ââHow much I missed you guys!
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âI missed Solesi Ayobamide and Adetola Ayomide. Solesi Ayomide was a caring personâkind and lovely. Adetola Ayomide was kind too, but she had a very different way of expressing it.
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âIt was a faithful morningâI think last year January. Ayomide was already at the lecturerâs office, reporting the fact that her group members were not contributing to the groupâs project. You know what? Ayomide was actually someone who was strict and didnât believe in any form of manipulation. She tried to get the truth in everything.
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âThe first assignment was a group presentation given to us by our lecturer.
Adetola Ayomide was the one who did the presentation because others either turned deaf or werenât ready. Some of them did the presentation, but not all. At that point, I perceived that the start was really off.
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âFor my group, sincerely, I did the writing myself, but I made sure they all contributed.
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âBut what was our lecturerâs response? Hmm! She told Adetola Ayomide to present using the presentation and told the rest to prepare their own presentations.
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âIn my group, as a team, we had divided the group work into sections. I was to take the methodology section, and my Anuoluwapo was to take the introduction. Finally, we presented as one solid group. I canât remember who took the rest, but our lecturer was pretty smart. đđ¤ She randomly picked anybody to start each section.
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âI think I was the one who took the first partâthe introductionâeven though I had prepared really well for the methodology. All I remember was that the person who didnât know much about the presentation was the one asked to explain the methodology. Anuoluwapo fumbled. Soon, I explained everything because we couldnât bear to have silence in the presence of our lecturer.
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âHowever, she asked me, âJoseph, did you do this presentation alone?â
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âMy heart was beating really, really fastâas if I needed propranolol or other beta-blockers in my bloodstream.
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ââMa! No, ma! We all did.â
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âShe said, âThen why are you presenting?â
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ââMa, I can explain. What really happened was that everyone contributed, and I did the compilation,â which was actually true.
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âHmm! Our investigative lecturer asked again, âIs that true?â đđ¤
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âEveryone in my group answered, âYes, ma.â
âShe pardoned us.
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âSoon, she told tosin to dividedus into two. I think Tosin was the finsecâI canât remember. What Tosin did was divide the âbosses,â those who could talk and had the boss vibe, into my group, and the other gentle souls into hers.
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âTosin set us up.
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âMoving onâI carried this whole project wahala on my head as if I had no other job. Guys, I literally quit my jobs for the project. A story for another day.
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âIn my project group, I was the group leader, but soon we had an additional group leader, yet another group leader, and finally another group leader. So, it means everyone in my group was a group leader.
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âFinally, we had this guy called Israelâmy group member and the departmental president. Israel didnât have time for rats.
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âOur project was to check the effects of prenatal THC on pregnant Wistar rats. It was divided into early, mid, and late prenatal stages. Before we began, we bought a lot of materials. Hereâs the hard part: checking the vaginal plug of those rats. We would have to check around 6 a.m., and that was the problemâa big problem. It drained us.
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âEveryone was always around because we were scared of one person or the other reporting. The other group was always busy and all. But I must confess, I made sure that the cages and animals were taken care of. Sometimes, we used a microscope with the help of Scientist Sulaiman to check for fertilization.
The mating ratio was 1 to 3.
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âIt wasnât easy at all. It wasnât.
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âI also missed Jummy K, my friend. Even before the project, I had visited Jummy K frequentlyâa sweet, caring Alhaja who didnât like stress at all đ. But the project humbled us.
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âOne thing I noticed was that we didnât get along during the project, but at some point, I didnât even care who was reporting or not reporting, who was carrying out the group project or not. Initially, I tried to keep our lecturer updated about the project.
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âYes, I remember the project report. The lecturer mandated that we submit it every Friday.
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âOmo! At some point, I forgot about submitting the project report on time. Though it was mandatory, we had many people writing it. đđ So, we had a lot of records. Many people had their report sheets, but mine was totally outdated. đ
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âThe task was becoming too much for me to handle. L
Sarcastically, leadership is simple only when you actually perform it.
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âOh, the day I trendedâŚ
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âI corrected my colleagues because they didnât clean up the rats and left it all for me and a girl, Tunmishe, to do. You know what? Tunmishe was really annoyed and began to speak hurtfully. Normally, I would have kept it to myself, but that day I spoke out, calling them to fear God.
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âMy voice trended on TikTok, and the whole departmental WhatsApp group carried it. Anuoluwapo was⌠đđ
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âNow, here comes the defense.
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âGuys, do you know that those people who were against me in the beginning were now pleased that I spoke? They were like, âJoseph, pleaseâŚâ In fact, Anuoluwapo promised me a reward.
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âI told them I didnât even know what to say. I was vibrating. Here comes the intelligent Jummy Kâshe had mastered the whole project and started asking me different questions, which I had little to no answer for. In fact, I began to fidget.
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âI went upstairs, sat down, and began to cram everything in my project book.
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âHa ha ha! đ
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âSoon, the external supervisor came in, and we marched in. Guys, it was not hard. When the project supervisor asked questions, Jummy K, Adetola, and I spoke. Initially, I didnât want to, fearing I might stammer. At some point, I began to speak like a machineânon-stop.
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âThe supervisor asked, âDo you want to continue?â
âI said yes, and I explained everybodyâs topic. The man was just laughing.
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âOthers spoke, but this made the project supervisor happy. He was really happy, and I heard he gave us all 40 marks. When I looked at my results, we got 80 in the exam. In fact, because of our bold moves, we all had an A. Some people would have gotten a B if the external supervisor hadnât given the 39. They were really happy. Nobody⌠all Aâs.
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âActually, I am an emotional person, and I missed my friend.
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