Once upon a time, my mom had helped me (a little kid who hasn't seen the world yet) pack his bags to go start a new journey, a journey that I must embark on alone, because getting to the end of that journey would see me becoming a man. I still remember walking out of that house around 5:30am, telling my mom and dad goodbye while being super excited to finally move to a place where I'd get my total and complete freedom.
But just like every journey, this one came with its own challenges, I remember calling home crying, begging my parents to send me money for me to come back home because I was scared of failing. Luckily for me, my dad had been smart enough to offer me a deal. He had asked me to stay a year in school and if I still wanted to dropout and come back home, then he had no problem with it.
A year was more than enough time I needed to realize that going home wasn't the right thing to do. I soon found myself making friends and strangely, that helped me ease in smoothly and it made me feel more relaxed and comfortable with being away from home.
And when it got to a year, the thoughts of going back home was no longer a thing for me, I was now a young guy becoming a grown one. And everything continued that way for the next few years and with each day that passed, I struggled and fought hard to overcome whatever challenges that came with it. Some of it made me really sad, and some made me almost give up on the whole thing but somehow, I had always found a way to come out victorious.
And now, on the 2nd of December 2023, after five years of being in school and studying electrical and electronic engineering, I had somehow, through the special grace of God, made my dad proud by becoming a graduate of this prestigious school.
The moment I was done with my exams today, the first person I had called was my dad and immediately he answered the call, he began to laugh because he knew why I was calling him. To me, I felt the only reason he was laughing was because he's a man trying to act tough, meanwhile if I had called someone else who was that close to me, they probably would have shed tears of joy.
"Daddy, your son is now a graduate" were the first few words I had said to him although I'm not his first son to become a graduate (my eldest brother also graduated from the same school in mechanical engineering), I just was the latest one.
Anyways, I think this is me saving these pictures here (because I'm still contemplating posting them on Facebook), so that I can always come back to it and be grateful about how far I've come on this journey.
And if you're wondering why my shirt seem to be stained with ink, well it's because in Nigeria, there's this tradition in schools that student have to sign on your white clothes on the final day of your exam. So a lot of people get to write whatever they want on your clothes, just like Bruno did in the picture below.