RISE TRILOGY: THE BEGINING

There was lightheartedness in the air, was it the spring in my steps? Or was it the birds chirping merrily?

My heart sang for joy and I could literarily hear my mind screaming for happiness as I walked into Lagos business school to make inquiries about the executive MBA course. Two months later, I was back for my tests. This time, the merry voices in my head were louder; I almost danced as I walked the grounds.

I was positive that the EMBA was made for me. On the orientation date, I couldn’t sit still; my coursemates must have noticed the brilliant radiance in my eyes as I chatted with as many people as I could during the breaks. We all thought Emba was a part-time course. Little did I know that we had been tricked. First came the two weeks brush -up classes every Monday to Thursday between 6 to 8:15 pm, followed by individual and group assignments that sometimes, took all night to solve.

Some courses were easy to understand while others like CFA and data analysis were begging for serious attention. Soon enough, it wasn’t hard to tag ‘AREWA’ as the girl with the questions especially when it came to accounting. I ran from math-based courses all my life, only to come to LBS and meet them smiling at me with the inscription “you cannot do without us” written boldly on their foreheads. Thank goodness my coursemates were nice, the lecturers; patient.

THE AWAKENING

It was indeed the beginning of rigorous studies and sleepless nights. Back then in tertiary institutions, we used the term: burning the midnight candle. In LBS you probably will burn all types of candles- sunset, midday, evening, and night included. The lecturers took it all in strides never looking ruffled, I guess they were used to all the perks that came with new students on different occasions.

Finally, I decided the only way to pass the courses I knew not, was to get close to classmates who were good at them. My group members were patient with me during assignments and would take time to explain how they arrived at several variables or made different inferences. This helped a lot.

I’m not where I want to be academically but I’m better than who I was before LBS. I look forward to a time when I can shock myself in accounting. Probably that will be me; six months from now.

I want to publicly thank my number one brush-up teacher and course confidant Augustus Brown who always finds time to critic, and guide me in data analytics, and accounting. Thank you to Tunji, Jelilat, Lade, Tosin who have supported me always. These guys made my LBS life easier, and are the real Mvps. There’s still a spring in my steps , although I guess I’m too busy nowadays to hear the birds chirping. The merry voices in my head cheer me on. They say: keep going Oluwakemi, it’s time to rise.