Back then, I was still a bit young. There was this guy in my street back then that scored very high in his JAMB. He also cleared his WAEC with straight A's, and everyone celebrated him like he just won a lottery. His parents gave gifts to those who came to celebrate him. And in church then, he was celebrated.
Now, he is 33 or so and still searching for what is next to come. I am not criticizing their result; it means nothing. What I am saying is that the things that were probably done then shouldn't have been done. Because we tend to build stories around things that aren't necessarily.
That idea that a perfect score is a destination, not just a door, is a big lie that we tell ourselves, most especially children.
We have that mentality while we are growing up that if we have this particular grade and score, everything will automatically fall in place. As if life will always follow our script. Like we will always be faced with opportunities. Like people will always pay attention to our worth and open doors.
And that is when life will start. It will hit so hard because it always has another script for us. And it does not give a shiii* about our certificate or grade. In my culture, they always say that it is the person who knows the way, that is, the person that knows books. And it's not about grades or who finishes first.
What I have slowly gotten to realize about life is that if I have a perfect score, it only measures one thing. And that is how well I performed on one day under one condition while I was answering someone's question. The question they set and chose. It will never measure my resilience, not my ability to sit with uncertainty.
But what matters most is how I treat people under pressure. How I handle things and my ability to recover when things collapse without giving a single thing. That is what matters because the real test will never come with a marking scheme.
Thank you for reading.
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