I have a Witness!
I was not a follow a certain timetable person, it just raised anxiety for me,
Dear Undergraduate,
I`m back with my Monday letters and I believe I have amazing content for you, but first, tell me how you`re doing? It’s been two weeks of school, what has that been like for you?
This week I have the honour of sharing the story of Omotoyosi Toki, who happened to be my classmate as a law undergraduate.
Here`s how our conversion went.
Celine: My first question is who are you in a nutshell and how does what you do augment who you are?
Toyosi: Toki Omotoyosi Eniola here, one of the cloud of witnesses. I am a Masters student presently, doing a masters in Law at Babcock University. I currently work remotely with a Travel agency but prior to my classes, I worked physically. The next question will probably be why, since I am a recent law graduate, this is mainly because I have a huge interest in simply giving quality services to people and I had the opportunity to serve in a company that dealt mainly with that. Every corporation has its section of HR but some companies major in it more than others and that’s what the travel agency does for me. Whilst working with the Travel Agency, I had the opportunity to write biographies, assist in research, article writing, contract proposal writing and agreement writing for small and medium-sized businesses amongst other things. Answering the question, how do the things I do augment my person, reminds me of something about myself that Abba revealed to me; A support system. It made a whole lot of sense as the things I enjoy doing and I do are things a person would want in a support system. One would think that being at the frontline should be the chase, but at the end of the day, the whole idea is to be relevant and content bearing in mind that relevance means usefulness which speaks to the purpose of a support system is for.
Celine: Could you Summarize or describe your university experience to us, please?
Toyosi: When Celineder as I fondly call her reached out to me, it made me realise that the Holy Spirit is timely.Prior to receiving Celineder`s message I had just finished a conversation that lasted a bit over 5 hours with a friend about our university experience amongst other things. For lack of a better term, university was a lot of things or better still, a rollercoaster. I always say this, if as a law student in Babcock, you did not want to opt-out at least once, you weren’t studying the law.
Celine: What were your most prominent feelings, thoughts and worries as an undergraduate, how did you manage them?
Toyosi: At the beginning it was fear; will I have good grades? Will I scale through school without packing a truckload of carryovers? Can I actually do it? (Not like I had an option) and so many other scary thoughts. The worry of having good grades was a constant even when I had the grades, which I still think could have been better, but I am grateful to God. I remember comforting myself in the beginning with ‘Jesus has to come before I enter 400level because it is not me that will read these gigantic textbooks I am seeing’. I thank God for that fear because it made me find Jesus. It was so bad that it made me look for a solution, a lasting solution because the fear could literally make one pass out. The fear didn’t just catwalk out because I finally found Jesus, but I knew I had support and I mediated on this power verse
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Looking back now it amuses me to say that 400 level was my best year.
Other things I did were to do the reading, of course, that is a no brainer. The grades were not going to magically be good, I had to put in the work and remembering how hard we read, I raise my hat to all my people who did this together with me. A reading group was a constant from 100 level to 500 level, teaching and learning from people helped me assimilate faster. I built amazing friendships and I am so grateful for them. Another thing is, I attend classes. Please GO TO CLASS. I felt like I would never understand the topic if I was not in the class when it was taught. Do not let anyone tell you it’s cool to miss classes. You may not be able to attend 100 out of 100 classes definitely, but don’t make it a habit to stab classes (stabbing one or two classes on purpose just because may occur, you cannot come and die.) I am not here to paint a perfect picture because there is no perfect picture. Don’t dwell on discouragements, even when you put in all the necessary work and you attended all the classes and you still don’t get what you want, that has happened to everyone and honestly, your case may not be different, but it doesn’t mean it would not end well, trust me. Ask for help, ask questions, assist people, answer the questions you can help with, no one is an Island. Learn to take breaks, unless, you may be overworked even without achieving anything. I was not a follow a certain timetable person, it just raises anxiety for me, but I learnt to ensure the work is done. What I do is, I program my brain to not think it’s a do or die affair and I am just writing it down for a guide, even when another section of the brain recognises it is a do or die affair. I don’t know how it works for me, but it does. I wasn’t the girl to have planners, journals, to-do list books and all that arranged stuff, I’ll just scribble in my notes so that the signal to my brain is not harsh. It was cute to see my guys have such a structure, God when? Just learn your pattern and work with it. At the point when I had realised that I was way better than I thought, the need to exceed the expectation was now the issue. You see, just take it easy, let God help you.
Celine: Looking back what is one thing that was a waste of your time?
Toyosi: Procrastination! The ultimate thief of time. I will do it later, I’ll go there later, even sleep later, doing something frivolous when I should be resting. That guy is no ones’ mate.
Celine: What were your favourite Learning resources? (Apps and websites) Could you please run us through what studying looked like for you?
Toyosi: I hardly have favourite anything, asides from people and food and things in that line. Like I already mentioned, I prefer to go to class and get a framework of the topic, lecture notes when provided, use textbooks and online materials and read with my people. One thing that did not work for me was reading in the library, I would sleep there if I tried. Reading in extremely quiet places was so weird for me. however, if I have to read in the library or in extremely quiet places, I still will but I’ll just prefer not to. It was in my 4th year I realised that 2 hours’ sleep in the evening whether I like it or not, was necessary to sustain me for the next 10 hours at the least. Celine used to reprimand my bad sleeping habit. It was bad but man has to pass. Please, get a working pattern that would not affect your health, na person wey dey breathe, dey go school. I am used to the pattern, I still do it to date, even this discussion from Celine is being attended to by past 3 am after my 2-hour sleep earlier in the previous day. Sometimes my body will shut down and sleep will win the fight so, do not be a Toyosi. God will help us all.
To every reader, I am rooting for you, cheering you to take those steps, tasks and heights that seem scary. It would not be scary if it wasn’t daring and bigger. You are way better than you think and you are an excellent achiever.
To Celine Aju, you are amazing, I am glad I could do this for you.
I would love to hear your learning points from reading this newsletter.
love this.
Oh my God, this is so good
I heard everything in Toyo Baby's voice
Thank you so much for this piece, it really means a lot to me.