There is a saying; once a student, always a student. The statement refers to the memories that remains within, not just the knowledge of it but the body remembering the excitement. A student journey is a mix of enjoyable moments and trauma, which kind of depends on a person's personality and the institution attended.
I wouldn't call myself the social type during my days as a student, being the kind of person that enjoys his own company is something I don't hide, which means I shine and laugh the loudest when I'm doing things on my own outside the noise and attention.
A school is the kind of place where a student can be anything and anyone, a social space but despite the availability of all kind of stuff a person could think of, I chose to be myself and only do what I consider "just" and "comfortable". Which means I only find myself doing things that wouldn't endanger me or my academic career in any way, either directly and indirectly, as a student, you would know what I'm talking about.
With that being said, there are few things left for me to engage in, the first in the table is class discussion. It is my stage, one of the few places I shine the brightest, it is not a show off but stepping in a place where I can be heard without distraction, it is something I admire.
Normally, I don't miss lectures, which is one of the few reasons why I don't depend on textbook for knowledge, I only use it when it is needed. Being the kind of student that is consistent with lectures, every thing that comes out of a lecturers mouth always finds its way into my note and into my brain. Everytime before lecture, I will go through my notes and if it is the kind of lecturer that uses a specific textbook for lecture, I would make sure whatever topic the lecturer was going to teach, I already digest it all.
This is to ensure I have all questions in hand, so when the lecture begins, it would never be the first time I would be hearing about the topic, it will be like a revision. You know what happens when you are watching a movie with someone who had already watched the movie, no matter how quiet the person wants to be, so that others can enjoy the movie, once in awhile the person will drop some spoiler info.
Yeah, this was always my situation in class and I enjoy making lecturers have a taste of their own knowledge. There was a particular lecturer, named Dr alakija, she would always request that I sit in the front role and she loves educative conversational argument in class. She throws an idea at us and watch how we debate it among ourselves. She thought me critical thinking, for an over thinker like me, my brain enjoys are course like it was honey.
There is only one lecturer among all the lecturers in my school, that wasn't fond of my presence and that was my broadcast lecturer. The most funny aspect is that, he is the lecturer in charge of my favourite subject "broadcast" I so much enjoy being a broadcast student. But this specific lecturer made it hellish for me due to his improper teaching technique and mistreatment of student. He is one of the few lecturers I know, that fails students because he can. Which leads me to my second most memorable moments in school.
One thing about me is that, I can't stand injustice and inhumane treatment, my body will start itching till I do something about it, which is one of the reason why i chose not to go into school politics despite having several opportunity to do so. Well this lecturer pushed me to the wall and I stood up to him the only way I know how to.
He was never privileged to fail me because that wouldn't go so well. Not because I was influential, it is just that in my department, when every student is asked to create a group for practical most especially broadcast related practical, I'm the kind of broadcast student that always end up having more than one practical group to control and I was the type other group leaders reach out to for help.
I was good enough to be the only broadcast student in my set to have his name written on a school newspaper. In most schools, broadcast student controls the studio, while the print students control the print media - newspaper, magazine e.t.c So there was some kind of domain battle between print and broadcast student in my school but I still managed to breach it.
So failing me would definitely warrant questions from most people, even lecturers but he did the best he can do, he never awarded me any score beyond "credit" and lot of students are having it a lot worse than I'm. For a course that happens to be the one course I don't need to read to pass the exam, to get that kind of score, it was a difficult thing for me to accept.
My school does not really tolerate protest, the students Union have a reputation of vandalism when protest escalate. The management always try to settle any form of protest, especially anyone within the school premises. When our first semester HND 2 result came out, it was brutal. If you get carry over in final year, every students knows what it result to, well this lecturer awarded lot of students C.O and he made it obvious, we discovered that he gave it to students he wasn't pleased with. Those that falls in that category were female students and I'm sure you can imagine why he wasn't pleased with them.
Like usual I got credit but having credit in a 3 unit course always, is like career sabotage. Along with some other concerned opinion leaders in my department, I even managed to drag some top print students to join the protest. I won't lie, I was scared at first because if anything should go wrong with that protest I could lose everything.
Since the protest occurred within the school, we were greeted immediately by the SUG, HOD, Dean, Pro and other top management staffs. The only top figure that was aware of our protest was our HOC, even the departmental president was not aware. We stood in front of management and state our claims and demands. Most people see me as an introvert but in cases like that, I'm more outspoken than any extrovert that ever existed.
It was a tough day, even after I got back from school my hands were still shivering, not because I was scared of having stood up for what I believed in but as a logical thinker, my mind just kept reminding me what I could have lost by that act. I couldn't sleep at home that day because some of my close colleagues felt like It wasn't safe, based on the role I played in the protest and knowing how politically involved the lecturer I stood up to was.
I had to sleep at a friend's place and the next morning in school, I look so pale and everyone could tell that I had a rough night. Whenever I think of it, my body still remembers the fear I felt, it was terrifying.
This write-up was inspired by weekly prompt "What is the funniest or most memorable you have had in school" in hive student connect community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
All images are mine
