Caught In The Storm

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I can totally relate to the feeling of being helpless. It's a tough feeling to deal with. Life has an interesting way of pulling its strings. Sometimes, we find ourselves in complicated situations where circumstances are beyond our control. Sometimes we get into these situations as a result of other people’s actions, other times our choices get us into complicated situations. Have you ever been in a tight situation where the only option left to do was to sit down and cry? At that point, your mind is at the brim of giving up. The intriguing thing about life is that things cannot always go your way. The whole year cannot be perfect. Or do you think it is possible for things to go your way for 365 days? I very much doubt it. Life is like a game, most times we play the easy level, and other times, we have no choice but to dance to life’s difficult tunes.

This experience happened when I was in the 100 level- my starting days in university. At that time, I was a newbie to university settings. My coursemates and I were all newbies. We didn't know how things worked and we were just following our senior colleagues’ footsteps. I remember those days like it was yesterday- running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to figure out lecture rooms. I don't always make it on time to classes, there were a few times when I got to class just when the lecturer was starting. Those days, were hell but I guess those experiences make up the “university lifestyle.”

Exam periods were always boiling! As 100-level students, exam tension made the atmosphere hot. Not only that, the way in which my school runs exams also contributed to the hot atmosphere. I attend a federal university. Some of our exams are CBT (computer-based tests. My school’s CBT center isn't inside the school, but in another place - so, during exams, students either trek (it’s a 30-minute walk. Luckily for some students, they live close to the CBT center) or board a bus to the exam center. Up until five months ago, writing exams in the CBT center was always a hustle. There are limited computers, so you can imagine how hard it would be when about 5000 students fight for about 1k computers.

This is how the CBT exam works- just like JAMB (Joint Admission Matriculation Board), and all other CBT-based exams, you have a specific amount of time to answer questions. You’re lucky if you get a good computer, some of the computers are faulty. I had always been lucky with getting good computers until a day came when the table turned and I got a bad faulty one. I successfully entered my name matriculation number, and password. Suddenly, the computer stopped working. It turned off on its own. My head went blank! I started sweating profusely. Seriously, I don’t know where the sweats came from. The fans were working perfectly, but I was sweating really badly. After some minutes, I managed to power the computer back on and to my surprise, I had just 10 minutes left to answer more than 60 questions. The timer didn’t pause when my computer went off, no! It kept me reading.

I wanted to rush things, but the keyboard wasn’t working properly. I immediately stood up to report the issue to one of the officers on duty- I should’ve done that earlier, but I didn’t know the timer would keep on reading. The officer directed me to a woman. When I got to her office, I explained my situation to her. This woman didn’t even pity me. I’m the rudest tone I have ever heard, she said there’s nothing she can do about it and that I should’ve reported it earlier. In her words “you are no longer in secondary school, you should’ve reported earlier.” She said her boss- the person in charge isn’t around to help me. My head went numb. I didn’t know what to say, neither did I know what to think. I walked out of her office slowly, hoping she would change her mind and call me back.

I was helpless. The thought of carrying over the course ran through my head. I studied hard for the course! I worked really hard. I didn’t know what to do. I was HELPLESS!

I went back to the officer who directed me to the woman. Again, I told him about the whole scenario. Again, he directed me to another person. This time, a young man in his early 30s. He asked for my Matric number and in no time, he fixed it. He added to my time (the original time). Like everyone else, my time was “normal.” I was really happy that I got out of the situation. While going home, I wondered if that woman would be happy if the same thing happened to her child. Wouldn’t she do everything in her power to make sure the stuff gets fixed?