Once in a while, a big problem that seems insurmountable comes your way and gives you an opportunity to test your mettle and grow. It’s easy to miss the bigger picture of this and wallow in the small-mindedness of your current predicament. But if you can brace yourself and go through the eye of the storm (scathed or unscathed), you’ll get a perspective of life that no one else can have. You get to apply your new wisdom to other areas of your life or use it as a teaching point for others.

Let me give you a practical example. Before I received my NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) call-up letter, I was in Lagos for the first time, taking a garment manufacturing course. I fell in love with the city’s energy and wanted more than anything else to serve there.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, I was posted to a village in Akwa Ibom State. I was beyond disappointed by this, but I still hoped to be relocated to Lagos while in camp. That also did not happen, despite my efforts to achieve this by immersing myself in all camp activities. I volunteered in everything asides parade. This strategy rarely works, by the way. I was misled into thinking it would. LOL.

To make things worse, my primary place of assignment (PPA) was in a village that was so remote, no one in camp knew anything about it. When I finally got to my PPA, which was a private secondary school, I was convinced my service year would be terrible if I spent it there. I even tried to change it to, at least, a school in the local government headquarters. That plan didn’t even have a chance to take off. I knew no one at the local government nor what steps to take.

My PPA village had little to no network reception for calls, talk less of internet. The corps members serving in the community had to wait till CDS (Community Development Service) meetings, which held at the local government headquarters every Thursday, before doing anything that required internet service. We also had to take monthly trips to Uyo to withdraw our allawee, or pay a POS agent a service charge before we could get cash. 

As someone who found teaching very challenging, I struggled a lot. Communication was also a big issue, as many students were barely fluent in English. Even as a private school, learning concepts were better relayed to the students in Ibibio – the local language. It didn’t help that my diction was sophisticated, and I didn’t know how to simplify it.

Nevertheless, by the end of my service year, I had managed to organize the first real laboratory practicals for my senior students. They even looked forward to our time in the lab. I introduced them to past question papers for external examination preparations. Even the junior students genuinely looked forward to our discussion sessions on Basic Science. And these were students who barely did their assignments or minded their schoolwork. They began to look forward to discussing their science essays with me. It made me very happy to have impacted their lives with my limited tutoring ability. Till date, some of them keep in touch with me.

As much as I wish my service year had gone differently, I still see the beauty in all the things I was able to help my students accomplish. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn how to teach and even get my students to thirst for more knowledge.

Isolation almost drove me to the edge of sanity many times, but I learned to quiet my mind and find peace in solitude. I have to admit that being an introvert significantly contributed to my ability to cope with the situation. I currently live in a foreign land, and this has given me the opportunity to use the skills I learned in that period and even do better.

Indeed, challenging situations create tough people.