There is no glory without a story.

_{Image from my device camera 📷}
I was a stubborn child, so this brought my parents to fear how I would go about my future. My brother is that calm soul so this gave him the chance to prove his intelligence. But I, on the other hand, remain playful and unserious with my studies.

I was called by one of my teachers one day when he told me to look at my brother to see how well he is doing and how he remained a good reputation in the school and in our family. He asked who would ever believe me if they pointed me as his younger brother?. I remained calm as those words remained in my brain for a few days before I got back to my old ways again. But this time every time I remember his words or I see him I would always pretend to be the changed person he talked to.

I was able to scale through my college days and now it’s time to write my entrance examination into the university. We must write the West African examination and also the joint admission examination and these two exams must be passed before we could write any institution entrance exams.

I was preparing for my exams by playing around, Mum would always sit me down and tell me “are you reading for your upcoming exams?” I would tell her not to worry about that. When I take my books to read, it’s always like I am being drugged with sleeping medicine. I would sleep off immediately.

I never knew what was right in front of me not until that d-day. I went for the examination and I did the little I could base on my capabilities. When I got home Mum asked me “have I performed well? Was I able to write anything?” I gave her the confidence in me not to worry because I would pass the exams.

Determination determines success

Our results came out and I failed woefully. It touched me but not so much. My parents never gave up on me despite my unserious ways. They got me several forms for the examination, which I still didn’t read for. At some point, I felt like why are my parents disturbed. They should just ask me what I would love to do then I can go for it.

There was a day Mum called me and showed me an artwork I made, I glued it on the entrance to the home so everyone could see. She told me to read it out which I read to her hearing

“DETERMINATION DETERMINES SUCCESS”

She added; go think about what you wrote. You have been passing a message across to others but you didn’t digest it yourself. She said, don’t be like a lantern or a lamp that spreads light to the world but forgets to shine it to itself. These words touched me, I thought about it and then became a little determined. I prayed and read as much as I could. Then opted for another examination again. This time around I felt the energy in me compared to my past experiences.

After writing the exams, we had to wait for the results. Others got theirs but I never saw mine. I began to think about so many things, maybe I didn’t submit my answers, I wasn’t sure about that.

Six days later I was able to get a notification of my result and I passed it. I was so happy 😀. The next thing is to wait for my admission letter. I did all the necessary things and waited patiently for the call. A few weeks after Mum came back from her journey and showed me the SMS my institution sent to her. I was finally admitted to the university of my dreams. Since then I embraced the phrase determination determines success.