For a very long time, I've always been heavy with thoughts of who I was and who I am; especially in the academic domain. And very recently, reading Princely X's "We are intelligent : differently", has made me even heavier and I know I'd not feel good and/or light if I don't share my own story.
I remember almost nothing about my pre-nursery and nursery school, but I have a flash of memories of how everything was and backed with photo evidences, all they tell is that I was a very smart pupil during those days... but wait, who wasn't smart in nursery school?
Being someone blessed with a retentive memory, I remember almost all the important things that happened in my primary school and just like my nursery schools days, I was smart! And this time, it was more evident and I was seen as a potential scholar. I was an all round pupil - I did academics perfectly well and I excelled in extracurricular activities. One thing about my primary school was that I never thought about academics outside my classroom(except when I had to do my made compulsory assignments) but extracurricular activities such as sports and drama always interested me both in school and at home. I ended up being a very important asset to my school, as I was a very important member of the drama team. I was an actor and the narrator - my teachers liked me and I was like the heart of the team. We went for competitions and did well in a lot of them.
As at when I was in primary 3, I (as the leader) and some of my school mates had a presentation recorded for a radio programme which was used for more than two years on a particular Islamic festival.
Not just that, I did other things like news broadcasting and quiz; and the name "Afolabi Koyum" was known everywhere in my school; even in our college(secondary school). A lot of competitions, I won for the school and I was very promising.
There came a little issue in my family when I was in primary 4 and by that, I was told by my mum that I'd leave Ad-din International School and go to a public school; "after all, it's just common entrance and I'd pass perfectly well."
This affected my schedule in school and the proprietress, Alhaja Sakinah Adekola  (Iya Ad-din of Yoruba Land) found out I was going to leave her school. She invited my mum, talked about me and offered me scholarship for being a promising child from my last term in primary 4 till the end of my secondary school education!
You should see the happiness on my mum's face when she got home that day. She was as happy as anything I could use to describe happiness -  I turned her sorrow to joy and I made her so proud being my mother.
Primary school ended even better as I was able to graduate as the best student; I was always second in the lower classes, behind Kadri Hajarah (currently my course mate in the university).
The journey to secondary school was an interesting one. I had the highest score(82%) in the entrance examination into Ad-din International College that year.
Junior secondary school was very okay - I did very well academically. I was always among the best students in the class, even though, I never used to read; not because I don't want to read but because reading school works bore me a lot(it still does) and the only thing I depended on was my ability to understand in class and remember what the teacher said.
Final year in Junior secondary school was where it all started - as a top student, everyone expected me to go to the science department. I wanted to be an Aeronautical Engineer; my uncle had talked to me about the course since I was in primary 3 and I wanted to do something lucrative, different and engineering-like as I could not afford not to be rich and famous... but then, there was a battle; between my head and my heart. Something was telling me to go to science class, because it was expected of me by the society, while the other kept saying art class, because it felt like that was what I could do so well without feeling 'tasked'. I didn't know which one was coming from the heart or the head. I gave in to the society expectations and I went to science class.
Senior secondary school one came and the story started to change. I recorded my first ever 'red pen'( and the only throughout school) in Further Mathematics when I had a score of 24 out of a possible 70. I didn't fail the course though, as I had a total of 43 percent( test score inclusive).
My unjudging parents saw my results and the best thing they could do was to get me a private teacher for extra lessons. Their plans worked perfectly, as I got the highest mark in Further Mathematics the following term. Even though, it was obvious that I had dropped academically, I still managed to be among the top 3 in my class almost every term.
Thinking about my academic life, I found out that I passed arts, social science and humanities courses more comfortably  without stress  than science courses that I had to take extra lessons for and sometimes, read.
I knew clearly well that science would be a big task but I felt that I was going to cope; "afterall, I could be an engineer and a self-trained 'artist' but I couldn't be an artist and a self-trained engineer" - I always consoled myself with that.
It was the end of secondary school and university came. Unable to gain admission my first year after secondary school, I comfortably murdered my POST UTME  ( mainly English, Verbal Reasoning and General Studies questions ) in the second year which was my first POST UTME attempt and my parents were happy and proud of their son scoring 84% in Unilorin's POST UTME.
The Department of Chemical Engineering probably thought they had gotten a guru when they saw UTME and SSCE results that slayed; thereby, offered me admission sharparly.
My first year in the university was where it then started in full and my life had to become what it is today.
My first time in class was a shock and very discouraging - imagine coming to meet a class full with about a thousand students, whereas I never had a lecture with more than 40 students at a time (though, I did remedial where we had hundreds of students in the class but the courses were more of revision of secondary school courses). It was my first week of trying to attend classes that I felt it just might never work but I had to finish this. I had to pass my courses, come out in flying colours and make my parents proud.
I always went to school but never enjoyed classes. Being around friends, learning other things, studying people, studying history and writing had my heart and school just never did.
I was fortunate to meet friends and 'more than friends' who 'helped' my life. I was an innocent boy with a soft heart that just got to a large world, so, it was not difficult or unexpected not to get too deep with my friends.
When other students always read because they wanted to cross to 200 level, what I did with most of my time was thinking and being around my very few persons. To me, thinking has always been my thing, it's like my food for survival - I think a lot. I think about the 5th next likely thing when other people are still on the 1st and some not even on the 0th.
