This statement kept reoccurring to me after our English language teacher gave us a brain teaser during our literary week in school where students from other schools, representing their school, in a debate and quiz competition, to make ten sentences that must end with the phrase:
Had I Known.
It was my first time representing my school. I fidget upon handling the microphone and speaking through it to the loudspeakers. You know, I could hear my voice oozing through the speaker and I felt the fear. Something came into me immediately and the voice changed and became confident. After all, it was my stage, let me, Lord, over it. That was the nature of my disposition when I first handled a microphone to speak to a tumult crowd. From that day, it became something I always want to do. Little did I know it would later in life become a career for me.
In one of the programs I was invited to address a group of students who were passing out of secondary school, the principal gave the opening speech. It was a speech that made the turning point in my life. According to the agenda of the programme, my duty was to talk to the students about how to prepare for life after secondary school but I couldn't because Mr. Metibemu the principal had said all. His speech was as thus:
Many years ago when I was like you, after completing my secondary education. It became clear that life has just begun. Some of my classmates were already heading to study abroad. For students like me whose father was farmers or low-income earners or those who worked at a very low cadre with the government, we do not know what life holds for us. We jubilated that our secondary school life had come to an end. Only a few of us thought about what the future holds.
After the whole celebrations had ended and hadn't spent two weeks at home, everything became boring again. My father was always away from home while my mother traded her wares in the marketplace. I was always at home alone. It dawn on me to get busy with something but nothing seemed to come to mind. I started reading old newspapers and would soliloquy. Some of the newspaper contents looked new even though they were stale news. I got used to some political terms we weren't taught in school through reading newspapers. In one of the publications, I read about how you can start a pig farm with just little funds.
The pig thing caught my attention. I started going to the public library and reading books about how to keep a pig farm. It isn't a child's play to rear a pig so I didn't venture it. While I was reading books about pigs, I found a book that talks about keeping local breeds of fowl. I have saved up some money from my little pocket money. Straight to the market I bought a cock and hen to start with. In the morning, I'd just pour out some guinea corn then set the fowls to walk around the compound. In the evening, they would return to their cage. In a year, my fowls had grown from two to six and the rest is the story today.
During the Easter celebrations, I sold cockerels to many of our neighbors and made an abnormal profit. It was a time to harvest. I reinvested all the money rearing more local breeds of fowls again. Eggs too we're available to sell. Those days, the poultry business wasn't as lucrative as it is now.
My immediate sister who was six years junior to me was learning all the procedures I followed in nurturing for my fowls. With the money I got, I bought a university matriculation examination form, sat for the exam, and passed. My parents never knew I had done that, they were so shocked when I brought home my admission letter to study economics at the university. I have saved up enough money to cater for everything is would need in school for my first year in case my parents do not have the financial power to accept my admission. As if I knew, mom cried and told me to defer my admission.
Mom, you need not worry about money. I have enough money to see through my first year.
How did you get money, my son? Mom asked
I kept money from my fowl business. I have shown Adela how to go about it. Please mom, just help me keep the proceeds from the fowl, that's what depends on to pay me through the four years.
Today, I am proud to say that little initiative saw me through my university. I wouldn't have amounted to anything if I hadn't discovered that there is more to life at an early stage.
The principal ended his speech and everyone including me gave a standing ovation with a round of applause as he climbs down the podium.
The programme ended because I couldn't find the word. I just whispered to the master of ceremony to skip the next speech. I knew right there and then that I needed to find my balance else I would lose relevance. I went home that day with a challenge to be a better person than I had been.