Hi, I am Ugo. Let me share a personal story.
Many years ago I attended a boarding school in Nigeria. I was the youngest in my class so I wasn't paid much attention.
Life was what you would expect in a boarding school- a lot of rules and a lot of fun if you had an adventurous spirit. We played football, fought and jumped fences. It was a rebel's heaven.
Then one day something shocking happened. It was 'mango season' and a farmer who lived next to our boarding house started noticing that a lot of his mangoes were disappearing. They were being harvested at a very rapid rate and he was sure it wasn't the monkeys.
So, he visited our principal and boasted about his brand new gun. He made it clear that he was willing to use it on anyone who was caught violating his precious fruits. The principal relayed his message to us during the morning assembly on that faithful day.
The older students new no one was going to shoot a kid because of mangoes but the younger ones believed every word. And I was young.
Later that evening, we had our soccer game close to the fence with the farmer. You see, the younger students couldn't always use our soccer field during time for games. So, we played close to the fence instead while our seniors used the field.
There was an unwritten rule in boarding school among the kids- if you kick the ball over the fence, you are jumping the fence to get it back. Everyone was careful that day because no one wanted to get shot. But we couldn't go a day without playing soccer.
I played the left back position and I played with so much zeal as always and then it happened. I kicked the ball across the fence. Everyone started laughing because they remembered the threat from the farmer and it was a short kid who had kicked that ball over the fence. Well, even though I was young, I understood that if I didn't get that ball, the other kids wouldn't let me play again and I couldn't have that.
So two tall kids let me climb their shoulders (you see I was short) and grip the fence with my tiny arms. I pulled my trembling body into the next compound and quickly combed the bushy farm for our ball. I could hear my heart pounding the entire time. Once I saw the ball, I threw it across the fence. I started hearing the other kids clapping and cheering for me from across the fence. Now that I think about it, I don't even know what I was thinking, maybe I had seen too many people dodging bullets in movies and I felt we were kin or something.
During their previous expeditions, the kids had created a makeshift ladder in the farm using some wood. I quickly used it to grab the fence again and return home. By the time I landed on the other side of the fence, I was being hailed as a hero but my heart just couldn't stop pounding. I came back alive!
One thing was clear to me that day- Being scared and small should never stop you. I felt I was capable of being more. I was only 11 years old at the time and when I think about it now, it was possible that the farmer had seen me that day and just laughed it off.
My point is that we never really know what we can do until we try. I decided to share my story today to tell you that its okay to take a risk. Where is the fun in life if we don't jump a few fences every now and then.
Let me introduce myself again.
Hi I am Ugo.
I am an adventurer