EPISODE 7- THE THING ABOUT MATURITY

These days, I have seen certain things that make me wonder how little kids mature so fast. Back then, when I was in secondary school, it appeared the maturing process was somewhat slower compared with these days. Some of my mates back then didn’t have beards or even the slightest trace of it until after we left secondary school. As for the girls, only very few could actually boast of full breasts back then and come to think of it, most of us back then were fifteen, sixteen and seventeen year olds then. Today however, it’s been a totally different ball game. You see secondary school students looking like macho men and the girls looking like mothers of two with everything ‘ripe and ready to drop.’ The language that even proceeds out of their mouths leave you almost closing your ears. Sometime last week, I stopped to buy oranges on my way from work when I heard a conversation between one of these school girls and an older man.

Girl- Bros, me sef I go lick orange o. Buy for me na.
Man- (smiling as he stared at the girl’s heavy bosom) You wan lick orange? Upon those two big oranges wey you carry for there.
Girl- Na so now. As me I get orange for here na so you sef carry banana for there (points towards his groin area).

I could hardly contain my disgust especially with the way people around laughed and the ‘agbaya’ of a guy grinned from ear to ear like the big loser he was. I bought my oranges and moved on and wondered curiously as I walked on. Forget the big bosom and all, that girl couldn’t have been more than fifteen! Wonders shall never end. Now, to Episode 7 of GEEBEE’S TRIP.

I was so glad when the admission list came out and I could hardly wait to resume lectures as a full University student. It hardly mattered to me that it was a part-time school and so I would miss most of the pecks and razz-mataaz associated with a full time institution. All that mattered to me was the fact that I was now a University student. At eighteen plus, I felt I was too old. Again, time went by pretty fast and within two months, we had resumed. The first discouraging factor on resumption was the school premises and the lecture period. We resumed in a secondary school building and lectures were fixed for evenings. We couldn’t even boast of a motion ground like the ones I had seen in O.A.U. In fact, O.A.U, Ife could have swallowed my school a thousand times over! It was then I understood the true meaning of ‘part-time.’ It was a general assumption that most of the part-time students would be workers and as such, the best time for lectures was in the evenings or during weekends. Again, my impatience got the better part of me and I decided to ignore the pitiable factor. I believed it would be worth my while. The first day of lectures proved to be a real eye-opener. A good number of students turned up. We must have been about three hundred or thereabout on that day but it was so shocking to see that about half of the total population were adults – men and women old enough to be my parents! What kind of education were these old folks looking for at such old age? I wondered in horror. I realized I wasn’t even half as mature as I thought. I was just a kid! It felt absurd though because I knew of eighteen year olds who were already in their second and third years in other Universities but alas, this was a part-time institution – reserved for the old and busy and not for young folks like me. I didn’t belong here but what was I to do at that point? Write another JAMB? Olorun ma je!

Luckily, we had quite a good number of people within my age grade too but trust me; I couldn’t find anyone I was older than. In an instant, the feeling of being ‘too old’ became a feeling of being ‘far too young.’ I learnt I had something in common with the young ones like me. Like me, JAMB or their proposed Universities had dealt with them so badly and out of frustration; they had taken the part-time option. I met people who had stayed home for six, seven years writing JAMB or hoping to get into one University or the other. At the same time, I met men and women who had been married for years and who even had children in University who would graduate in a short while. I often wondered what a forty year old man or woman needed a Bachelor’s Degree for. With all these thoughts on my mind, I was truly humbled and resolved to make the best use of my time and enjoy my stay in University the best way I could. Fortunately, there were so many like-minded people and together, we resolved that we would create a fun-filled environment out of the so-called part-time University institution that had always been assumed was for old people who were too busy raising children and families and decided to go to University at the time they should be retiring or sending their kids to University. In spite of all the discouragements posed by the academic environment, it was not too difficult to see that there were a lot of beautiful girls and fun-loving guys around. I realized that it wouldn’t be so boring after all. All I needed to do was hook up with the right people. In no time, I did and that was the beginning of a totally dangerous adventure for me.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF GEEBEE’s TRIP!