My Time At The University

My journey through university was an amazing and a painstaking experience. It started with the awesome sense of freedom I felt because I’ve lived a sheltered life since I was born. I realized no parent was around to order me or control me. I think this really got into my head. There were times when I wouldn’t go for lectures and I was always in my room watching movies or visiting friends. It was freedom to me in every sense of the word but what I didn’t know was this freedom I was experiencing was at the cost of my grades. I was failing terribly in class and my GPA was suffering. I had already gained 3 Fs by level 200 and from the look of things I was going to get more. I needed to sit up and act fast. I decided to get things right with my grades. I started attending lectures and studying but things were not changing. I was struggling to understand what was being taught in class and also struggling to understand what I was trying to study. It was so difficult that I could stop learning and just start crying. You see when you are not putting in any effort in studying and you are failing, it is not as painful as putting in your everything and failing. I decided to talk to my lecturer about it because from the direction things were heading to I might not be able to graduate. He helped me select a number of courses and gave me the greatest pep talk I have ever heard in my life. He said to me “Beverlyn, you are very smart and I know you can do it. You can get all A’s, I’ve seen it before”. These words kept resounding in my heart and mind. The thing is reading a course like physics in University of Ghana can leave the smartest student thinking that he/she was dumb. That is the point I had gotten to. I really needed that pep talk. One other thing that practically turned my academic life around was when one other lecturer paired me with a course mate to become my study mate. That was it!!! Things just changed from that point. I was getting things in class, I was teaching others and it got to a point I was so good that I was teaching my study mate. The first time I got all A’s was in 400. When I saw my grades I couldn’t believe it was mine. I became most of my lecturers’ favourite.  I rose from the bottom of the class to be one of the forces to reckon with. Lecturers were not so concerned with me from the beginning but now I was being called to their offices to discuss my plans after school. One lecturer even proposed I should continue with my final year project and publish a paper on it. One profound moment I recall was when I decided to give a presentation on quantum radars, a new concept in technology which was introduced last year, and I went to see a lecturer who was somehow linked to that project and he gave me a151 page book to read on it just a day to the presentation. I did and I went in to do the presentation and I nailed it. I was the best. After the presentation this lecturer came to me beaming with smiles shook my hand and told me I had done well and I will go very far. I was walking on clouds that day because that kind of talk from that lecturer is very rare. All my lecturers were congratulating and praising me and one even offered to be my supervisor for my final year project. I am writing all this to let you know that no one is dumb. We all need a push sometimes. Someone to believe in us. Someone to encourage us. I believe that God had a huge role to play in all of this. I believe He made that lecturer give me a study mate. I believe He helped me through it all. I wouldn’t have made it without Him. You cannot do it without Him. My time in university was a rollercoaster experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget.