THE DIARY OF A GREEN HORN

                                    

Episode 2

Dear dairy,

           Today is one of the most embarrassing days of my life. Well, I met a spoilsport who gave it that record.

 This is what happened………………

I was scheduled for a meeting at my uncle’s place in Surulere (he was supposed to introduce me to his friend remember?) but then, I decided to make a quick dash for cash at the ATM on my way to his place. As I walked away after my transaction, I noticed someone was stalking me. I slowed down my pace to see if he would walk past but he didn’t. So I simply refastened my bag’s zipper and held it tighter. Even though I could not see the face of the stalker, I didn’t want to take chances. He walked up to me and started a conversation. I wasn’t interested and this I tried to make him know in clear terms but he turned deaf ears! So I decided to endure the conversation since I was almost at my uncle’s (But wait o, this guy’s diction is on point!, the conversation was not so bad after all) so I decided to enjoy it (endurance turned enjoyment…) but, all of a sudden, he stopped and started to laugh hysterically. I was shocked but not yet as shocked as I would be when he said…

           “You talk like you have a hot yam in your mouth” (I thought that was all…….) “You’d sound better if u could be more real”.

           Words could not express my shock, such insults from a stranger whom I didn’t know from Adam….

           Well, it wasn’t long before I recovered from the shock and lifted up my right foot; I was wearing a Louis Vuitton sandal with a pencil heel, stamped on his left foot and gave a long hiss!

As I walked away angrily, my thoughts ran into action.

           (What if he walks up to me and gives me a dirty slap? No, he won’t. he’s a gentle man) but none the less, I increased my pace so much that any more increase would have meant running but before I could say “Jack Robinson” I heard some footsteps behind me and was given no time to wonder who it was as Tony(Yes, that’s his name) walked up to me (at this point, my heart beat had quadrupled)…

THE DIARY OF A GREEN HORN.

The story you’re about to read is a figment of my imagination…

Dear Diary,

You might want to know how I celebrated my birthday today, hmmmm… it’s my best birthday ever! Guess what? I got the most wonderful gift one could ever ask for, even though the day started like nothing was going to happen. Well, my days have been like that since I finished secondary school, waiting and longing for the day my admission would come (*rolls eyes). Even the computer training I went for was just to while away time since I already knew most of the things I was being taught plus I need the certificate too.

Ok, back to my gist, the day was just like every other day. Mum and dad had gone to work, Fresh (that’s what my elder brother, Segun likes to call himself) had gone to play basketball, as he loves to do on weekends. In his words, ”It’s my way of keeping fit and saving myself from boredom since I don’t go to work on weekends… *I would have considered the option too, but I don’t intend becoming invisible abeg!

So, I picked up my Joyce Meyer novel to keep myself busy… #This girl is on fireeeee…# hmmmm… I was really loving the song by Alicia Keys in my dreams only to realize it was my phone ringing, the book I was reading some minutes ago had already found itself on the floor. I was on the phone for the next 24 minutes and guess who I was speaking with… it was uncle Femi, mumsy’s brother! Uncle Femi of all people, remembered my birthday. I had no idea he was even back in town. Anyways, he promised to give me a treat later in the day so I immediately started making plans with some of my friends who called to hang out with me………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...................................

The hangout was sooo fun! Uncle Femi took me and six of my friends to La Campagne Tropicana beach resort. I felt so loved with all the gift items they showered me with, but that’s not even the fun part of it, when it was time for me to make a wish, I wished to be the best broadcaster ever seen or known and, wait for it….

During our drive home, Uncle Femi asked if I had done anything to actualize my dreams, I told him my plans and he promised to link me up with a friend of his who works in a radio station! Can you beat that? Finally, my dreams are seeing the light of day…. 

.....Next week.

Who stole the meat from the cooking pot?

Who stole the meat from the cooking pot?            

Mr. Nobody

Nobody wants to be wrong

Nobody wants to take responsibility for a mistake.

Nobody wants to take the blame.

Yet, one attribute that every true leader must possess is the ability to take responsibility for his or her mistakes.

 Back then in school, a friend of mine used to make this statement whenever she was cooking, ‘if this soup (or whatever she was cooking) is delicious, na me cook am but if it isn’t, na you cook am’’ jokingly. This is however a hilarious illustration of how easy it is to pass the buck.

 Have you ever wondered why it is so easy to take credit for a job well done than to own up to a mistake? In my opinion, it takes bravery to accept responsibility for one’s faults.

