The last day that felt like a dream... Inkwell writing prompt #49

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Are you sure we are actually leaving? I looked at Mfon and laughed while listening to her

“You have asked me this question since morning.” I replied

“I know,” she said, looking at the shirt in her hand, I just can't believe it.

Neither could I.

It was supposed to be an ordinary morning at the University of Uyo, students were moving around with sleepy faces, some rushing to take their exams, others looking for somewhere to charge their phones. A few final-year students were already taking pictures, while others were signing on their shirts.

But something about that morning felt different we knew this was it.

After today, we would no longer be undergraduates.

Mfon and I stood in front of our hostel, looking at the place we had complained and cried about countless times

“Imagine oo" I said, after all these years of complaining about this hostel, some people are still saying they don't want to leave.

Mfon laughed. “Please, let them enjoy their last day, you too, you will miss this place.”

Me? Miss this hostel?

Yes, you

I wanted to argue, but I couldn't, because, deep down, I knew she's right.

This hostel had seen almost every version of us.

It had seen us tired, broke, excited, angry, happy, confused and sometimes completely fed up.

Do you remember when we first came here? I asked.

Mfon laughed and said, Please don't remind me, cause we didn't even know our left from our right. And you were pretending you knew everything

I knew some things, na

“You didn't!"

We both laughed

That actually was how our journey started

We came into the university as young people who were trying to understand everything at once. Lol

We didn't know all the lecture halls but we were still learning our way around. We didn't know which lecturer was strict about attendance or which class could be missed without consequences.

We were just trying to survive and somehow, the years passed.

We went from asking questions about where to submit course forms to worrying about final-year projects and graduation.

Now, we were standing outside the same hostel, but this time, we were not preparing for another semester.

We were simply leaving

Someone walked past us with a marker, "ahhh give me your shirt,” Ini shouted “I'm signing it before you people forget me.”

“Come and sign it yourself,” I replied.

Soon, the shirts were filled with names and messages.

Some people wrote long messages, others just wrote their names and added hearts. Some wrote things that made everyone laugh.

One person wrote, “We actually made it.”

I stared at those words for a while, cause we did actually made it.

Why? Nigerian universities isn't easy

There were the 7 a.m, lectures we hated waking up for, I mean there were days we ran across campus because we were already late and didn't want to miss attendance.

There were assignments that appeared when we were already dealing with five other things and each of them had deadlines that were close

There were exams that made us question everything we had read.

There were days when money was tight and we had to think carefully before spending the little we had, I mean, even before eating food, we will have to calculate school expenses first

And, of course, there was the hostel, and funny moments of questions like;

• who took my bucket?
• who finished the water?
• who switched off the light?
• who is that person making noise?
• who borrowed audacity from temu to eat my food? 😂

At the time, those little issues could turn into serious arguments.

That morning, we laughed about them.

Maybe because we knew we wouldn't have another chance to complain about them.

Then Mfon looked at me.

“So, what happens after this?”

I became quiet, honestly, I didn't know.

For years, our lives had been arranged around semesters.

First semester, second semester.
A break

Another semester, another set of courses and series of examination to take

Now, there was no next semester waiting for us.

That realization was kinda strange.

We had spent so much time wishing for graduation that we forgot that graduation also meant leaving behind a life we had become used to.

I looked around at my friends.

These were the same people I met when we were all trying to find our feet.

Some friendships had grown stronger, some people had changed and had taken different paths.

But somehow, we had reached this point together.

Later that day, we took more pictures for memories sake

We laughed and we hugged each other tightly

We signed each other's shirts again because somehow there was always one more person who hadn't signed.

Someone shouted, “Graduate, clock it"

Everybody screamed with excitement, cause it was indeed our happy moment

For a moment, it felt like heaven on earth, not because everything had been perfect. But because we had finally reached the moment we had been waiting for.

As I picked up my bag, I looked around the hostel one more time.

The room was almost empty, my shirt was covered with names, signatures and little messages from people I had shared this journey with.

Outside, I could still hear people laughing and calling each other's names.

“Are you sure we are actually leaving?” I asked Mfon again.

This time, she didn't laugh.

She looked at me, smiled, and said, “I think we are.”

We stood there quietly for a moment.

No more lectures nor assignment that would make you think your brain out, no other semester cause we were both cleared

I took one last look at the hostel, I almost cried

I had complained about that place more times than I could count, but suddenly, leaving it felt different.

We came to the University of Uyo as strangers, confused and unsure of what the years ahead would look like.

Now we were leaving as graduates, carrying memories that no certificate could fully explain.