Having been away from school for eight months, a number of students might have forgot how to be university students again.
As schools are announcing resumption dates, this article will serve as an invaluable and indispensable guide on how students can navigate the tough terrain of their studentship yet again.
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Forget about your mental health
I have read on Twitter and Facebook how some students are complaining about adaptation and their mental health. “Why?” I began to wonder. Have the Federal Government and Nigerian lecturers ever given a hoot about students’ mental health?
Mental health of students is non-existent in our public universities. Lecturers fight for their rights and allowances for many months, call off the strike when they feel mildly satisfied and the students that they are seemingly fighting for resume to classes. They do not care about students’ mental health. No one cares about their mental health, how they are going to adapt again, their life plans or goals, and re-adjusting to a system that always suffocates them.
Therefore, you had better forget about your mental health and brace up for the hurdles that lie ahead.
Because public university lecturers are gods
When I write that you had better forget about your mental health, I mean that in a sarcastic way, of course. No one is coming or going to save you. You alone have the power to keep your mental sanity in place. If you feel pressured, please visit a therapist or find someone to talk to.
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Do not forget that your lecturers are gods
Start preparing your notes and course materials in advance, ask questions about course registrations and timetables in class groups regularly, every now and then, and remember that your assignments are useful—even though your lecturers might not use them. How is that your own business, though? Do your assignments very diligently and move on with a clean conscience.
I know that some of you might have worked for many, many months in the labour market. But please, do not question your lecturers’ knowledge or argue endlessly with them. Do not outshine your masters.
Ask your lecturers questions courteously in class. Do not be tempted to feel that you have got enough requisite skills from the labour market. If you have got those skills, truly, you could’ve just continued working there. Your public university lecturers would not take that confrontation in good faith. They are gods and invariably omniscient, remember!
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Prepare to starve yourself again
Be proactive now. Now that there are just few days to resumption, start starving yourself at home. Eat once or twice a day. Reconfigure your brain by shunning gluttony. Because you won’t be eating well in the next few months.
In the same vein, please get enough rest now. You might not have the privilege again in school, in many months that follow this month.
Call your financial helpers
Write a list of your brothers, sisters, aunties, or uncles, that you can call for financial help in a sheet of paper and keep it judiciously. You will need them later.
Besides, do not worry if there is just little foodstuff you are going to bring back to school. The more privileged students amongst you will come to your rescue. This realization should comfort you a bit.
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Do not quit your jobs
For academic-cum-working class students like me, you may not need to quit your part-time jobs, especially if they are remote. Stab your classes if you can, especially the ones with a lot of redundant theories and zero emphasis on class attendance.
Prioritize and have a scale of preference. You can approach a lecturer and explain your situation to him or her, especially if that source of income is necessary for your survival and sustenance in school. Some lecturers are highly understanding and empathetic; it depends on how you present your case before them.
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Carry your laptops and power banks everywhere you go. Work while you are waiting for a lecturer to come for his class, and work during and after classes. Some classes are terribly boring—either because the lecturer is boring or is bored or both.
Find support systems
Lastly, academic support goes a long way towards excelling in school. Intimate yourself with your course mates who know the courses better than you do, find study partners and join study groups. Nobody succeeds alone.
Join your campus or departmental fellowships to rebuild your relationship with God, your Maker. You need him in this stage of your life. And remember that this relationship is personal—through the Holy Spirit for Christians.
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In all, as a fellow student like you, I am rooting for you. Remember to get good grades while in school. And do not keep bad company.
Welcome back to school!
