I am not the kind who loves fame right from childhood but I was very famous for both good and bad reasons while growing up.
After moving away from Oshodi due to a bomb blast that happened at the Ikeja cantonment in 2001, we moved to a new environment that was opposite where we lived before.
We were surrounded by farms and I loved the environment because we had lots of places to play in unlike Oshodi where even playing football had to be done on the road because the houses there were jam-packed.
I earned my first fame by burning a farmland that was left to regain its nutrients (bush fallowing). The incident made me famous and I regretted my action. It was a terrible kind of fame but things took a new turn as I grew and people got to know that I wasn't a bad boy and my wrong approach to hunting led to the wildfire.
I was famous all through my childhood both in the environment where we lived and in the schools I attended. Even my mom always wondered how I go about becoming famous within a short time even though I was both an introvert and the shy type. Aside from not liking the attention, I usually don't like taking credit for things just because I don't want to be known.
My fame automatically made my mom famous as well and whenever a stranger greeted her, she always trace it back to me.
The name George always made a mark wherever I find myself and there are times I wonder why the silliest of things made me famous. I was popular in school for different things and they were all about me being myself. Everything was just about me doing the usual things I love to do and these things brought me attention.
Because of how much I hated being famous, I tried stopping myself from doing some particular things but I couldn't and it was then I realized that I was just being myself.
I wasn't the tallest all through my time in school but there was a time I wouldn't just stop getting taller. I earned silly names like long man and others, I usually laugh at those awkward jokes that teachers make about my height even though I didn't like them.
With my height, I couldn't sneak around in the school like my mates and whenever the teachers needs a student to carry out some crazy task, the name George wasn't far from their mouths.
While registering for Waec, some teachers got to know my age and it was then they discovered that I was the youngest in the class. Despite not liking how tall I was then, I love the fact that it earned me respect from other students.
I was the assistant senior in secondary school but I didn't take my duty to heart like many other prefects because I just can't stand seeing many students crying from being punished.
My duty was at the gate to take latecomers, students that weren't properly dressed but I always did the opposite. I always helped students to escape punishment for coming late by smuggling their bags into a classroom and they will go pick them up after the assembly.
I drag students who are not properly dressed somewhere and tell them to do the needful. The only thing that would allow me to punish a student when he or she is not ready to change, I get tired of helping and sending them to teachers for punishment.
I was very active in sports as a student but was never lucky to win a cup in Inter-house sports all through my time in school. I was never in the right house and it pained me a lot not to win a cup after giving my best.
Long jump, shot put, football, relay race, and 400m were my area of specialization back then and I always made sure that I win gold for the house but my fellow housemates won't just put in the same energy and despite not winning a cup, everyone recognized and appreciate my efforts all the time.
I remember making a grand entrance into the school football team. I wasn't part of the team at first but a school competition was going on and my class needed someone. I stepped up for them out of pity and that was all, I became famous and an important part of the school football team.
Fame is still unavoidable for me as an adult and I always feel like it's a burden.
