Chapter 10

Nelson and I didn't really seem compatible together. It felt weird thinking about compatibility maybe because at that age it just did not seem right. We had nearly nothing in common except of course our love for pineapple which was one of the few things I can say we both liked, I mean he just didn't see things the way I did. As much as I wanted him around, I knew the relationship would not last, I wanted his advice on things I planned doing, we got so close that I wanted to get to know him more. I wanted so many things like gaining admission to any prestigious university to study law, my parents getting back together and making them proud of me. I had several dreams about our relationship ending. In all the dreams I had about him, it was either someone pulled him away or we drift apart because of something.

  After secondary school graduation, Tayo and I got jamb forms, I wasn't sure the university to choose, all I wanted was a Law degree, but I chose the University Of Lagos like Dada had suggested because he studied Engineering there, while Tayo chose Babcock University as her Dad had suggested as well. Although her mum wanted us attending the same University, she chose Babcock because her elder siblings also schooled there. 

  Dada, Mummy Teni and I went to the University Of Lagos to get some past questions from the school's bookshop to also prepare for post utme exam, thinking since WAEC and jamb had past questions, that would aid me to ace the utme exam. We saw past questions for different universities at the bookshop as well. Jamb results finally came, I had an average of 219, while for the post utme, for some reasons, none of the questions I practices from the past question book we had purchased from the school's bookshop came out. I had answered the questions year by year, several times with a few friends who were preparing for utme exams as well in various universities like Temidayo, a friend from Kith and Kin and Triplets. It was just a complete waste of time and money going to get past questions from the school's bookshop, could not meet the cut-off, so I opted for Jupeb diploma and retook jamb. The second jamb, I had 226 and 19 in post Utme exam but still didn't get any course from Unilag, I didn't bother trying another University because Dada really wanted me in the school.

  Dada got me Jupeb forms the same year, I enrolled for it along with My cousin (Favour) and luckily got enrolled for Jupeb. I wanted to makeup for Jamb, to make Dada proud. One time, he tried opening an account online for me then I was asked for my number. But wasn't stored in my memory, even though I had gotten the new SIM about two months before then, it still seemed new, so I tried searching for the number if I had saved it on my phone, but the network logged us out. Dada was so mad, Then he made a statement which I couldn't forget ,"I don't know if I'm wasting my Time and Money on you". Although he said it out of anger, I kept those words to myself. So another time during the Jupeb programme, when I went home, I went to meet him to remind him of what he had said. Dada, I am going to ace this Jupeb exam and prove to you that you are not wasting your money on me, you'll see, I had said, looking down, counting the square tiles boxes and limping on them in twos.

 During the Jupeb programme I became friends with Owooluwa. She is the type I will call really gifted because when she reads, it takes her a while to complete whatever book she was reading, but she remembered whatever she had learnt in details for years after completing the book. She introduced me to some scholar's friends of hers, we read together sometimes because we stayed in the same hostel with Favour and I even attended the Jupeb tutorial she attended, made by some already Unilag Law students with high CGPA. I also formed a reading group with Owooluwa, John and some other really brilliant student's. Which at the end no one attended except John, they all gave excuses each time we had the group reading about them having to attend Jupeb tutorials they had paid for before I thought of making the group or about them having to leave school on time because they lived far or because of traffic in the evenings. John was brilliant too but I stopped reading with him when I found out he had something for me but I was not interested in a relationship atleast not at that time, all I wanted so bad was my law degree, besides I was in a relationship with Nelson already, which I really tried making work. We could not see each other during Jupeb so we only spoke on phone. 

  Jupeb did not really work out for me because at the end I came out with an average again,after all the reading I had 9points of 16 points. CRS was always the problem for me. I remembered after the Jupeb, when owooluwa and Tofunmi said To Me "Demi, don't allow Jupeb make you look down on your self. You read alot that is what I know about you, at some point you even motivated me to read", Funny right, my reading too much motivates you to read, so why don't I pass my exams as much as I read. Dada funny enough, did not get mad at me when he saw the Jupeb results. You tried Demi, I know you read hard for this. No, I deserve better than this I should have atleast gotten twelve of sixteen. I was depressed after that, I was tired of trying to get into Unilag, I went off all social media for a while, I even fell ill at some point. Seeing the people I walked with during Jupeb get good courses, even if some did not get the courses they opted for, made me really sad, although I was really happy for them, but I stopped talking to most of them. I almost even ended the relationship with Nelson. I stopped calling, I was barely online, so he tried coming over to talk to me several times. I felt like a big failure, I let everyone down especially Dada, even though he did not make me feel that way.

  I would stay in my room all day and would only try to eat when I had the appetite to. Dada would come tell me stories about how he also tried many times getting into Unilag before they finally gave him his course and Mum Teni would tell me about how she nearly got to study law at the University Of Ife. But it still did not change anything, until one day, Dada screamed my name to come out of my room that they had started given admission to another badge of Jupeb students and when we checked the caps portal, almighty Unilag gave me no other course than the same CRS, I had problems with in Jupeb. Jupeb gave me Cs in both government and literature but D in CRS and they still gave me that same CRS to study, I lamented. I had no problem with these subjects in secondary school. Although most Jupeb students were given courses that year even though it was not what they wanted. If they wanted to change my course so bad why not Political Science, Theatre Art or even Linguistics at least my point was enough for these courses, why Religious Studies. I think you should accept the course and then you could obtain a change of course form after your 200l, instead of taking Jamb again, Dada had suggested. So I accepted the course and started processing my admission.

  The good thing about schooling in Unilag is the pride and respect you get from people when you tell them you school in the university of Lagos. My biggest issue just like most unilag students was problem of accommodation, getting an apartment or hostel. As one of the toughest unis to gain admission into, getting your desired course especially if it's a competitive course like Law or Medicine, is another problem if you do not meet up with the cutoff.

  Religious Studies was quite an interesting course. We looked beyond the Bible as well as studied the Bible detailedly. We studied philosophy, world's religions, like Islamic religion, Buddhism, African traditional religion and other Asian religion. Their different take on the world's origin, life after death, founders and other beliefs. Because of the strike as well as a covid 19 lockdown, I ended up in the same level for two years. During that period it was really difficult to read, the zeal to further my education was not really there anymore, but I still tried reading various religious books to keep me busy.