Racing for Success; AUT Optimum AUT Nihil

Life is not all a bed of roses as the proverbial saying goes. The past years have been challenging but living to tell the story is always worth it. My undergraduate years at the University of Lagos was a worthwhile experience and delineating important events about it is something I feel passionate about sharing. Telling the story of not being privileged as an average secondary school student and low self esteem didn’t affect my graduation as one of the top 5% of my class. I hope that putting them out here would strike a chord in whoever that needs this, because in every one of us lies what desires to be ignited, only if we asked the right question.

In my final years at my secondary school; Anwar-ul-Islam Model College, Agege( the oldest Muslim College In West Africa), we were made to believe in our motto and live every moment of our life by its tenets. We were members of Old generations School in Lagos that comprised King’s College,St. Finbarr’s, Eko Boys and a host of others, and being the youngest of the schools, we were taught never to let that strike a blow to what we can achieve.

One of the memorable event whose lesson I hold dear till this day was my participating in an annual highly prized, inter-collegiate Mathematics competition organized by the Anwar-ul-Islam Movement of Nigeria for schools owned by the aforementioned body. Up till that time, my school had set the track record of emerging victorious in the prized positions, leaving others to compete for any position after third.

Since Mathematics was my forte, I was one of those chosen to participate in that competition. I did as everyone was expected to study and of course the confidence was high. We had of course, set a record that sent fear down the spines of our competitors. Without intimating all of the details, of the three participants that represented my school, two of us ranked first and second while I came fifth differing from the third position by approximately three points. The heartbreak was indescribable, I had let the glory of the school down. Of one of the biggest moments as a secondary school student, I failed! I think it is alright to fail, but responding to the feedback can be helpful in galvanizing future positive performances.

In 2013, I gained admission to study Cell Biology and Genetics as opposed to Medicine I put in for. I thought all of my friends were going to be Doctor and there I was, studying God knows what. At every moment I got the questions, why Biology? Do you want to become a teacher? I paid more attention to what people thought of what I would become rather than living in the moment and knowing what I wanted for myself. Here I was, first of my family to gain admission to one of the most prestigious school in Nigeria to study something related to Biology, what I have always loved as a secondary school student, so not succeeding was not an option and a time to realize my self worth through dilligence. Till this day, I am grateful for that opportunity. Although, I might have a differing opinion on the how to effectively harness the gains of credential learning and skills acquisition for the digital age, the desire for progress is not debated.

I cannot say exactly that success has a particular recipe or rather what olio would guarantee it, but my method so far had always being choosing friends that are purpose driven, listening to success stories and create my own vision of what I want to achieve, listen to mentors and of course doing my part of being successful.

Maybe one day God willing ,when the future is experienced, when I get to a reasonable extent in the journey of life,when I get the opportunity to mentor and become a lecturer (a type of teacher maybe), I would document with acuity every aspect of my life and how success is worth fighting for. But for now, I am six months into my service year, gathering all experiences I can , reflecting on my losses and gains of my previous years and answering questions that life constantly demands.

The Qur’an says with such clarity; “And Man can have nothing but he does” (Chapter 53, Verse 39) and my school motto echoes the sentiment; “AUT Optimum AUT Nihil- Nothing but the best”