NEEDING A HELPMATE!
Entering into the exam hall, I was full of confidence, to do better, to write my heart out, than the previous day’s exam. Come and see confidence level. Normal me get to school by 8:30am for a 9am exam, so I can just stroll around, then into the exam hall. But this day, I got to school thirty minutes earlier than usual, I got to the examination venue around 8am. I saw my classmates hanging around, having discussions, but that is not for me. Even after exam discussions, I hate them, at the end of an exam, I go home straight or I go play a little before going home.
We were arranged in such a way that the next person writing the same exam as yours is behind you and another course is beside you. The sitting arrangement was not one that gives room for peeping into another's booklet. I was ready to murder the 'paper', as I have read all through the previous day. Immediately I came back from the previous day's exam and also did vigil with my book, owning to the fact that I was chasing a first class result in the two final semesters of my stay as an undergraduate, in order to meet my written-down goal, the one I promised myself from 100level. I had told myself in 100 level that I am not in a race for a first-class, but if it comes, fine. I am not cooking myself in a pressure cooker, but I can't go below a second-class upper and not just second class upper, a 4.00+ second class upper, with no carry-over and no rectification till I graduate. God helping me, I was able to achieve the latter two, at least I have two more semester exams to write, which I know I am not breaking that record, for sure.
We got the question paper, on seeing the questions, guys! my brain went blank, I couldn't remember what I had read, but I knew I know the answers to the questions. I was scared, almost in tears, and I started praying, because this can't be happening to me. You know how it feels when you know the answer to a question and then you just can't remember the answer... My head was on the table for thirty minutes plus, for an exam of two-hours. I was looking like a student that didn't come to the exam hall prepared, I was just like a student that hasn't attended classes, the whole semester. No one noticed the blankness on my face, even as I try to recollect all or part of what I had read.
That thirty minutes was one of the worst moments in my life. As I was still struggling for hope, against all hope, to at least be able to answer if not five of the questions, a standard three will be okay for me. I have always believed that, if you have a five questions exam and you are able to answer three, you can still get a 'B' at least. So, I was already gunning for 'B' or 'C'. Still in my state of blankness, no one was coming to my rescue. If I could get hold of just one answer, if I can peep through somebody's note, all I needed was just an idea and I'm sure I'll come into remembrance of all that is trying to elude me.
My reading partner was behind me, and she noticed me putting my head on the table. She called out to me, although we don't even talk in exam hall, it was even by accident that she was sitting behind me. I guess she noticed that I have not written anything. She does something whenever we are having group discussion about a course and I seem to be saying rubbish, off-point or if I can't remember, she hit my head often. Funny, right? I guess this was what my head needed after the prayer. 'Babe' as I mostly call her did it again, she hit my head from behind. She did it obliviously, of the situation I was in. The head hitting did it magic again, then I could see everything I read in my imagination, already. The next thing was to crank my fingers, believe me, if I do that before holding my pen, I am writing for the next one hour or more without stopping, because it continues to flow. Once you see me cranking my fingers in the exam hall, just know that I am about to start a writing spree. In the end, I was able to complete a full five questions, when I say full, I mean with the attached questions, confidently. 'Sebi na theory', it is either it kills me or I kill it, the kind of mindset I take to any exam hall, when it is not calculation related.
In life, you will always need somebody to help you through hard times, somebody God had sent to ease your journey, somebody that knows you, knows how to be of help even without visible actions. Like mind will always attract like mind and your circle will always be a definition of the kind of person you are. Babe was that definition, because God will not come down from heaven to proffer solution to your problem. "If you want to go fast in life, go alone but if you want to go far, go with friends".
