#UgBlogWeek: Schools Made Me No Better – True [1/7]

I am all about the telling of stories – whether on my social media time line or here on my blog or using images that are carefully crafted to send messages, I love it. Seeing as this is the first day of our Ug Blog Week, I am trying to see just how many stories I can tell. In preparation for this thrilling blogging challenge, I started posting after decades of not sharing a thing here. It is very interesting that, when you do something out of passion and start getting paid to do it, usually the payment will take you away from doing it the way you wanted to. For this reason, I created a hideout where I can write what I want, but then again, once you go for a certain brand, it is hard to breakthrough your own ‘barriers.’ I don’t know whether that last sentence makes sense. It is too long even (Uglish Alert).

Today, I will take you to the period between A – Level to what I do on the daily.

 
*zooms in imaginary camera to focus into my head and brain as I do a flashback like in the movies.*

 
There I was. One of the brightest in The School. I had excelled in my Primary Seven as well as all through my Ordinary Level. I was a class teachers’ favorite. I was the obedient student and son to my guardians. Whatever they (elders) said, I was quick to run and do. I promise you, I was a good boy. Not to say that I am now a bad boy. Perhaps I am. If good meant following everything that your elders said to the letter against discovering your set of giftings, then, I was a saint.

 
Then came that Advanced Level and the government emphasizing the need for scientists and that jobs are scarce especially in the Arts field. Logically speaking, if you passed the Science subjects, you had to pursue a career in one of those fields by ‘taking sciences.’ Plus, it felt good to be carrying a heavy combination of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Agriculture. I loved Agriculture genuinely, just as much as Biology and Chemistry but I cannot say the same about Physics. Those books were heavy for a very small-bodied Son Of Olwa. Carrying two of them for evening revision was not a joke. You had to walk at an angle theta.

 
Anyway, here I was carrying the load of a system that did not seek to impart knowledge that I needed and elders who wanted to just celebrate having a doctor in the family. I was still obedient. I convinced myself that it was all okay but it wasn’t. I missed having a lot of notes to read as in the study of history – something that I can only admit now. I missed disagreeing with my teachers of Literature studies. I missed tapping into my brain on a literary and creative way. It is perhaps not surprising that I enjoyed reading Biology and Agriculture much more than the Physics. I daresay, I was comfortable with Chemistry because I loved my teacher in O – Level. That love led me to enjoying it in A-Level.

 
As I write this, I can’t help but wonder, how helpful is everything that we studied? Just how? How? By the way, don’t be deceived, I wasn’t entirely miserable at the time. I worked hard. I have great memories from A Level.

 
Long story short, the movie that happened after my Senior Six Vacation is one that I must tell in part two of this story.

 
Katandika Butandisi. Don’t blink.