Succeeding and excelling in the academic space can be a big deal. It's never an easy journey. One would have to subject oneself to one form of discipline, restraint, labour and hard work to attain success, or a level of it. Anyone who is in the system or has been through it will agree that such can be a hard, big responsibility to take care of.
I can't help but recall how success in our academics meant different things at different stages. At one point, all that mattered was to know how to read and write. At another point, it was about doing arithmetic well, answering questions from passages and topics. Passing high school final examinations was another. Later on, even gaining admission into a higher institution was a win for one's academic journey.
Into the system, a lot is required to record success or victory in our academic endeavours. And when you find those graduating celebrating this massive feat, you'll understand why, because of what they had to endure and pass through. Victory or success, whether big or small as we would term it, requires resilience, tenacity, perseverance, hard work and smartness.
Sometimes, resources could determine the level of such success. I recall some of my most profound academic wins and I salute the role of the aforementioned. At a certain level in school, I was determined to do better. This led me to timely advice from someone who had gone ahead of me. To date, it has remained advice I give to anyone who comes to me for any help concerning academics.
He advised me to learn to follow up with reading materials or notes given immediately after the lectures. It was advice I took and yes, the outcome showed in my result later on. We were making a lot of presentations also, so there was a need to balance the time spent on general courses and the ones that were based on presentations.
Presentation courses carried more credit units, due to that, we tend to put almost all our time and energy into them, leaving the other individual courses with lesser units; but with a cumulative total more than the presentation courses, in jeopardy. He advised me on the need to balance and I took heed. It remains advice I still give out.
Even with the presentation courses, it was a win. Now, those courses demanded the availability of some resources, which weren't sufficiently available to me. All thanks to a wonderful friend who came through for me, and I recorded one of the best results in those courses. All that meant a lot to my academic journey and my success in it. I remain grateful to God for that period.
Attaining that academic win left me with some lessons. One is to learn to work hard, but work smartly too. The advice I received was an effort that made the whole process better. I always believe in the power of information from those who have gone ahead. Sometimes, it's the information gained and utilised that makes the difference.
Also, the place of good relationships shouldn't be neglected. I did my best, made my efforts, but the resources needed were lacking. Thankfully, for the good friendship I had, that wasn't an obstacle any more. Let there be hard work, good relationships, smartness, resilience, tenacity, and also, trust in the help of God. These all have a hand in one of my big academic successes.
Images are mine.
