It's amazing how much a "little" decisions can turn out to be as the years roll by.

Back in 2016, I'd missed my first attempt to get admission into the university and I was then making a second application. Considering the peculiarities (I don't know if that word fit well but yeah, let's procced) of my family, I was prompted to apply at a University close to home.

Now, I grew up in what you probably won't be wrong to refer to as small town (at least far from an urban city). Even if I didn't know much at the time, I somehow instinctively tinted towards the bigger cities. It seemed more life, more civilization, more possibilities.

At the time, I didn't have the courage to choose to study at the University of Lagos, (Lagos is the most popular city in my country Nigeria). Lagos was too big an ambition and I knew my parents just couldn't afford the expense. Lagos was point blank out of the options. It was like a rural teenage boy wanting to study in Harvard (who's going to pay your tuition 😂). So despite the persuasion to apply at the Ambrose Ali University which was a stone throw from home, well the young man I was in 2016 had just had access to the internet, read about the bigger cities of the world, studied global maps on his Nokia Asha 200 and somehow simply yearned for the exposure. I filled in for the University of Benin.

I'd heard a lot about Benin, the all-popular, all-historical, "ancient" city of Benin "Kingdom". My aunt even lived there. It seems it was going to be quite a burden for my parents but with a little sacrifice on their path, I knew it was doable. I didn't tell them I applied at the University of Benin. They came to find out when I did my JAMB print out.

Thankfully, I got the admission to study Industrial Chemistry and that would be the beginning of a whole new trajectory for me. It's been 8yrs now, and looking back, it's possibly the single best decision I made in 2016.

So, in October 2016, I moved to the city of Benin (that would eventually come to mean a lot to me and leave imprints on my life) as a first-year student. As is the unwritten, untold, yet well-known way of things, it was a subtle welcome to the responsibility of Adulthood for me. Much of which actually fleshed out in 2019 (story for another day).

Thankfully, I got to meet with good people that'll teach me to direct my life purposefully and strive to make something meaningful out of it.

It's easier for me to now realize that if I'd not made that decision back then, nobody really know but I'm pretty damn sure, I'll not have the kind of exposure I have now. They say environment plays a huge role in the personal development of a person. While I'm still growing and learning to settle better in the proper management of my world, I’ve come a long way thanks to some simple twists and turns.

Now, of course I wasn't born with all the wisdom in the world and definitely not with the brilliance of mind I now have but somehow, my intuition has always had a way of tilting be towards better realities.

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