Around late April, 2015; I finally thought of something that I could do. I wanted a team; a team of young and smart minds to do together, what I love doing so well ( public and motivational speaking). I coordinated this team and we named ourselves - "The Awakeners". Things went well initially and we made plans on how to execute our goals. But as time went on, some months later, when we were just about to achieve the goals, it all failed! Of course, it was my fault that it failed but no way in this world would I have known, not until I tried and failed.
Maybe because I never really used to move with people, the team members were all my very good friends. I didn't think beyond my circle of friends; I wanted us to do something big together, when I could just have looked up for people who had the zeal, hunger and passion as me in them and we could have done better! During the time The Awakeners was alive, there was this fulfilment in me. Going to school wasn't stress anymore and I felt more responsible and alive. Why? Because I loved what I was doing! But The Awakeners died and I got back to being my old self.
I had passed fairly and was among the lucky over six hundred to cross to 200 level out of over a thousand of us that were in my faculty in 100 level.
Again, my parents did not judge me but only encouraged me to do better( there's no one who motivates me like my dad and no one who supports me like my mum). I told myself that I was going to do better.
200 level was another life. This time, I started going to school and in the real sense, attending classes well. But my God, it was too stressful for me! 8.am to 5.pm almost everyday with assignments and reports to write. Please, where's the time to study, because factually, most of us don't gain anything in class, we only attend those classes for attendance. People that could study and still cope with that stress passed well and me on the other hand, had a fail in the only course I've actually finished reading the syllabus since I got to the university.
This particular course, I studied so well, made the password of my laptop and attempted and passed online questions of it.
The test was fair, but exam was very simple. How come did I fail then? Maybe what they always say about Computer Based Tests/Exams in this school is true or possibly I was just unlucky, or probably I just didn't know the course well, despite all the preparations. The fail weighed me down as other results too were not too good but just fair. I thought to myself; "if I wanted to get the best out of here, I have to forget this failure and move on".
Then second semester came; this period ended up being the worst period of my entire years in life. It was then that I actually knew how good health was important. I never knew migraine was like that and I never knew one man's sickness could make doctors confused so much and say different things. "One man, three hospitals, few days." As much as I hate drugs, they became my best food at that time and the nurse in my area became my school mother, and her about 5 year old son, my best friend as I was always going there for treatment!
School wasn't too regular, even the classes I went for, I went late and I missed attendance on different occasions. People are always quick to judge; some of my mates that had no idea of what was going on in my life concluded that I was only being unserious. Little did they know if I wanted to do what I'd love to that time, I wouldn't even attend classes till the seminar ends... but I wanted to pass.
Exams were not too difficult but they obviously were far from simple as I couldn't catch up. 
Second semester ended and it was time for third semester ( a special semester for Engineering students ). I was warming up for a football match when I heard the news of "results are out". Sincerely, I thought I was going to do better than first semester. If not excellently because of the things that I faced, at least, not as poorly as the previous semester. The news was like a good one for me and it even gingered me to do my warmup more. My team was still playing goalless when I was introduced. The fire in me was still burning and the morale, very high and by that, I took the half chance I got and scored the only goal of the match. I got to the cab happy and brought out my phone to check for my grades. But what I saw? Oh no, you don't want to know! Few days later, all the other results were released and I recorded in that semester, failure that's more than all the failures I'd recorded before then COMBINED. Yes, it was that bad.
"Who would I talk to?" "Who will understand me?" "What would I do?" "How will I tell my parents?" "How will I make up for all these?" All these questions and many others ran through my mind. I didn't know what I was going to do, I was thinking too much and the only thing my head could tell me was to stroll. I ended up walking from my hostel at MM Yoghurt, Tanke Iledu to First Bank, Unity Road, Ilorin( those of you who know Ilorin would know how far that is)at night, inside the rain and I walked back without passing any shortcut.
I might not have survived the trauma if not for God has blessed me with friends that I could talk to and that He gave me the strength to talk to my parents about it all.
Now, the reason for writing all these?
It is just to share my story to every soul that is struggling and to make them know they are not alone.
A lot of times, people who don't know my story have called me dull, but am I really not smart? They've seen me as inferior, but are they really superior?
We have different lives, go through different problems and have different stories. We all are intelligent in our own ways. We just need to find what we love to do and not allow the society that judges and stigmatises but doesn't understand decide who we should be and what we should do.
The things that I do today and make me happy are not what the society expects me to. The kind of happiness and fulfilment I get when I receive thank you calls or messages as a result of my writeups, I don't think school has given me anything close.
Our education system does not fit all of us. But we all can be fulfilled if we do our things right.
You'll face problems but they will pass. Don't let them weigh you down, it's never the end of life.
If life falls you seven, get up eight. Things will change but never get afraid to turn the change to something better.
This semester, I wrote a carry over course the same hall that I excellently passed an exam.
But this is life, all these things happen. You just have to keep your head high and not let it get to you too deep.
Turn your pain into something sweet, your cause of failure into your strength and design your scar into something very beautiful.
Parents and teachers should also take time to study their kids very well and know that science or engineering doesn't define how intelligent kids are. We all have our strengths, and the beauty of it is that it varies in people.
You are beautiful, you are special, you are intelligent. Never give the chance to anything or anyone who'd make you think otherwise.
Just like me, you might not have succeeded yet, but whatever failure you have faced isn't final. By the grace of The Merciful, we'll get there!

AFOLABI, Koyum Kolade.
KK Awesome.
+2348180026133.
afolabikoyum@yahoo.com
28th May, 2017.

Thanks for sharing. Indeed we are all intelligent in different ways