I'm not gonna bore you with these 'Bill Gates was a drop-out', "Walt Disney had so many fallouts" speeches. I'm sure you know this already.
Don't get me wrong, I love the stories of the aforementioned but the mistake we make is that we interprete them negatively at any slight setback.
Sometime last year, I wrote an Electrical Engineering exam and it was full of dotted errors and crossed mistakes. It was that type of exam you'd want rapture to happen while writing it. The most frustrating part was that I prepared intensively for it, read the two voluminous textbooks recommended by the lecturer thoroughly. Lo, the lecturer went off-course and set ghosty questions we'd never seen before.
When I got to my room that day, I switched on my mobile phone and watched Suli Breaks' spoken word poetry on "Why I Hate School But Love Education".
Why did I do this?
I simply felt a burning anger in me towards the course, lecturer and the school's system as a whole.
And yeah...watching that video gave me the solace I needed at that time.
But after that, what next?
I slept, woke up and off I went to the library for another episode of the 'La cram la pour' series. Life continued...
What am I trying to bring out here?
I know the true meaning of 'school' has been abused by all and sundry,
I know you're tired of spending countless hours reading a buried man's work.
But I want you to ask yourself this question,
"WHY DID I COME TO SCHOOL?"
Is it 'cos your parents forced you out of home,
Or is it simply because of peer pressure?
Irrespective of our answers, we find ourselves enclosed within the brackets of a citadel of learning.
Its no news that we don't necessarily have to be confined to the four walls of a classroom before we'd be presumed as educated persons.
I've a friend that loves to say this and I quote;
"I don't know how to sing, I don't know how to dance, I don't know how to play football but the books I know how to read and understand, I'll read them well"
There's this air of motivation that seems to blow whenever he says that 'cos it's kinda like the summary of our responsibility on planet Earth.
Remember I started writing this piece by stating clearly that I don't intend to cajole you into thinking you're better off without school.
Most youths of today are being fooled with the remarkable testimonies of the drop-outs of yesterday but notable elites of today. The fact is that, for every Mark Zuckerberg, there are thousands of youths out there withering in the cold. Why?
Hosea 4:6 - "For lack of knowledge, the people perish".
Of course, we all have hidden talents waiting to be dug up by the shovels of perserverance and spades of hardwork.
But despite our talents, be it writing, singing, dancing, fashion designing, bead/bracelet making, photography, to mention a few, we need to find the right balance between our quest for knowledge and our quest for excellence.
I choose to classify it that way because the only set of people that ever gain excellence from school are those with the talent of reading. Otherwise, school gives us knowledge while our talent(s), if well-pruned, blesses us with excellence.
It took me years to discover that I had a flair for writing (I actually started writing last year, 2015). But did this sudden zeal for writing make me think of quitting school to pursue a career in writing? NO!
Rather, it has painted a bigger and clearer picture of how my future would turn out.
There's a common saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket". So why should you sacrifice school for your talent or vice-versa?
Ecclesiastes 3:22 says "So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?"
From the Holy Book, we can see that we just have to look at things from the 'cup-half-full' perspective for there's nothing better than a man to enjoy the works of his hands.
In conclusion, let's recycle every hate we've towards school into endurance, if not love. The truth is that a school environment (if not its system) is a very efficient catalyst that has a way to speed up the refining of the talent(s) embedded in us. We just have to relate with the right people, attend the right meetings and have the right mindset.
Question: WHY GO TO SCHOOL?
Answer: To build your future.
START BUILDING YOURS!!!
Thanks for taking time to read through this.
Remain blessed, remain inspired!!!
Samuel Ikeobi
¤ S.Iclopedia ¤
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