“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, it will live its life believing that it is stupid."
That stupid fish used to be me!
For me stupidity became glaring when I got admitted into the University of Maiduguri Medical College. The admission offer to Medical College was a bad news. Deep within me, I have no iota of passion for Medicine. I knew I would fail with distinctions and I did.
Because I never wanted anything ‘Medical’ in my life, I stopped offering Biology in SS 2 with the hope that it would never be possible that I be in Medical line. I wrote Mathematics in JAMB and applied for Computer Engineering. But for reasons only divinity can expound, I was offered admission right into the College. What twist of Destiny is that?
They later said my score was high and it is fitting for Medicine. What type of idiosyncrasies is that?
When I signed into Medical College, I knew I was a fish that is out of water, I wouldn’t make it much. Thus, I got on the long road to 'Kigale'.
As expected I didn’t pass any of the tests I wrote in my first two years in College. Histology was my worst nightmare. In histology, we do a microscopic study of the cellular nature of human cells. All I always see on the microscopic slides are tiny red lines that does not make sense at all.
Yet, my colleagues will say they saw some keratinized Columnar cells. And I will be like, "I can't see anything Keratinizing." Very annoying! So I never passed histology practical tests or exams until I graduated. But I always score high enough in the theory to scale through carry over.
I was not the lazy type. Every of my colleagues can attest to that. In my 200L, I went to night class every day for 365 days. I never missed night class thought-out a whole year. Even on Christmas day, I went to class at night to study because I didn’t want to drop out of Medical College. But the more I read, the more complicated the course becomes.
When my 200L results were released, I was plenty of D’s, C’s sprinkled with E’s and a G.P decelerating towards 3rd class. At this point, something gave up in me. Within me I quitted. The best of my effort had earned me E’s, D’s and C’s. I didn’t care anymore. I attended class at will. I missed impromptu tests and I didn’t mind. And there were lectures I marked as *free periods* because I didn’t like the course. There were exams I wrote without attending their lectures even once.
There was a time I was writing exams in Medical School and I received an invite to attend an all-expense-paid CAMPUS journalist workshop in Lekki, Lagos. It was a weekend program and we were fully lodged in Lekki. You think I rejected it? But no. I simply left my exams, travelled from Maiduguri to Lagos for a weekend and came back to resume exams on Tuesday. I told myself, "The worst is that I will have carry-over. And I will write the carry over next year." I was that unserious.
Special thanks to my collegues (God bless those Hausa folks; they never gave up on me), they were sore worried, “What is wrong with you, Taiwo? You were not like this in part 1?”
Despite the fact that I may not attend lectures for a semester or write tests, I never had carry-over. How? On the night before every exam, I don’t sleep. I will gather all the course materials and past questions and CRAM them word-for-word. Cramming comes naturally to me just like sleep comes naturally to you. And in the exam hall, I write as much as I could remember. And it is always enough to earn me a C, sometimes B. That suffices me.
In the midst of all these turbulence, I was confident of one thing: *I am not a failure*. I had had too many successes to begin to doubt my ability to succeed. I knew I was just in the wrong water. As at that time, I had won eight writing awards from ICPC, Governments, NGOs etc, including an award of Excellence from the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja and I had been nominated for several other awards. Infact, The Sun newspaper in August 2014 picked me to convey a special memo on behalf of the Nigerian students to the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. How they got my number or mail, till date I still don’t know. But then I was writing news and opinions for three leading newspapers in Nigeria. While I was failing in Medical School, I was succeeding in fields that I wasn’t trained for.
In 2013, I was among the only three students in Nigeria nominated for the prestigious Cocacola/The Nation newspaper CAMPUSLIFE reporter of the year award. Yet I never attended a single Art class neither was I ever taught writing. It comes naturally. So pathetic; I was failing in Medical school when I could be shinning effortlessly in Faculty of Arts!
Things went bad one time when I wrote Gross Anatomy of the Head and Neck. Every Medical student will tell you that it is the most bulky and complex course in pre-clinicals. So, I couldn’t cram much. The topics I could cram, I crammed them well. When I got the question paper, all that I crammed never came out. I looked at the questions and looked at them again and again. I’d made up my mind never to cheat in Medical school, so it didn't even occur to me to ask my colleagues. I didn’t write a word but I drew as many diagrams as I ever saw in Atlas of Human Anatomy. And I submitted. When I submitted I said a simple prayer, “Lord, I’m not praying that I pass this course by all means, but whatever happens, let me find grace to love you more.” When the result came out, I had exactly 40, an E! Common sense will tell you that not writing a single word in an exam is enough to make anyone fail. But I didn’t. I knew God moved on my behalf!
I was on this downward and backward lane until one day when God came for me. I was in my campus fellowship that Friday night in my penultimate year when God told me and said, *Son I have come to give you Grace that makes difficult things easy* And I believed it. The next exam I wrote after that encounter of Grace, I had distinctions in all the courses I wrote that semester. Praise God! In my final year also, I had distinctions in all, I mean ALL the twelve courses that I wrote that year: 12 straight distinctions!
When I did the presentation of my final year internal defense, my HOD looked at me and said, “Your performance is very wonderful. It showed you had a great knowledge of your topic.” I was like, “Me, great knowledge of Human Anatomy? That could only have been Grace that makes difficult things easy. And in my external defense with a lecturer from ABU Zaria, I had the highest score. When my press list was released, I was among the best six graduating students with a 2:1.
To cap it all, my final year project research was recognized, acknowledged and approved by the International Organization of Scientific Research as excellent and was published its Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences, making my name and work a reference point anywhere in the world! Even as a fresh graduate.
Today, I acknowledge the Grace that has continued to make difficult things easy for me. And I would never stop telling the world about the wonderful story of God’s love who brought me into the Purpose of my existence; and subjected me to different divine processes to make me. Its not natural; its simply supernatural!
After 4 years of struggle, It pained me when I realized that I was trying to obtain by efforts what God wanted to give me by grace. I do not under-rate effort; but learn to surrender to Grace.
Grace will take you farther than effort will do.
(Most importantly, build your life around your areas of giftedness)
Isola Taiwo, A brother that found Grace