HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Introducing myself

My name is Ukpono and this is my story. I'm from a small village in the southern part of Nigeria, I'm the fourth child in the family of five children. I discovered I had a flair for reading and writing stories at the age of 10, right from the beginning I enjoyed reading about romance, coupled with frequently watching Disney cartoons, I started dreaming of a happily ever after love life. Most of the books I read were within the range 50-70 pages, I never understood why someone would read a book of about 300 pages until I got into my senior secondary class and met a girl, Grace. We weren't that close but one thing I admired in her was her ability to finish a voluminous book of about 500 pages within 2 to 3 days and was able to narrate the story in details to the understanding of others.

One day, I borrowed one of her books to read and surprisingly, I finished it within 3 days because it was really addictive. Since then, I became a "regular customer" at the book store near my house until I finished secondary School.

Fast forward to 2 years later when I was in my final year in secondary school, we were all preparing for the 2 major exams that will determine our admission, West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), so we were all fighting to pass both exams. I've always aspire to be better than my older siblings, I've always wanted to accomplish those things they never could and my first step was to pass my exams in one go. Doing that would also make me the first member of the family to get into the University at the age of 16, so I wasn't like other students who just wanted to pass, I wanted to do better than anyone else in my family. While waiting for results of the exams to be out, another idea came to me, why must I attend the same University my brother and sisters went? Why even study in this country? I have a phone and I have access to the internet, I could easily search for scholarship abroad and see if I meet their qualifications.