While I was at the university, my first year was pretty much spent playing and idling away my precious time. I didn’t take classes, tests or exams seriously; at least not as seriously as “the guys” in my class.

Let’s talk about “these guys“.

They were a set of students in my department who had a track record of scoring strictly A grades in examinations and tests. What was more annoying about them was that regardless of their dedication to their academics, they still had time to party hard and idle away with the rest of us!

The thought and reality of having great academic records while being a “cool kid” tugged at me for months and I made the resolution to be like the cool ones in my class who got the best grades, recommendations and respect from our lecturers.

Fast forward into my second year at the university, I was eager and ready to stack them As & Bs and also party and hangout as much as I wanted. Much to my expectation, I started to hang out with the smart kids and they immediately liked and accepted me into the clan, but that was only the beginning of the pressure.

Weekdays and weekends, you would find them studying like they had an exam to take the next day; I honestly couldn’t deal. There was really no pressure on me to study so hard, but how do you party or hangout with people you never want to study day and night with? There was always this dark cloud hanging around me every time I failed to show up to read with them, but would always be there to hangout. Lol.

As you wouldn’t guess, I stood my ground and created my own less stressful study routine – which pretty much consisted of participating in class activities a lot and only extensively reading 1-2 weeks before tests and exams.

Disclaimer: Do not adopt this unconventional method of study, you might not scale through it like I did. Thank you for your cooperation.

I pretty much flew through the next 2 years of college having these guys as mentors and really good friends. I didn’t exactly stack all A grades every semester, but I did have my fair share of A and B grades and my mama was proud of me just like that. Besides, I was pretty much already blooming as a budding entrepreneur, trying out one business idea or the other while keeping tabs on my academics.

However, trouble started in my finals when I started to nurse the idea of actually graduating with a first class degree just so I could make everyone proud of me. And by everyone I meant my family, roommates, friends, lecturers, schoolmates and the entire universe that probably didn’t even care if I existed or not.

I started to study more, research more, ask more questions, answer more questions, take tests and term papers a lot more seriously. At that moment, everything was a contributing factor to my dedication and success; I contested for elections, volunteered as a class rep. I pretty much even kissed a**, got insulted and ran errands for lecturers I didn’t even like. The struggle.

What happened next?

I got exhausted. I started to lose interest in everything I had gotten knee deep into. I realized I wasn’t thinking at the time of nursing a first class degree desire. What I failed to see was that I was doing a lot more than my colleagues in school; I had 2 active companies at the time, and combining them with all those academic and non-academic efforts were gradually killing me.

What I didn’t consider was that the people with whom I wanted to fly in high colors with only had their academics to worry about at that moment. Only a few of them had active businesses which were mostly carried out in the school environment. I had to do a lot of traveling to attend meetings and keep my businesses afloat as I had already shut down one of them the previous year.

So I stopped.

I didn’t so much care anymore. I stopped reading as much as I used to, I stopped volunteering for extracurricular activities, I applied to start my project afresh on a much simpler scale, I pretty much partied more, some of my friends and lecturers got mad me, didn’t care and I eventually and subconsciously settled for a worthy and stress free Second Class Upper Division degree for graduation.

To cut the long story short, I graduated with a Second Class Upper Division degree and I was more than happy and proud of myself. I bet my mum was proud of me even though she was laid 6 feet below the surface of the earth 4 weeks to my graduation.

It was something that I achieved in comfort and peace, it gave me the room and space to explore other aspects of my life rather than burying my head in textbooks or making the library my nirvana.

Epilogue:

I went on to set up 2 more businesses after graduation and I am proud to say that they are doing very well today. My experience afterwards made me understand that learning to set up and manage a business was my objective of studying Business Administration in school, not the misconstrued ideology of getting good grades and graduating in flying colors while robbing myself of my little happiness because I fantasized about graduating with a first class degree.

In life, if you cannot get the grades or achieve the things everyone expects you to, get the grades or achievements that you can comfortably get and can boast of, because in the end, your happiness, knowledge and experience is all you’ve got.

Do not give in to family, peer, academic or societal pressures. Good grades or not, people would still celebrate with you as long as you are doing something worthwhile. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson can testify to this. I repeat, do not give in to societal pressures!

Au revoire!



Culled from; http://tushmagazine.com.ng/didnt-graduate-first-class-degree-happy/

lalasticala, mynd44, dominique

oh man...know thyself....

