High school days was one of the most interesting times of all time. Those were the times when we acted like our true self, and irrespective of our flaws, some of us were lucky enough to make new friends that are close to us up till date.
As stubborn as we can be, we will disregard our safety and dive into the big river, knowing fully well that people use to drown in the river. There is a supersticious belief that a mermaid do live in the river, so, she eats up anybody that is not from the community if they go deep into the river. This is the major reason why we were not allowed to go to the river. Welp, all their talks fell on deaf ears. One Fridays, after school has dismissed, we will group ourselves then buy some snacks that we will eat after swimming. Also, we don't forget to bring vaseline along, to apply on our skin after swimming. We do this because after swimming, our skin tends to become whitish which will make our parents know that we went to swim in the river.
There is one major habit we had during high school days and that habit is naming our teachers based on their outfits. If the teacher has a sharp-mouth shoe, we will end up calling him sir shoe, or anything that is very funny. Wer always make sure that the teacher is not made aware of his or her nickname.
I did my high school in two places, in the Northern part of Nigeria and in the Eastern part of Nigeria. When i was in the north, i hated school with passion. I was not the type that believe in education. Even when my parents flog me mercilessly because i skip school, i will still skip school again and again.
Most times, when i refuse to go to school, they will flog me to school and ask my teachers to keep a close eye on me. Even with my teachers eyes on me, i will still find a way to go out of school without raising suspicion.
Everything changed when i came to the east and i met a Coper, Coper Bashir. He was my physics and chemistry teacher, and because of him, i began to attend classes. Gradually, my brain began to open, and assimilation began to be as easy as eating pizza.
Chemistry became my favorite subject, followed by physics and biology. I loved biology because the teacher was really nice and easy going. Once a boy that hated school, i changed to become somebody that loves school and i could not stay a day without going to school. My grades sky rocket. Any time i got below 95 in a subject, i do feel immense sadness. In my SS1 and SS2, i was the best science student of my class. During my SS2, I was made the senior prefect which boosted my fame in school.
I loved chemistry and physics because of the way it was being taught. Coper Bashir always calms down to explain each subject to us, and breaking it down into atoms for successful assimilation.
Even though i became very serious with school, and was seen as a very good boy, i still broke the law by going to the river to swim with my friends every friday (as mentioned in the introductory part of this post).
Now that i think of it, I can see clearly why i didn't like going to school when i was in the north, but everything changed when i came back to the east, even though my favorite teacher in the east, is from the north.
In the north, the school system was over disciplined. Flogging was the order of the day. Late coming will get a Primary 4 student 10 strokes of whooping, talk more of a jss2 student.
There is a penalty for every small mistake. There was hardly any love being shown, but instead, it was like we were in a military camp. The fear of being flogged engulfed me, so, i preferred to stay at home and look for other things to do.
Thank you for reading.