At this point I wonder how I came last during my nursery school days when I was just a little girl, Maybe I deserved it because I was always playing but it doesn’t matter, I thought everyone in nursery school usually took first position.
When my sister comes home with her grade card, I feel so envious of her but I couldn’t bring myself to give mine to my dad cause I always did poorly then. It was frustrating as most times my dad would discipline me for me to sit up but the reverse was always the case. The only chance I got to play freely was at school so I utilized the opportunity.
Every term became worse up till the point my dad was fed up and thought it was the school and had to change me to another school. There wasn’t any difference, so he made sure I repeated class so that I would just have no choice but to sit up. My siblings were doing well and at some point, I wondered if there was something wrong with me academically.
I can never say Motivations are overrated maybe some motivations are. We hear motivations like “I started from just tears and now I own this multimillion water company” You keep wondering if you have no tears in your eyes to start yours, maybe not enough tears.
Just one night of motivation turned my life around. During the phase of my academic disaster. My dad tried several means, he disciplined me, he got me my favorite snacks, he tried teaching me with love but I just wasn’t getting it in.
That night my favorite uncle visited us and I was so excited, he relocated to another country but came back to see his family, so he decided to stop by our house. I think my dad told him about my issue, of how I did so poorly in my academics and I couldn’t read even as I was already approaching Age 9, meanwhile, my younger brother was reading fluently and was able to spell.
He sat us down and told us his story. He said he wasn’t academically sound when he started school, but he never felt relaxed about it. He tried to study more. He tried different study habits and he even listened more in class. I had no idea my uncle had the same issue cause he was so brilliant, he is a Doctor at the moment. I felt motivated and said to myself if he can do it then I can.
Also, I felt motivated because he said whenever we make a better result we would earn ourselves a gift.
It was difficult but since I had someone I wanted to be like, I tried my best. Slowly I moved from taking the last position in class to taking the first position.
My dad was so shocked and asked my class teacher to keep an eye on me if I was involved in malpractice because there was a promised gift, to his uttermost surprise my class teacher said I had improved drastically.
Most nights when everyone had gone to bed, I tried to stay awake to study just to make sure I did well in my academics.
I must say if my uncle had not motivated me that night, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It is shocking how a girl who did so poorly in her Nursery/elementary school came out with first-class honors in College.
Motivation has a great impact on my life and I must say I am grateful for that “Night of Motivation”
Cheers 🥂
All images are mine except otherwise stated