MY LIFE AT THIRTY
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? EPISODE 02 ?
By Princess
I attended Offa Grammar School for my
secondary education and by the time i
finished my secondary school, i already finish
my haflat shahada (Equivalent to secondary
education) in my Arabic school and people has
started calling me Alfa because of my
character and mode of dressing. Need to say
here that my or our way of living is like the
ulamah (Alfas), my trouser doesn’t touch
ground, this was what i grew up to know as
even in my secondary school, my parent sew
my trouser in a way that it doesn’t touch
ground.
I was a brilliant boy while in secondary school,
in fact my WASSCE result was 3A’s 3B’s and
2c’s while one result was withheld, i think it
was Yoruba that they didn’t release. The next
phase of my life was Jamb, even though our
family was a bit broke by this time but my
parent made sure i obtained the form, my
elder sister (Zainab) at this time was already
through with her OND in Federal polytechnic
Offa.
My sister’s support during this time was
immeasurable, she already started her IT with
one of the commercial bank in our town and
with the little she was earning and she used
that in supporting the family too. I wrote my
jamb and thank God i scored 284 and Unilorin
was my first choice of institution, i never even
wanted to go to polytechnic like my sister in
the first place.
Fast forward to few months after my jamb, i
was offered admission to study economics in
Unilorin and this changed my entire life totally.
As it was to be, i couldn’t be coming from
Offa to Ilorin on a daily basis which means i
had to settle for hostel or accommodation
outside the school.
Unfortunately for me, i was not able to secure
school hostel as i did not pay on time which
means i had to settle for hostel outside the
campus.
Admission to Unilorin was virtually the first
time i will be spending my total time in Ilorin,
as have been to Ilorin just twice in my entire
life and my admission was an opportunity to
know what is going on in the outside world for
the first time.
Looking for hostel, my dad tried to connect
with alot of people both family members and
friends that are staying in Ilorin so that i can
reside with them but most people we relate
with are either staying in Amoyo, Sango, Sobi
Barrack side and the likes. The closest family
we saw was those staying in fate basin and
GRA.
While we were trying to connect with series of
people we learnt from one of our old
neighbour that Ismaeel is already in unilorin,
we were told he got admitted the previous
year studying finance and he was staying
outside school in Tanke which is like N10 cab
to school.
Me and Ismaeel attended the same madrasa
while growing up, in fact we did our shahada
(graduation) together in our Arabic school and
he was even more brilliant than me. My parent
also know him very well but we never knew he
had gotten admission already because they
moved out of our area to their own house
when they completed it almost two years ago.
Our parent reconnected us together and it was
a big surprise when we realized that Ismaeel
was staying alone in the house they secured
for him. Since he has already paid for the
house rent of that year, it was agreed that
both of us will be sharing the accommodation
fee equally every year. Initially his parent
doesn’t want him to stay with anybody
because of bad influence but had to agree
since they know my background and we have
been like one family since our childhood.
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