Finding this young girl looking unusually distraught today, I couldn't help but ask what the matter was. Apparently, her JAMB exam results turned out to be less than average and not impressive. She had been waiting unnecessarily long to finally get them, and now they aren't anything she could have hoped for.
Joint Admissions Matriculation Board examination—one of the examinations to take to qualify for admission into your chosen university to study in.
If I didn't know this girl for myself, I could very well just assume that she may not have prepared adequately enough, but I did know her to be hardworking and focused, even at such a young age. Something similar happened to the brightest minds in my class during my time about a decade ago, and so I also knew that these things with JAMB aren't always straightforward and anything could have happened.
Thankfully, we had had conversations before each time I went there to eat at her mother's restaurant, which she kind of is the manager of, so it was easy to remind her about how it was during my time. And so I proceeded with another story about another of my colleagues who was in a similar situation to hers.
"I had this friend of mine who scored similar to what you scored." I started. "He didn't get into the university the same year he took the exams, like some of us, and he also couldn't the following year." I continued. "Can you guess what happened to him?" I asked rhetorically. "He graduated, eventually. And he didn't just graduate from the department of mechanical engineering, similar to my course of study, but also from New Jersey, somewhere in the US." Her eyes widened in wonder.
"Now, that's not all about him. He is now a big artist. How? Well, during the times he was at home and not in school, he mastered his craft with drawing and painting on an iPad." Then I went on to describe what an iPad looks like. "And he's doing very well for himself now."
"What do you think he would think when he remembers what he scored in his JAMB exam about a decade ago?" I asked, but she couldn't give an answer. "He would only smile and be grateful for how far he has come despite his score then, most likely."
Urging her to not fret and focus on what's next and what had happened, I continued with my own story. I reminded her of a time in our previous conversations when I told her that I was nothing close to brilliant as a student in secondary school and that I even had six F9s at one time. Yet, there I was, standing as a Corper serving his country. Despite my beginnings, I made it through the university with good grades in mechatronics engineering.
No one, not even me, would remember how not-so-great I was as a student. Yet, I was cautious to let her know that I didn't think she wasn't hardworking or brilliant. I then let her know that, after observing her all these weeks of coming around to eat there, I could clearly see that she was indeed diligent and hardworking.
"Do you know how much of a blessing you are to your mother, relieving her of the workload you carry for her, and how much peace you and your younger sisters bring to her by being good children? You're already making her proud, and you can only continue to do so by forging ahead relentlessly."
Her WASSCE examination, one of those examinations for admission, was very good. The next thing in line is the UTME examination, the chosen school's own examination for admission. By being resilient and working hard for her UTME exams, her aggregate score could very well get her admission.
To put the cherry on the cake, I gave her a little money and sent her to get something she'd like. When she returned, I said to her, "Congratulations on your JAMB exam results, and very well done for coming this far. When the next one comes, give in your best as always." Like Tinkerbell's magic dust, her face lit up after it all. And then I picked up my bag and continued my journey to find a place to get some electricity to work for a while with.
All images were imagined with Meta AI