 We often hide our mistakes from other people because we worry they will think less of us once they’ve seen that we’ve messed up. But, frankly acknowledging your mistakes, apologizing for them, and then earnestly working to make things right almost always has the opposite effect – people respect you for it. There might still be consequences, of course, but people will appreciate your honesty. If they use your confession as a way to belittle and use you, those are probably not the kind of people you want to work/live with anyway. It’s actually when you hide your mistakes, and they’re found out  that people lose their respect and their trust in you. 
 You might be wondering why the title of this article is so long... Well, I had a hard time concluding on which of the two titles to use because when I thought of this topic, the first thing that came to my mind was one of the games we used to play back then in school where at least 8 – 10 of us formed a big circle {like your mother’s cooking pot}, numbered ourselves and sang the song #who stole the meat from the cooking pot? Number 1 stole the meat from the cooking pot…# and we went on passing the buck till someone got disqualified and  we had the last man standing. Hmmm.... did that strike a chord?... some of us still relish those jolly old times...*winks*

                Then I thought of the poem “Mr Nobody’’ too. The poem is a perfect description of the thoughts running through my head. The plates obviously didn’t grow legs all of a sudden and trip before they broke, and the meat didn’t grow wings and decide to fly away! there were unidentified persons responsible for them. So, I'll let you decide which of the titles fits best.

                The most important thing is that the point is driven home...
 Accepting that you’re wrong, whether subtly or openly, is an inevitable attribute for every leader. Don’t make another suffer for your wrong. After all, every true leader knows that mistakes are part of life and if you are afraid of making them, you won’t learn anything. Did I just hear you say "Well, I'm not a leader or a boss so..." sweetheart, this is not just about bosses and leaders, it applies to everyone who has a reason to work with people. Besides, being a leader is not just about occupying an executive position in an organization, we all have someone or a group of people looking up to us somewhere some how. It could be at home, in the place of worship or even at school. Mistakes are just reminders that you are human and are still fallible. So, don’t be afraid to make them and take responsibility. Howbeit, you become a failure when you don’t learn from your mistakes because falling down is how we learn, standing up is how we grow and staying down is how we die. 

 Coming soon...
 "The diary of a green horn"  stay tuned.

Self Motivation.

 "Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under

you, chances are it will burn very briefly."- Stephen R. Covey

The truth is, the inner motivation is what validates the outer one. So no matter how much motivation you get from the outside, if you’re not motivated from the inside, it won’t be long before you give up but if you are self-motivated, even if it seems like no one notices the good work you’re doing enough to give you thumbs-up, your inner drive is enough to keep you going.

So encourage yourself, don’t wait till someone says well-done or thank you before you do the right thing. Sometimes, you might even feel like you’re not getting all the incentives that should serve as motivation from the right quarters or worse still, someone takes all the credit for a task you put all your efforts into accomplishing. The truth is that life has a way of rewarding everyone for what they do or do not do. Your reward might not come now, it might not even happen the way you want or envisage but it will most assuredly come. Who knows, what  you’re going through now might even be preparing you for an opportunity that you are yet to discover.

The saying is true that “It is better to be prepared and not have opportunity than to have opportunity and not be prepared.”

You’d be doing yourself a whole lot of good by seeing your present experience as preparation for an opportunity that is yet to come. So, put all your best into work, do the right thing even when no one is watching, compare yourself with no one but yourself, and remember, what is right is right all the time and not just when it is convenient.

The personality behind the name...

This young little girl had just finished her Junior Secondary School, then came the time for her to take the first major step - Choosing a career. Was she to opt for Science, Commercial or Art? Well, for a naïve little girl who was yet to discover herself and had the erroneous belief that science class was for serious minded students who were bent on making it in life and that the other classes were for students who came to school to play… your guess is as good as mine.

Her love for calculations especially Mathematics, helped her to scale through but she soon discovered she had much more love for the English Language. Meanwhile, the light had still not shone because she thought it was just a shallow love for the Language so she proceeded to the University hoping to become a Microbiologist, little did she know that she was aboard the wrong plane…

After so much dilly-dallying, she found herself in the department of Fisheries (oops! You say...) but in the course of Fishing, her line caught a big Fish and Eureka! She discovered herself- she found out that she loved to read out loud in class, she easily fell in love with people who had good command of the Language and when the opportunity came to go for competitions, she took it with so much enthusiasm.

She then knew beyond all reasonable and unreasonable doubts, it was glaring to all who cared to notice that this girl is helplessly in love with Broadcasting.

Were there odds, obstacles, challenges? I’m sure you know the answer to that… “Wetin fisherwoman dey find for broadcasting”, “there’s no money in it” were some of the many comments she was getting but she wasn’t about to be discouraged, instead, she proceeded to FRCN training school to acquire more skills to give her a good competing edge.

I’m sure you know who I’m talking about by now. She’s just a passion-driven, go-getter!

Examination Malpractices

From time immemorial, Examination Malpractices have been the order of the day in our institutions from the primary to the secondary and worst of all, the tertiary institutions.

