no impact on me during the time shared in our residential hall. My diligent parents would visit every two weeks, bringing me news of my siblings and the rest of the family. I always looked forward to seeing them, having my groceries replenished and receiving an allowance toward meals, books, and so on. They would also give food items to all my grateful roommates.

Rus.h.i.+ng to early morning cla.s.ses, grabbing seats in various lecture rooms and theaters, sitting through all manner of uninteresting academic information, and having to complete a.s.signments to the satisfaction of cranky professors, made life in college a far cry from my fun-ftlled elementary and high-school days. On the weekends was when all the fun would begin with my new college friends. I soon settled into a new routine, with my previous spiritual experiences pushed to the back of my mind by my new responsibilities and social gatherings with my newly acquired, "unsaved" companions.

During semester breaks, going on vacation trips to London was the in thing to do for middle-cla.s.s Nigerian families; so off to London I would go on visits with family and friends whenever the college campus was closed.