EPISODE 2-OLODO RABATA
Break in transmission
I might have failed to mention to you, that I’m a first-class graduate (I know, a genius, right?). All through primary school, I was always the dumb kid. You know, the one all teachers never wished to have in their class. I was the kid teachers used as a reference point (in a bad way). It took me three years to learn how to add numbers, it was that bad. My fellow pupils mocked me all time. I went by the name “olodo”, which was common back then. I trust a few of you can relate, I felt bad.
This is exactly what my teachers thought I did with my brain.
It wasn’t because I resistant to learning or lazy, nothing of that sought. My brain just refused to process information as it should. It was as slow as my last 2.00GB laptop processor (I hated that laptop so bad). By the time my slow-poke brain decides to catch up, a decade would have gone by [ok, that is pure exaggeration] but you get the picture.
And NO, just in case you think I was mentally retarded. My brain was just the same size as Isaac Newton's, even though I may not have thought of gravity.
If the processor of my brain had been a bit faster I bet I would have beat Archimer to ‘Leverage’. Oh, I’m a science guy. And because of how frustrating it became for the teachers in my school, I was transferred to another school, yet still the same result. So, I spent part of my childhood jumping from one school to another. To be precise I attended 3 different primary schools in 5yrs. The stress that was put on me as a kid was unbelievable.
My father believed I was capable of greatness. In his words “You’re not the problem, your teachers are. If they can’t see greatness in you, then, they don’t deserve to teach you” Because of this belief in my “greatness”, my father kept changing both my schools and home tutors.
Fast forward to secondary school. I narrowly got admitted into a prestige private school. I said narrowly because my name appeared last on the list of newly admitted students.
Precisely the number 500, then ROYAL COLLEGE were only admitting five hundred students that year. My parents spared no expense in my education because they believed so much in me. (WARNING TO THE ADULT: DON’T EVER LOOK DOWN ON YOUR CHILDREN)I wanted to sound that note of warning because, if my parents had believed I was retarded you won’t be reading this today.
Secondary school was hellfire for me (I don’t even want to imagine the fury of the literal hellfire). Some of the kids in my primary school made it to King's COLLEGE. They started telling other kids I was nicknamed ‘olodo’ and because I confirmed it in my subsequent failed tests and assignments, everyone in school soon began to call me ‘olodo rabata’ (oh, please don’t feel sorry for me. I’m laughing at the moment). Now, I know you must be wondering ‘Tobi, first-class genius…olodo ke, bawo?”
This continued till I was in J3 when I was preparing for junior WAEC (the most irrelevant exam I have ever written). I had made 2 friends, Joshua and Victor. They were the best students in the class. If today I call myself a genius, it is because of them. They taught me how to read and assimilate. I learned a lot from them academically.
I never really had A’s or so many B’s but because of them, I was able to pass my junior WAEC in crawling results. (I had all C ).
After that, the name olodo became a tale only few can remember. A lot changed about my brain, the processor began to work at normal speed. A lot of girls began to see me as ‘the guy’, my teachers never again looked at me like their salary was not enough, and my parents reduced the prayers over my head. I even stopped coming last in class; I passed that baton to another kid. I wasn’t glad to be an average student, but I was so happy to drop the name ‘olodo rababta’
Looking back at my childhood difficulties, I can’t help but wonder what all the education was for if I was going to end up waiting on a job that may never come. I only shared this part of my story just for you to know I never started as an ‘A’ student. Even in my senior year, I remained average.
Having this prior knowledge let me take you through the craziness of my unemployed life.
