Continuing your education is one feeling that makes you hyped as a kid, especially for the thrills it brings. I was just a normal kid who wanted to study but never thought about making it to the university. I thought I would be learning a profitable vocation after my Secondary education hence I was hopeful years ahead. Of course, we had teachers come in to encourage us to progress further after High School but when I was asked about my next move in the educational ladder by my dad, it dawned on me that he had earlier wanted me to be in a tertiary institution. Even though I was not like many children who had little idea of a good career path, I was obliged to go and began to search for schools available to me.
Computers were present back in 2013 however since I was not well versed in their usage, I shied away from doing my research on these schools. I must admit, I was very ignorant and was scared to learn too. So through friends and family, I got to select 3 schools for myself and applied for all of them. These schools were the University of Legon, the University of Kwame Nkrumah Science and Technology, and the University of Winneba. Luckily for me, I was working as a cafe attendant at a friend’s firm hence I was exposed to computers during that period. I loved every bit of it while I worked there. This was an advantage for me so by the time the admission came, I was more IT-inclined and could perform many operations with the machine. I remember getting the admission letter by mail and it clearly stated that I was going to do the Special Education Program at the South Campus of the institution. I was happy but had little to no knowledge of the school nor what the program entailed hence I was in for a ride.
We had to prepare before making it to the town of Winneba. Locating my department was a huge struggle at first once I found myself. This was supposed to be under the Faculty of Education block. South Campus however was stationed elsewhere hence that got me confused and thus struggling to locate it. I was eventually assisted by some seniors who lived close by. I had no luck in getting a room on the school campus as well and this was a major headache. Mainly because my parents did not want to leave me stranded in the town. I remember we searched for a hostel in the heart of the town but luckily landed one near a Catholic Seminary which was financially welcoming for my parents. This room accommodated 3 people hence I had to wait for my soon-to-be colleagues to share the room with them. This was at least a good start for me since I wanted to settle in before the start of the 2014/2015 academic year.
Since I knew where the department was stationed. I was able to present myself at the matriculation ceremony and had the chance to mingle with some of the coursemates who had also settled in at the time. The following week was hectic and fast-paced with activities to my surprise. I never knew students had to register for courses of study for the semester despite being selected to pursue the full-time program. However, this was no problem for me since I had begun to get acquainted with IT and beneficial computing skills thus I learned to do it on my own in a short amount of time. After registering I also learned that failure to include the right courses related to the chosen programs led to further penalties that extended to the following semester. Again I was glad I did the right thing. Teachers at the university were referred to as lecturers. Until my first lesson which was instructed by a man named Dr. Yekple, I never got why they needed that tag “lecturer”. I realized his teaching methodologies were much calmer and direct with no loose ends at the end of their lessons. He handled us in the Nature and Needs of children with Mental Retardation which we now term as Intellectual disability.
Since this was very new to me, I was pretty confident that I would pass through the courses with flying colors. I also felt that High School was way tougher in terms of the subjects being taught every single day hence at that pace, I felt relaxed mentally and tried to do the same with the other subjects. I was offering Social Studies as a second area hence tried to incorporate all my learning approaches to balance things out. Lectures were going smoothly till I realized an interesting occurrence on campus. Now students were virtually doing everything by themselves. I say this about campus freedom. I mean students were mostly getting to lecture halls late and even forfeiting classes as a whole. Some lecturers came around and taught who were available. Students ate whatever they wanted as long as it was healthy. I was quite happy with the level of freedom but felt it made many reluctant to take studies seriously. To me, it was both a blessing and a curse in the modern age of studying but I was up to it. School was filled with lots of activities which made it more eventful and inciteful.
Students took advantage of campus events like joining school groups of manners ranging from sports groups, study groups, Information Technology groups, and even media clans. This would mean that every student who wanted to add an extra skill to his or her craft would easily be accommodated to unearth or even exhibit their full potential in any preferable skill. I at the time had a mad love for media work and hence opted to be with the school’s radio station which was known as Radio Windy Bay. Windy Bay was the go-to station for the indigenes of Winneba and thus I fell in love with their production and joined their team. Mind you, I had to study alongside partaking in every activity that I was assigned to perform at the station. To be honest I was ecstatic about this hence I had qualms about the situation I found myself in.
I remember going to the studio every Saturday evening and staying till the next day. As much as I loved what I was doing, I had access to WIFI which I used to do some assignments while in the studio hence it was a a win-win situation for me. I often got tired of this whole schedule but since I was a fresher, I needed that solid ground in the studio. I was asked to cover for DJ Nat who treated me with love and respect. He taught me a thing or two about what this work was all about. He often led me to talk on the radio courageously and that also built my confidence along the way. At some point, I nearly gave up because it was interfering with my studies. I was not studying at all like I used to so that was the contributing factor in my dilemma at the time.
To be continued in the next post