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Academics is neither for the weak or strong, but for everyone.
Mike thought that his father was doing more than enough for him, but forgot that he's still a boy in junior secondary three class.
He complained every time on how his parents pamper him to school, even when he could do all by himself. To an extent, he was being laughed at by his classmates.
As he advances in age, the pressure to be self-confidence increased, giving him though times and unable to control the social influence on him to get things done by himself.
At times, he sneaks out of the house to school in order to avoid hugs and kisses from his parents. He even missed classes because his parents wanted to take him to school with their private car.
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He did lots of things to show his parents that he could be stronger than what they take him as, but all to no good use. He's still their darling boy, a mini prince and a priceless commodity who came by at her mother's last years before menopause set in.
Mike being the only child got him restricted to doing some tedious jobs, even when he is to be punished in school. He was given some good preferential treatments by the school principal as stipulated by his parents who are well know and has high influence in the society.
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Examination time came and Mike did very well ahead of his mates. He sacrificially performed well in order to secure a direct entry scholarship slot at Federal Government College provided by the state government. This gave him some confidence to believe in himself but the opposite for his parents.
For the parents, their priceless prince is about to leave home for a while.
Mike got the scholarship slot, registered and was admitted to continue his academic pursuit at the college.
He was also asked to join others at the hostel since the distance from the his parents house was more than a day's journey.
Mike's dream to leave the house for a while just came to pass at last. His joy overflowed.
He packed the required items listed by the school a day before the journey and was being accompanied to his new school by his parents.
On getting to the school's gate, his mother reminded him of all the advices that she gave along with his father's. She also told him who to reach out to in any case of emergency.
Mike was just echoing yes throughout the conversation. For him, most of them were filtered out.
As they arrived at the school's premises, Mike's parents were asked to hand him over to Mr Chike, his house master after some few words with Mr Kalu, the Dean of studies who registered him immediately.
Mike happily waved at his parents on their way out with some lovely smiles on his face.
On this same day, Mike made some friends in the same hostel as well as those in the same class. He was just trying to get to know how things were done in the school in order to follow up as soon as possible. Luckily for him, he mate Frank who was the most sincere person in school.
As Mike was busy knowing the good people in school, some inconsiderable ones were busy observing him. They took all the time in the world to study him and his big bags full of good stuffs. They also placed John, a spy on him.
Mike believed that everything was exactly the way he saw it, but the reverse was the case on the day of his introduction. He was singled out to introduce himself to the hostel since he was new.
He happily jumped out like a cricket because he had read an article which covered the event that was about to take place.
He spoke very well and showed confidence in his speech. When he was done talking, everyone busted into laughter, making fun of his mode of dressing.
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The house prefect asked, "Mr civil servant, what's the name of your jungle?"
Mike got confused and was unable to relate. This got him loosing one leg of his sanders.
The next question was thrown at him, "What's the bush name of your sponsors?"
He failed again and loss his belt.
More questions came and he loss most of his belongings.
He cried and begged for mercy, but they reminded him of the hostel's motto which says, "Be wise, strong, and courageous ".
Mike's endurance limit was almost at its elastic limit. His mind got filled up with regrets. He thought of ways to explain to his parents if they ask for his belongings. What he expected to happen to him was just the opposite. His new friends were not enough to console him. At this point, Mike realized that he was in paradise before now.
He thought of going back to his paradise, but that wasn't possible because, the staff had closed for work before he entered the hostel.
On the other hand, hunger was on his nerves. His tummy was unhappily agitating for food. Luckily for him, Frank was just passing through his hostel.
He asked, "Mike, am starving. When will they ring the pantry's bell?!"
Mike laughed annoyingly, but later told him to exercise some patience.
This got him being hopeful for the evening.
After about 7 minutes, the pantry's bell rang and he was able to find something to eat.
The next day, he sort for the eating hours since he had lost all his beverages.
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After a term, he registered to work as a pantry's student staff who's tasked to ring the bell.
This worked very well for him as he was able to settle the pantry prefect with some goodies given to him by his parents.
He completed his secondary school with the best results and was given another scholarship to study engineering abroad.