First and foremost, I would say that when I began boarding school in JSS2, I felt truly independent.
I had my first classes in JSS2 at my school at the time, in 2013. Until one faithful day (I remember it like it was yesterday), my mom came to my then-school to pick up my brother and me, saying we were traveling and we needed to leave as soon as possible, so we left before closing hours.
At the beginning of that day, our mom didn't mention to us anything about coming to pick us up from school early. Yes, she had told us prior that we might be changing schools. I didn't take it seriously, but I had it in the back of my mind.
After leaving school early, my memory has faded, but it seems we resumed at our new school that day. Our new school was in Abeokuta, called Nigerian Navy Secondary School Abeokuta, or NNSS Abk for short.
My first day at that school I can also remember it like it was yesterday 😩. We got into the environment; it is a military school. We had some registration to take care of, and afterwards we were asked to take our luggage to our respective hostels. I and my brother.
Two students were called to assist us in doing that. I was shown to my new hostel with the help of one of the students, and the other helped my brother to his hostel too.
In my hostel, there was no more space, and I was asked to stay in the house captain's cabin for the time being. I dropped off my luggage in the hostel and found my way back to the admin block, where we did the registrations and our mom waited.
We greeted and waved our mom goodbye as we went to the dining hall to have our dinner. My brother goes to the senior dining hall, and me to the junior. That was my first experience at that school, and it was the beginning of my independence.
My first experience was brutal, and being a newbie, I couldn't do anything but try to adapt in real time. We were asked to exit a big hall that contained about six hundred students for dinner in under 10 seconds.
As one who loves math and calculation, I couldn't help but wonder how that was going to happen, but believe me, it happened. If you were not outside the hall during the scheduled time, you would be held back, beaten, and asked to clean the hall.
Lucky for me, I escaped in due time. I give myself accolades because I was a newbie and made it out on time.
After that experience, we were told to move to our respective classes for prep time; this was study time for all students.
I had experiences at that school that I would love to share, but let me stop here and get to the point of this post.
I had to get used to being away from family and living with plenty of students in the hostel rooms. I had to be on my toes at all times in that school, not to be caught off guard.
I had to use my head to make the best decisions for myself, even for the littlest things. I cried one of the few nights since my resumption. It was tough, and I didn't want to have to go through this, but I had to until it was midterm break.
We were woken up as early as 4:30 or 5 a.m., and we slept as late as 10 or 11 p.m. Our daily routine was to wake up, muster and the lawn, receive instructions for the day, go to have our bath, brush and wash some clothes, if you were fast enough.
After receiving instructions on the lawn, it was time for the battle of getting water. We rushed to a place we called Farm, where there were taps where we could fetch water or wells in case water was not coming out of the taps.
There were usually long queues, and you could spend half the time you were allocated in the morning preparing for the day by just fetching water. The other half you have to be smart with utilizing.
Sometimes you might not get one full bucket of water and just get half. If you planned to wash, then you would use that little water to brush, bathe, wash, and rinse your clothes. You had to have management skills to survive properly in that school. Time management, water management, people skills, and an enduring spirit.
Most times we ran out of time in the morning, and we were usually chased from the farm by prefects or naval personnel. If you were still there, you ran the risk of being flogged for not leaving on time, even when we spent most of our time queuing to fetch water.
After doing all that, we return to the hostel to dress up and leave the hostel for the day by 6:30 a.m. You would have very little more than 10 minutes left to dress and pack your things for the day.
After leaving the hostel, we go to the dining hall by 7 a.m. for our morning food. And the drill is the same as I told you earlier. We get about a minute after food is served to finish eating, and we get 10 seconds to exit the hall.
Then we head on to the assembly, where if your uniform is not neat, you are not wearing clean white socks, or you are not properly dressed, all of these will be addressed there. You not following one of the rules might most of the time not be your fault.
Your socks might have been stolen or your spare uniform stolen, and you had to manage one. Or many other things that could most likely be the cause. Yet you would be flogged and punished without having a say. It was a real military treatment and drill.
I could go on and on because I have a lot to say, but let me stop here. One could not have attended such a school and wouldn't know how to stand independently. That is one thing I am grateful for about the school.
Thank you for reading, guys.
Cheers 🥂