4 lessons learnt from my 4 years in a private Nigerian University
4 lessons learnt from my 4 years in a private Nigerian University
What’s most important in picking where you spend your 4 years in University? Education, Life experiences, Level of freedom?. Well, i must have picked education because i sure didn’t get the other two.
My time in this private university consisted of compulsory church attendance, which bordered on brainwashing if you asked me. The goal of that was to build us spiritually and even though they knew we really didn’t want to be there, they wanted us present. At least i got to hear about and know God and God’s love for us, everything else sounded fishy.
Having to wear a tie Monday – Friday was a bit overboard to me back then. They could have at least given us casual Fridays, we even had to wear a tie on Sundays too. That means 6 days out of 7 my neck was being assaulted. I don’t know much about dress code for girls, but trust me they made it work for them. They made corporate wear look down right fashionable, ohh, no jeans allowed either, still have no understanding or reason for that rule.
I honestly cannot see the point to the dress code. Yes we found a way to make it fun and very fashionable, but what is the point of stealing our creative years of dressing crazy from us? we’re still going to go to the real world and start dressing like that for the rest of our lives!
The staff constantly abused their power. Literally anybody that isn’t a student has power over students. They screamed at us, verbally assaulted us even, threatened us any chance they got. At some point, there was even student police, students policing other students. It became corrupt in no time and was eventually disbanded.
Given the fact that we were quite young and active, it was only normal that boy and girls were very attracted to each other. The school in return, did their best to avoid all the drama associated with that.
Now, after 4 years, let me tell you what I’ve learnt.
1. Self Discipline
To be honest, after being denied some things for a long period, you start to come to terms with not needing them. If you can learn to have control over 1 part of your life, you can extend that control to other parts and push yourself to doing things outside your comfort zone.
2. Patience
Patience with the institution, patience with people, classmates, roommates, and staff, staff especially, they’ll drive you mad!! This would teach you real patience in the real world.
3. Anger Management
I can say for sure that every graduate of my alma matter deserves a certificate for completion of a 4 year anger management class, because you’ll be pushed to the limits. This has helped me deal with real life anger management issues (aside Lagos tailors, those ones are spawns of the devil).
4. God
I honestly gained a new understanding of God, i understood that God doesn’t solely exist in a “Man of God” or the Church you attend, God exists in everybody, he’s waiting for us to discover that and call him out, going to church once a month doesn’t make you any less than the person that goes 5 days a week, you have to take your own personal journey to discovering God.
If they still maintain the core values and get rid of the silly stuff, I’ll eventually send my daughter there!
What lessons have you learnt from your experience? I look forward to your responses.
