HARD WORK, THE ROUTE TO DREAMS

My name is Ovie Arhore, currently a research student at the University of Technology, delft, Netherlands. I grew up in Maza-Maza, Lagos, Nigeria, in a family of 9, 6 sister and my parents. My family was not so comfortable, my parents could not afford to send me to a good secondary, but they wanted me to be educated, so, I went to Amuwo Odofin Secondary School, a government secondary that lacked teachers from the junior secondary school through the senior secondary school. During my years there, we lacked teachers in important subjects like mathematics, integrated science, chemistry, further mathematics, etc., we were taught some of these subjects once in a while by serving youth corps members posted to the school.

My dream as a teenager.

Being in a family that was struggling to survive and an environment that did not encourage or inspire you to dream, I knew I could be better, I knew there was a silver lining somewhere that can be within my reach. I got inspired by two uncles that are university trained engineers, they live comfortable lives in beautiful environment and I thought to myself, I can be like them one day. I decided to defy the odds I found myself in as a result of my secondary school, I resolved to study hard and home school myself. At the end of my Junior Secondary examination, I had 5distinction and 7credits and got applauded by everyone around considering the kind of secondary I was in, but I knew I could do better. During my first year in the senior secondary school, been aware of the kind of school I was in, I continued home schooling myself, got all the text books needed; bought some, collected the others from past secondary school student, gathered all the SSCE and GCE past question papers I could get, with the aim of writing the Government Certificate Examination (GCE) at the end of my SS2. I did as planned and read most of my text books. The GCE result was release and I had distinction in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, with credit of most of the other subjects.

This result was encouraging, but I was still worried about how I will pay for my studies in the university, so someone advised that if I could get a very good WAEC result, I might get a scholarship to study in the university. That advice made me to increase my reading pace, reading all my textbooks from front to back over and over and over again that at the end, my WAEC result was: Mathematics-A1, Physics-A1, Chemistry-A1, Biology-A1, Agricultural Science-A1, Economics-A2, Further Mathematics-A3 and English-C5, while attending a government secondary school in Lagos

The next step was getting an admission into a university; I wrote JAMB, chose University of Lagos (UNILAG) for Chemical Engineering and was admitted on the first batch of students into the university.

Keeping my dream alive as a teenager.

I knew I had to work hard to achieve my dream, but I also know that evil communication corrupts good manners. The first thing I did was to select my friends, I ensured my friends were people of like dreams which made us encourage one another and also compete to be the best. I knew I had to make my parents happy irrespective of how determined I was to achieve dreams, so, I kept on doing the chores allotted to me, running errands for them even when it was not convenient and respect them at all times. I had to ignore a lot of outdoor activities in order to get most time indoors and study, so, I planned my schedule to accommodate a minimal time to socialize and not totally alienate myself from the world. Like other teenagers, yes I got attracted to some girls around me and had sexually urges too, at least to show I am biologically okay, but the urges were minimal as I was a virgin and too busy with my books. I once tried to ask a girl out, but she humiliated me in front of my friends, lolz, one day I will never forget and I noticed that it was an ephemeral affection, which I could not have sustained; I would not have had her time because she was not my priority at that time and thank God for my kind of friends, girl talk was not a part of our discussions.

At the end of my 1st year, I got a scholarship from one of the oil and gas companies in Nigeria and also got Flour Mills scholarship, all based on merit. These scholarships made my life easier and I was able to apply in the first place because I had a fantastic WAEC result which people don’t take serious. There was also an exam, which I was successful in before I was awarded the scholarship. Through the help of the scholarship, I was able to go through the university as it paid my school fees, bought my books and through some self-discipline, I was able to spread it into tokens to serve as monthly allowances all through my stay in the university. There were times I felt bad and ask myself, why I was so much disadvantaged financially compared to these new found friends whom their parents gave expensive cars to drive to school, while I was still looking for how to survive the month; but I was able to carry on because self-pity solves no problem but instead, with hard work, you can always achieve many things. Nothing good comes easy. When people see me today, they say I am enjoying life without knowing what I had gone through while growing up. Your success tomorrow has a lot to do with what you put into life today, so if you think education is so difficult, then you have to be ready to face the consequence of your actions in the future. A lot chose to go into internet fraud which I do not see as an option, just imagine what could happen to your hopes, dreams and aspirations when you get caught.

Living the Dreams.

With all glory to God, my hard work and determination to graduate from the university from rewarded with a brilliant result, I was glad I had finally become an engineer. The next hurdle was to get a job and practice as one. I got my first job while I was still serving as a youth corps member, but it was a banking job, not entirely satisfied, but glad that I could put food on my table and live up to my responsibilities. I worked with two banks before I finally got my job as an engineer with an oil company, I cannot describe the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment that gave me, my joy knew now bounds when my dreams finally came true. It made me realize that truly, things might not play out the way you might have envisaged, but eventually, with patience and hard work, god will bless your labor and fulfill your dreams.

My advice to teenagers, although there are many distractions and discouragement out there, please have your life dreams, dedicate your time and energy towards achieving them, know for sure that nothing can take the place of hard work, work hard towards your dream no matter how much pains it brings to you, make friends with other teens that have like target and above all, pray hard, knowing that God will always bless your hard work, but never substitute prayers for hard work, god is not a magician.