I was born and brought up in the street, I was opportuned to know early that life is not a bed of roses. I have faced a lot of things, I fell, I rose and I kept pushing this is what made me who I am today.
Life can never be balanced if we depend on one side of the coin alone, the street is a nice place to be even though it is a rough area , but it is full of occurrences that can impact you with a practical knowledge to approach life. Most people who grew in the street are naturally wise in approaching life challenges because they were opportuned to have direct contact with the heat of life.
Although the street teaches us practical things yet it is not wise to be running with what we have obtained from the street alone. No matter how bad and less regarded education is, it still has a big role to play in our lives to help us succeed. I read a post from 
One can be very excellent with books , graduate with first class and still end up being nothing in the society and another can own a second class or even less but yet be successful. It is not magic, it is the matter of knowledge.
The former holds onto one thing alone ad chased it to the end only to realize that what he/she was running with is limited, while the later choose to explore and ran on both sides. I am not saying we should not take our studies serious. No! Far from it.
There are many people who are first class holders yet choose to explore and they are successful, what I am trying to say is that, it is dangerous to depend on either street alone or book alone. If you want to succeed you need both. School will give you the knowledge you need to succeed but street will teach you how to survive.
I must confess, Apart from the classroom, I can't pin point a time in my life where I have lived on either just the street smartness or book smartness alone most times it goes hand in had for me. All the jobs I have taken, always require the combination of the two for me to have a good result.
The teaching job I took some years ago was great for me because I used both my street smartness and book smartness else I would not last a week there. This is why I said I used both .
I got the teaching job because I went to school, the school employed me because they believe I have something to offer to their pulpils. Which with God's help I delivered according to my ability.
If I didn't pass the interview, my chances of getting the job would be very low. We know interview is both verbal and written. If I had no book smartness I won't be able to answer their questions and I wonder what language I would be speaking there because I learnt English from school.
On the other hand I needed street smartness to survive there because my proprietress is a very smart woman, what I mean by smart is, if she notice you are calm or gentile she would like to take advantage of you, so applies to some of my colleagues.
I was actually calm previously but when the thing was getting out of hand, I evoke my rugged spirit from the street and positioned everything where it ought to be. I had to learn how to Express myself without being scared of anyone except if I am at fault else ha! I don't take shit.
You see without the two I wouldn't have succeeded there, I know how many people quit their jobs because their bosses were getting on their nerves and they couldn't help it but just leave or either stay there depressed because of fear of loosing their jobs and so many other reasons.
That can't happen with me, if I have to loose the job because I am doing the right thing and you are oppressing me, then let it go but I will tell it to your face.
More over there's always better understanding after conflicts 😆 who knows that might be an opportunity for us to be good friends afterwards.
This is my entry for week 5 Edition 03 contest on Hive Learners community with the title: Book Smart vs Street Smart. You can check it out