.

Nice fiction

truth be told, you never had first class on you.
You started way to late in your "first class" campaign.
#my2kobo

Gmajor:
truth be told, you never had first class on you.
You started way to late in your "first class" campaign.
#my2kobo

Its not about first class but identifying what you can do after school. How many first class chap are biz entrepreneur today in Nigeria

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femi4:
Its not about first class but identifying what you can do after school. How many first class chap are biz entrepreneur today in Nigeria

How many do you know? Stop posting trash

I tire for all these grade palava!

Over 1million applied for N-power, do you want to tell me that those who applied are third class and 2:2....

I'm sure there are 2:1 and first class

Bottom line: Study hard to achieve academic success as a student and Work hard to achieve success in life as a Man.

femi4:
Its not about first class but identifying what you can do after school. How many first class chap are biz entrepreneur today in Nigeria

Don't say that. There are people who are first class and at the same time successful people.

OrestesDante:


Don't say that. There are people who are first class and at the same time successful people.

List them

eterisan:

How many do you know? Stop posting trash

Illiterate

same old same old....

femi4:
List them

Use google bro!

GrandFinale2017:
Nice fiction

LOL

Anyone who READ through all that must deserve some kind of award...

alignacademy:


LOL

Anyone who READ through all that must deserve some kind of award...

Where is mine??

Whenever someone who cannot attained the feet of first class try to ridicule the highest academic achievement that is respected all over the world I got marveled. Bill Gates, Zukerberg etc where first class products but couldn't graduate because of personal reasons.
Irrespective of whatever ideology some people have about first class in this country, first class still remain the best grade to achieve from the university whether you like it or not.
Even with the bad system we have here in Nigeria, a first class graduate in this country is 90% well positioned than other lower grades. During my service year in 2014 in rivers state, the few first class graduates among us got employed right in the camp by zenith bank, gtbank and others.

Linzo:
Whenever someone who cannot attained the feet of first class try to ridicule the highest academic achievement that is respected all over the world I got marveled. Bill Gates, Zukerberg etc where first class products but couldn't graduate because of personal reasons.
Irrespective of whatever ideology some people have about first class in this country, first class still remain the best grade to achieve from the university whether you like it or not.
Even with the bad system we have here in Nigeria, a first class graduate in this country is 90% well positioned than other lower grades. During my service year in 2014 in rivers state, the few first class graduates among us got employed right in the camp by zenith bank, gtbank and others.

How can working in a bank be the best achievement for a first class graduate. That's the problem with this Country..... If you don't take up challenging careers, or be an entrepreneur or go fully into academics, then your First class changes nothing cos whatever you do in the banking sector can be done successfully by 2.1 and 2.2 graduates.

What Nigeria need now are problem solvers in job and wealth creation.

Nice fiction.

There's nothing to making a first class grade really. Just keep ur focus and maintain one girl.

Was only on first class at the last lap of my studies , babes nor allow me concentrate

I was always deceiving myself going to arts and management faculties like I was going to read, when in fact I was only going there for sight seeing and follow up my head always rotating to every corner, taking samples

Plus I had idiotic pervs as friends

Not everyone, is cut out to be an entrepreneur

femi4:
How can working in a bank be the best achievement for a first class graduate. That's the problem with this Country..... If you don't take up challenging careers, or be an entrepreneur or go fully into academics, then your First class changes nothing cos whatever you do in the banking sector can be done successfully by 2.1 and 2.2 graduates.

What Nigeria need now are problem solvers in job and wealth creation.

alignacademy:


LOL

Anyone who READ through all that must deserve some kind of award...

lol I stopped reading at first paragraph

femi4:
How can working in a bank be the best achievement for a first class graduate. That's the problem with this Country..... If you don't take up challenging careers, or be an entrepreneur or go fully into academics, then your First class changes nothing cos whatever you do in the banking sector can be done successfully by 2.1 and 2.2 graduates.

What Nigeria need now are problem solvers in job and wealth creation.

Then universities and other higher institutions should be scrapped for everybody to become entrepreneurs or the problem solvers and wealth creation. I didn't mean these guys were all absorbed by banks , so took other offers from companies.
What is wrong in working or getting employed as a first class graduate and there after you raise money and establish yourself?.
Please for goodness sake stop making it look as if going is a waste and getting first class doesn't worth it. If you're into business fine and good and stop discouraging other into schooling.