Growing up was so easy for me, because God was good to me I got admission to the higher institution at a very tender age. At age 15, I was offered admission to the polytechnic but I rejected the offer. The following year I was given admission again to the same polytechnic. At that time I considered accepting the admission with the intention of bidding for time while I wait for the opportunity of university education. Based on this thought I accepted the admission offered by the polytechnic. At the same time, I continued to pursue every avenue available to be offered admission to the university of my choice.
Eventually I was offered admission to a highly prestigious university to study the course I love. To say I was ecstatic would be putting it mildly. I resumed at the university with optimism, zest and a positive mindset. Having always believed I was made to be the best, I knew that finally I was on the path to the actualization of the journey I set for myself. As a result, I quickly pushed aside the feeling crippling into my heart on account of the possibility of imminent separation from my friends in the polytechnic.
During my first year I was introduced to some guys who were the rave of the moment on our campus at that time. Glad to finally be called among the campus “Big Boys” I quickly committed myself fully in my relationship with them and in no time we became best of friends. Through them, I was indoctrinated into many bad habits but by this time it I was already addicted to my new found life of “freedom and fun”. So much so that I didn’t even stop for a while to consider the consequences of my actions. Unknown to me, I was been groomed for membership of their club named THE AMAZING LIGHT. I quickly joined when I was invited to the club believing that becoming a member was the next thing to do to permanently cement my status as a campus “BIG BOY”
THE AMAZING LIGHT as a group is dedicated solely to their idea of fun and cementing their status as undisputed big boys on campus. This they were committed to achieving by any means possible. As a results, members had a long list of lot of rules and regulations that they must strictly adhere to. One of the rules is that members must never be found taking sachet water to quench their thirst. They must take bottled water only. Another equally foolish rule they had was that members must shun all general lectures and attend only departmental lectures. We played games during lecture period and generally “fooled “around. Looking back now, I don’t how we came about this rule when our primary purpose of being in the university was education. For the life of me, I also can’t explain how missing lectures meant you are a Big Boy.
To make matters worse, members seemed to be on a mission to outdo themselves to determine who could commit the worst of vices. What I had become accustomed to before was child’s play compared to what the members did now. I saw womanizing and substance abuse rise to catastrophic proportions. In fact, shame and regret would not permit me to share some of the atrocities we committed as a group. But they I was having the time of my life or so I thought. The only snag in my life then was that it was extremely expensive to maintain the life style members of the club have become famous for. So as not to be the one denting the highly valued image of the club, I resorted to fleecing my parents with all manners of imaginary dues students were to pay. Where the dues were real, the prices were highly inflated all in a bid to get more money from them. The only thing left was for us to become full-fledged criminals. Throughout this time my parents never suspected a thing because they trusted me completely due to my calm personality. So I continued down the road to self-destruction without any form of inhibition.
It was in the first semester of my second year that I realized I was still a student in the university when I got my first year results and it was nothing to write home about. I missed a lot of tests and even a few exams because I wasn’t updated about happenings in school. To solve this problems I tried to qualify for make-up exams by bringing a medical report indicating that I was hospitalized during the period of the exams. When this proved abortive, I tried to bribe some of the lecturers to change the scores but I almost got myself arrested. While this was going on my name was pasted in my faculty office among the list of rusticated students because my C.G.P.A was lower than the standard requirement for students.
As if in a dream I was suddenly no longer a student. Worse still, I was abandoned by my so called “AMAZING LIGHT”. They said I was no longer one of them since I lost my studentship. At once, I moved from being honored to being ridiculed all over the campus because the news of my rustication spread across the campus like wild fire. Out of depression I resorted to my substances of choice. I overdosed on one occasion and nearly lost my life. My ray of hope came one beautiful Saturday morning my Father called me that I needed to come home. Immediately I left school for home only to realize when I got home that my parents were aware I had been rusticated from school. One of my friends called to inform him he only thing he could and he nearly died from the shock. He then invited me home when he was able to put himself together. I confessed and pleaded with my parents for a second chance to go back to the university. My request was granted and I had to write jamb again. I passed excellently and I was given another admission to the same university I was rusticated from.
I went back to school but still I was not free from drug addiction. It got so bad that one day, after getting high on a lot of substances, I decided to travel with my friend to another state. That was all I could remember. I regained consciousness two days later and my friend narrated what happened to me. ‘During our journey I ran mad’. Thank God it never exceeded 48hours before I came back to normal. After this occurrence, I determined to clean up my life. It was a long arduous journey but I was able to scale through with the help of God and numerous good people God sent my way to be of help. I am now a much better person but whenever I recollect all that have been through I wept bitterly. “Only if I had known”.
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