Stuck in school for Christmas, life of a student(LOH #217).

Hello everyone, I'm a 300-level student of hospitality and tourism at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, in Nigeria. So today I want to share with you how I'm stuck in school for this Christmas season. So guys, it is imperative for you to know that the university gave us a short break so that we can go home and enjoy ourselves, but I decided to stay. Why? You ask. The answer to that is pretty simple: to catch up on my reading.

This story dates back to the holidays before this semester's commencement. When the university released the academic calendar for this academic session, I, amongst many others, discovered that our tests and exams intertwine with the festive season and the examinations start immediately after the new year celebration, like "literally" after the new year celebration (we're resuming back to school on the third of January 2025). But then I felt like I could do it, I mean, my Bible tells me I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. So when the semester commenced on October 7, 2024, and we all resumed, and I decided I was going to start my reading very early because I didn't want to work under pressure, but alas, here I am working under pressure (mind you, I have always worked under pressure, so I just wanted to change that). Why didn't I start my reading like I planned? You ask. Well, a lot of factors influenced that decision and rendered it a little bit useless.

But first, I take the most of the blame for that. So when we resumed, for a particular course, we had a three-day practical, where we went to our university's guest house(Funaab guest house) and met with the employees there, to get more familiar with the hospitality aspect of our discipline. So for those three days, I was always too tired by the time I got back to my hostel in the evening, and I would tell myself, "I'll read tomorrow," but I never did. And that was how procrastination set in. Moving on to normal lectures, most of my lectures were from 9-6, sometimes 2-6 and so on. So, by the time I got back from lectures, it's going to take only the will of God to move me from my bed, I'm sure Nigerian students can relate to this. And I'm not discriminating against students from other countries; I just feel like Nigerian students will understand better, as I have never studied abroad.

Mind you, it's not that I didn't read at all, but I didn't follow the original schedule of 2 hours of reading per day, that I set for myself initially. Sometimes I will even indulge myself in some hours of movies, claiming to want to relax my brain, and before I knew it, 1 hour of relaxation turns to 3 hours. So as not to bore you with too many details, let me move on with my story. Before I knew it, December came, and with it came several tests and that is how the struggle started. I started doing overnight readings to cover up, and to the glory of God, I survived that.

Now after the tests, the holidays came, and I looked at myself and said, "I don't want to struggle like this for exams or ever again." And so, I decided to stay back for last week and this week to continue to catch up on my readings. When I told my friends about it, they were surprised because we had planned how we were going to enjoy our short break together. The funny part of it is that I was the one encouraging others to go home and celebrate with their families initially, so you can imagine their surprise when I told them I wasn't going home for Christmas, I'm sure some of them would have felt betrayed, but I'm glad they all understood my reason. So here I am, alone in my school hostel, reading on a Christmas day. And that brings me to the end of my story. When I woke up this Christmas morning, I decided to share my story with my family here, so that we can all learn something from it.

Going forward, the goals that I would like to accomplish in the new year is to discipline myself to overcome procrastination at all cost.
Thank you for reading my story. Merry Christmas and happy new year in advance.
Until next time🥰👋