MY LITTLE BUT WORTHY GROWTH STORY

In life, they say, change is constant. When I was younger, I had always thought that everything changes someday somehow, but at first hearing that saying, I was a little bit confused. But as I grew older I knew what it meant in essence.

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Permit me to add one of the sayings of my Principal back in secondary/high school - "No man is stagnant, you either progress or retrogress, there is no sitting on the fence". But I'd say, a little growth could be better than not growing at all. Well, there could be a stunted one. Well, that is not the story for today...

Let's get down to the D-day work....

Individual Growth
Tell us about your personal growth as a person. Comparing yourself today with how you were five to ten years ago. How far have you come? What are the steps you tool to ensure your growth? Someone might learn from your story.

Really, 5-10 years ago is quite a long time. Many things have done through the waters. I will say my life really started about 6 years ago. Prior to this time, I had always been under the full control, monitoring, and guidance of my parents and my older siblings. Most of the times, I submit to their own judgement and advice without not too much of questioning. Except for some little disobedience, you know, childish behaviours. And I thank the universe for giving me such good people, because most of what I knew or operated on now were laid on the strong foundation I got from them.

Like I said earlier, ....my life really started about 6 years ago....when I could make my own decisions and could seek their opinion on things and no the other way round like before. It was when I saw this prompt that I tried to reminisce about how I was in a couple of years back.

I remember being conscious of life really as a teenager when I was in the penultimate class in secondary school. I saw that the journey of 6 years of secondary education was coming to an end kind of faster than I thought. Cos I had always thought it would take an eternity. This was when I realized that time waits for no one! Even after graduation from secondary school, I just felt empty or not fulfilled relative to the stage of life I was then.

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Now, the time for examinations to get into the university came in and I passed - normal. But due to the education system in my country, I had to wait for more than a year to resume school. It was during this time that I had time to think about my life and what would I want my life to be. You may ask whether I did not have time to think about my life, well, I could say yes because for more than a decade of my life I was just going to school, moving from one class to another. So, I guess that implies no time for an in-depth check up on myself. But really, I was much younger then. But I just I knew that I have got to no longer follow the status quo. I wanted more good tidings, exposure, knowledge etc.

I remember I got a head start into building myself from the sermon one of my favourite men of God - Apostle Joshua Selman. I can not remembe the title but a lot of things struck me including building capacity, networking, reading, not following the bandwagon (without reasonable reason) etc. Since I got in contact with that, my life has not remain the same but for the better, honestly.

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Although, I may not be one who read books a lot but I still read book. Not just novels, but those ones written by renouned people who have made their mark in their repective industry. You may find this funny, I love reading the ones that reflects their time of struggles more than those depicting the goodies they have now.I tend to learn enough lessons so that I would not make such in my life. Also, this has made me one person who thinks and analyzes things a lot. At times, I sit and maybe look at my extended family and analyze them enough to see some trends that I may like or not. For the latter, I make sure I get what their mistakes are or if not, I'll ask questions about why was it so? You should see that I am someone who asks questions a lot to the point that you may get tired of me!

In the core of my life, I have said to myself that I will always build capacity. This means that,in little time I meet with people,I tend to flow and make tangible use of the moment, some of these times have grown to relationships whose cords cannot be broken. Still, I choose my friends carefully. Not everyone you see with me knows me well, only those I allow into my inner circle knows that. Most times I like to befriend those I feel that they possess a quality better than I do so they it can rub off on me too. One of my (older) friends once said to me, "if you have to buy everything you need, you won't last". This implies that there are some things that will come easily to you by the virtue of the network or the circle in which you belong to.

Thanks

Even when I later came into the university, I spent the first semester asking questions from key people around especailly in my department, then seeing the state of things I decided I did not want some status quo. This results in me becoming actively participating in other stuffs other than academic such as volunteering for events, students politics etc. For what its worth, I am currently holding a political office in my departmental association; which I would have not wanted anything to do with politics pre-university.

There are many things that has changed about me if you had met me about 7 years ago. I guess I have been able to just do justice to that summarizingly.

But really, no matter how far you may think I have gone, I have not reached an inch of it. There is still much for me to catch up on, I mean a lot. This brings us to the point where there is no stopping, no waiting; we keep moving, we keep growing. And I'd love to impact people more than I have been; this is the end goal!

Gracias!!