Would I Ever Have Been 1st?

I returned yesterday from a trip to a major city in a south-western state in Nigeria. I went to the city on three platforms. One was to facilitate a training program at an institution of learning within the city; another was to stage a seminar on the New Nigeria Club ideology and marketing presentation; the last was to accompany my mentor to his alma mater to present awards of excellence to the best performing students at every level of the school.

While the training went well, I am not going to be writing about it now, nor will I be writing about the NNC seminar which was also a success. My highlight here is the presentation of awards of excellence to the best performing students. Typically, being the best inferred that such students were currently ranked the first position in their respective classes.

After a motivating lecture delivered from the depths of his heart (the lecture was titled – 10% percent), my mentor whose name was also in the academic hall of fame proceeded to confer on these deserving students their awards. Those that were given awards were the best three students in each class and the most outstanding and/or creative students in sports, arts and the likes. The best overall student in each class was given a full scholarship for 1 year.

In addition to the awards and scholarships, the best 3 students academically per class were chauffeur driven in grand style by luxurious cars to the best and biggest hotel in the city were they were to meet with my mentor up close and personal, wine and dine buffet style till they could eat no more and then play a game that’ll teach them financial intelligence which was a subject they all would need for survival and exceptional living in future, but wouldn’t be thought to them in any academic institution.

None of them had ever visited that hotel so it was a high point for them all, probably the highest point they’ll experience in their educational endeavour at that level.

Now, why have I been doling out all this gist? At some point, during the eating and playing and laughing, it suddenly occurred to me that if I was in that secondary school then and that same exercise was carried out, I could have been among the honoured, but if the awards where done in the secondary school I attended, I would not have been part of the honoured students. Why did I say this? It is not that I was lacking in intelligential prowess to attain 1^st position in my class but there was no motivation to do so.

I have been certified as bright and intelligent since I was just above a year old. I had grown up without pressure from my parents to take 1^st position in class even though they knew I had the potential to do so. Yes, they encouraged me, but they didn’t put pressure on me enough. I never saw it as critical to my life not to perform below my potentials. As a result, I took 2^nd and 3^rd positions several times in primary school among a few other unmentionable positions. I don’t remember ever leading the class by taking the 1^st position.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, I wrote qualifying exams for a military secondary school in a south-western state in Nigeria and was ranked 3^rd from my state. The 1^st from my state was a very close friend. I left the school after my first year there and was moved to another school in Lagos which was a day school compared to the previous one which was boarding.

In this school, students were not ranked according to position of performance. All that was in your statement of results was an account of how well or badly you performed per subject. Nobody was awarded the 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd, neither was it celebrated to have excelled beyond your peers in class. We had no prize giving days in school and no awards of academic excellence were ever presented. So, I used to ask myself unconsciously, why come 1^st?

I was bright enough to perform averagely well with little or no effort so I hardly ever put in effort into being the best or close to it. My parents tried what they could but didn’t make it seem like I was competing with anyone. They didn’t make me understand that anything less than the best was me performing less than my capacity.

I consequently ran through secondary school and the university unconscious of the fact that what you don’t use you lose. I give no excuse for my mediocrity. Neither my school’s system of dulling competition nor my parent’s not-strong-enough addressing of my underperformance is responsible for my underachievement. I take full responsibility for it. I can’t just help but wonder – what if I wasn’t in that school? What if I attended my mentor’s school where premium was placed on performance? What if my parents had accepted nothing less than the best from me? WOULD I EVER HAVE BEEN FIRST?

Well I suppose the best time to have taken 1^st position was when I was a student, the NEXT BEST TIME IS NOW.

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