Life after university or better still lets say ‘life after first degree. ‘Since many of us will be coming back to the University for Further Studies, we can not therefore say ‘Life after University’ True, right?
For some though, it is – done with university – the reading, the rigors…and all that’s associated with it!
A big sigh of relief, many of us will heave as we write the degree exams, drop the pens and work out the examination halls. But, like a plague the fears descends on us. So many uncertainties. With the fears, comes the excitement. The NYSC call-up letters arrive. It is with so much joy we leave our homes bound for our respective states.
With numerous plans made. Some, wake-up to the knowledge that while they were undergraduates, they didn’t ‘catch-fun’. So, NYSC orientation camp and NYSC period is a period to have all the four or five years deprivation rectified.
The cold starts as passing out day draws near, the fears and fresh plans crops up again.
In fact, this time knowing that ‘the allawees’- Federal Government salary, State salary or Primary Assignment Place Salary will stop coming to you puts the fear of God into you.
Then, the big bang- LABOUR MARKET! Many Christians fondly call it ‘FAVOUR MARKET’. Whatever you chose to call it, unemployment is as real as AIDS is in Nigeria today!
Many have been bitten by this serpent that lives fat in the country. Many have such excuses as – ‘if only I had a two-one, they have already selected the people they want for the job before advertising in the papers, I do not have anyone to push my C.V.(curriculum vitea), I didn’t know they were recruiting, university education did not prepare me for this, my sisters did not tell me about this!’ The list of excuses is endless.
I want to ask- what do you want? How committed are you to your wants and desires?
What plans are you making to see them become realities? Will some one, some day be able to see, feel and benefit from these lofty dreams of yours?
Stop the excuses! Start now. Are you a final year student? Years have gone by, you have today. Same for others, even me!
I am sure some of the words or phrases used in this writing, many do not know what they mean. This observation is not meant as an insult but to ask – how informed are you as regards your road to success.
The fears will always be constant companion in your path to success. You need a positive mind, a diligent hand and a disciplined committed spirit to follow through. The truth as stated by Niyi Osundare in his poem ‘The Land of Unease’
‘the yam of this world
Is enough for all mouths’
Carve your own niche today!