Like generals undaunted by the sounds of war.
Moving swiftly and precisely towards victory.
Acting without fear.
With these ones there are no maybes,
There are no ifs,
There are only
must be’s.
CULLED FROM THE AMAZONS BY OLUWAKEMI AREWA
Monday was fierce; I scrambled to get out of bed
No, I literarily flew out of bed. In my mind, classes started at 7:30 am
How in the world would anyone put classes at 7:30 I said to myself as I hurriedly went to put on the generator?
I had woken up at 5:00 am, for someone who had to cook, and do some menial chores before getting dressed, I thought I did well.
I hurriedly took a bath, the thought of hot decaffeinated coffee got my mouth watering but I knew it was never going to become a reality.
I went through my wardrobe hurriedly. Picked black trouser pant, innerwear, and a jacket
I looked myself in the mirror after a little make up and said
GOOD TO GO.
FALSE ALARM
I got to class at 7:30 am and saw Gabriella. The look on her face was that of someone who was perplexed. I asked her, why is the class empty? Aren’t classes starting by 7:30 am?
She said: No Kemi it’s nine.
I heaved a sigh and sat down. Someone on the #Ember27 group chat must have made a mistake because I clearly saw the words,
“Class starts by 7:30” a day before.
I sat down to get settled. plugged my laptop and tried to do some blogging; after all, I had 1 hour and 30 minutes of free time.
IN THE FLESH
At around 8.30 am, all the online faces I had seen only on zoom appeared for real. This must really be intensive I thought as I counted over 10 different faces who were always online walking physically into class.
AND THE LECTURES BEGAN
The classes were more explanatory and much more tedious than the norm. It was as if the lecturers had to get us to understand many more topics in a short time. The only person who didn’t rush through topics was Eugene. With Eugene time always stood still. And his classes got many more of my classmates re-evaluating their public speaking skills. Some for the very first time in their lives.
Everyone had a thousand questions; it was like setting sail on a ship that had to go thru murky waters. For many like me who had little or no idea of what an intensive week was like; it was a week of fiery/fast mental adaptations. Group and personal assignments increased by 50percent. Everyone had this air of sobriety around them.
FROM ABP TO CFA , MC AND DA,
THERE WERE NO EASY MEASURES DURING INTENSIVE
Despite the intense study pressures, the bonding sessions between all the class members increased especially during lunch and within-group sessions. People chatted more, got to understand each other better, and formed friendly cliques. if i were to really think about the intensive week, I would say it was as close as we could get to a baptism of fire.