When the day of Reckoning comes, students are found with all forms of "Cheat Mechanisms" such as chips, phones, tattoos, etc. What could be responsible for these very unbecoming acts? Could it be Students' lack of Confidence, Fear of failure or Laziness? These are the questions that have been running through my mind since I put my pen to paper.

Many students don't see "talking in the examination hall" as an illegal act anymore. Some even go as far as making phone calls to get answers from other sources or worse still, surf the internet with their phones to search for answers while writing the exam.

Some of our teachers/lecturers make matters worse by helping students change their sitting positions in the examination hall to suit their evil perpetration.


Well, if you ask me, I would say it originates from our homes where parents no longer deem it fit to encourage their children to read, some even go as far as registering them in special centers at exorbitant fees just to write an examination they could have passed by themselves if they engaged their mental faculties appropriately.

I once had a neighbour who was a secondary school teacher. He usually brought his students exam scripts home for marking and we sometimes found statements like "Please help me sir/ma, God bless you" written boldly on the front page of an empty script! some students copy so much that they even write the source's name and Exam number, making matters worse for themselves as no result awaits them this way.

Examination Malpractices have eaten deep into our society such that students who do not get involved in them are tagged "uncivilized" by their uncultured colleagues and some so-called mentors.

Just the other day, a lecturer said and I quote "If you cannot help your friend in the examination hall, what kind of christian are you?" Did that leave your mouth agape? Wait till you hear this, I know of a man (who is also a lecturer) who sends "runs" allowance to his sons who are in higher institutions. This reminds me of what a friend said one day-"after Examination, you have Runs-amination".

I strongly believe that the laws that guide the writing of an examination should not be restricted to the confines of the examination hall. There's need to make both students and lecturers/teachers know that anything they do behind closed doors whether before, during or after an examination is Examination Malpractice.

Many girls have sold their bodies cheaply to their lecturers for good grades and many guys have spent fortunes to make up for their laziness or lack of confidence. This makes me wonder if these lecturers are hungry or if they just lack moral fibre....

Now tell me, How will a student that can do anything to pass an Exam today not be willing to kill or get involved in all sorts of illegal acts to win an election or have his way tomorrow?!

Whatever the cause, the solution starts from making people see the implications of these deplorable acts beyond the measures meted out by the institutions. Some of the implications are- it has a way of affecting your morale, making you have low self esteem even when you know what to do and how to go about it, you become so dependent that you cannot even trust yourself to make some basic decisions in life.

 What leads many to carry on with these acts is that they think the consequences are short-lived but it is the major cause of incompetent and half-baked graduates that we have in the country today.

My lecturer once made a joke of a medical student who was helped through school (illegally) by one of his lecturers. Nemesis struck one day when the said lecturer had an accident and was taken to the student's hospital but because he was not well groomed in the profession, he worsened his (the lecturer's) case and the lecturer eventually died (that was on a lighter mood anyways).

The day a mad man realises that he is mad is the day he starts regaining sanity. The day our students, teachers/lecturers start realizing the long-term effects of Examination Malpractices is the day we start having some sense of discipline within and outside Examination halls.

To this effect, we all must be involved in this campaign against Examination Malpractices. Parents should encourage their children to read until they understand what they have been taught at school, teachers/lecturers should imbibe an "open-door policy" such that students would be free to walk up to them whether in their offices or in the classrooms to ask questions on things they are yet to understand.

Finally, more libraries should be built to encourage and facilitate a conducive reading environment while already existing ones should be equipped with more books and other materials that can make studying enjoyable.

Make That Move!

You have heard it said severally that “whatever you do, don’t stop moving”.. this is a saying that can never be overemphasized because you are closer to your future than you were yesterday and the law of progression never fails, it’s either you’re moving forward or backward{there’s nothing like stagnation}- every other factor keeps moving so if you remain in the same position, it goes without saying that you’re moving backward. So, reevaluate now and ask yourself this simple question- what moves have I made this year?
This reminds me of a movie I recently saw-”THE INCREDIBLE BURT”, the main act, Burt, a magician kept on doing the same magic the same old way until his fans reduced drastically and I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you why. The aftermath of this, which was not unexpected was that he became miserable and lost touch with sanity…
Burt however finally came to terms with the “BUTs” and “MAYBEs” responsible for his setback, retraced his steps and ended up smiling to the bank!
Understand that most of the things you deserve in life may not come served on a platter of gold, you have to make the extra move. To get the PRIZE there’s always a PRICE. Even Newton had to agree by postulating the 1ST LAW OF MOTION that says that there’s no way a body would ever leave its static position unless somebody or something somehow propels it. So you can’t afford to remain where you are.Be the propelling force. MAKE THAT MOVE!!!