"Yesssss Finally" my scream could be heard by everyone in the building. "Bro, five years is no joke" I shouted again to my cousin who although laughing was bewildered by my display of what he would later term madness.
It was unusual to hear me screaming or disturbing my neighbors in any way, so I was quite sure it was curiosity that brought most of them out of their apartments rather than my obvious disturbance.
I could hear their various questions like "Hazmat what's gotten you so excited?" but I wasn't interested in the question or even giving any form of reply.
I was solely focused on my screaming and since it wasn't something I normally did, I wanted to do it properly.
As no answer was forthcoming, the attention of our neighbors gathered turned to my cousin and it was he who replied "He wrote his final exams today".
I could see the instant change in their faces as they finally understood what the outburst was about.
I got a number of handshakes, hugs and pats on the back as the word congratulations was echoed by almost everyone gathered.
One of my neighbors who equally doubled as a father figure to us all because of his age soon arrived and got the gist of the matter.
With smiles he congratulated me and made a few jokes as we all laughed. He was one of the few tenants who'd been living in the building when I just moved in a few years back.
'It was just like yesterday when you moved in here, look at you now" he said
Although I smiled and understood his meaning, it really didn't seem like yesterday to me. I could vividly remember most of the struggles I'd gone through over the years up until that moment.
'Im sure you're right sir" I replied, forcing a smile.
'Ahhh, it looks like you don't agree with me. It all looks like it was yesterday to me" he answered. 'Infact I can remember that time you slept of and almost missed an exam"
Hearing this I groaned loudly enough for everyone present to hear.
I could see from the interest on the faces of everyone gathered that they were definitely interested in hearing the story, so I had to tell it.
I was in my second year in the university and the results for the first year had only been out a few weeks prior to resumption. I'd failed a course and being my first, it was really weighing me down mentally.
I figured I must've been somewhat unserious with my studies, so the priority was to study hard and get top grades. The first thing I did was to get an apartment and move out of my uncle's apartment where I'd been staying.
Luckily, I soon got a place and finally had all the privacy I needed to properly focus. I wasn't interested in making friends or socializing, the focus was my studies hence my schedule was to go to school and come back home.
I didn't realize it, but my neighbors had been watching me and noticed I liked to keep to myself.
We only greeted Hello, Hi whenever we saw each other. They knew I wanted to be left alone, so no one bothered me.
The semester was soon close to it's end and it was time to yet another exams, I was to simply put it in a no nonsense period.
I spent my time reading hard as each exam came and went, it soon got to the last one.
I spent the night reading and didn't plan on sleeping. I had an exam by 8am in the morning, so I figured it was best to stay up, leave for the exam and then come back home to sleep after I was done.
But there are times when you just cannot escape when nature calls. I slept off and was woken the next morning by a loud knock on my door and as I checked the time it was already twenty minutes before eight.
It was my neighbor at the door and he'd apparently noticed I didn't come to the mosque for morning prayers. His kids somehow knew I was writing my exams and when they told him, he decided to come check up on me.
I thanked him and rushed in to change my clothes. There would be no time to take a bath or even properly brush my teeth.
I rushed down to school and saw that I was already thirty minutes late. After another few minutes of pleading with the invigilator, I was finally allowed into the exam hall.
I shuddered to think what it would've cost me if my neighbor hadn't decided to come check on me.
I was still in the exam hall when I decided there and then that my lone wolf attitude probably wasn't the best and it would be nice to start spending time with my neighbors.
As I rounded up my story, there were a few laughs as some of the old tenants now realized why I'd changed my attitude all those years back.
We all had fun gisting and sharing stories of the many incidents that had happened in the building before everyone finally began to leave for their apartments.