We were about to leave. Everyone had participated in their activity except me but it looked like I was going to miss mine. Worst of all I wouldn't be there till the end of the of the program. It was an exciting and insightful experience and boy was I glad my mum had forced me to wake up and go to church so I could attend the Teens Fellowship which my church had been invited to.
My heart was beating real fast as shyness did a long dance in my mind. I so badly wanted to meet him. I knew this was a chance of a lifetime, not one to simply close my eyes and pretend would come back again and maybe if I missed it again it'll still come back like a simple pendulum of opportunities, oscillating in my favour. Taking a deep breath I tapped his shoulders, knelt down to the level of the chair and introduced myself, "Good evening sir, my name is Emmanuella..."
Then he put his arms around me and suddenly I felt calm. Yes, I was legit talking to Mr Zion Oshiobugie, The Academic Mentor! I poured out my heart's dilemma on my inability to decide if I wanted to be in the art or science department. I also told him of my passion for writing and that I was a blogger. And click, he said the words that are forever etched in neon blue ink in my memory, "Do you know what I can do with you? " And that was it, a professional start to my career as a writer.
On Monday morning I was more than eager to wake up and get dressed, in contrast to my usual mourning of the 2 minutes sleep missed because of the one thousand and one things I had to do (holiday gone wrong). Today I was going to Mr Zion's office to have a meeting, one on one with him.
I was putting on my black turtle neck with a loose skirt, waiting eagerly at the reception office. About an hour later he walked in and and beckoned me to his office. Now seated and enclosed in the mini White House he smiled a warm smile at me, did the regular pleasantry greetings and the main meat of the fried rice was now ready to be eaten. I had a choice to make and he had the fairy's magical wand I prayed would make everything a whole lot easier. He handed me a piece of paper which contained the Holland code. With just the two of us in the room I filled the piece of paper with ease. When I was done we wrote out my code together. I was surprised to find out the extent of my inclination to the world of art. He showed me the career opportunities available based on my code.
I had earlier introduced myself in details and he had given me a world class TedX speech on passion, siting himself as an example. I was wowed at his story of a house boy transformed entrepreneur. Like a little kid in pre-school who had just learnt the power of a light switch, my entire body was set ablaze with the newly discovered power I had, my imagination more than sparked, it made, produced and advertised an entire movie in which I was the star, a super hero with the power to do anything I put my mind to, passion fuelling it all(some telekinesis kinda dream).
I walked out that room with a mind set, heart straight, I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. It was hard convincing those around me but I've never made a better and more fulfilling decision.
Occasionally we had meetings in his office where he counselled me and exposed me to writing opportunities. Daily I would send him poetry that I had written and he would never fail to inform me on how to improve my skills. My first break came after I won the Writtinggamesng2017, a national competition organised by Goal.com and the University of Sussex. I was unethusiastic when I saw the message from my mentor to apply. The Competition required you to write an essay titled, 'Making Nigerian Football Attractive'. So far my scope of football was, "I know there's a guy named Ronaldo and another, Messi."
"You can channel your creativity to whatever you want, " he said and those words inspired me to write. And so on the 11th of September I was declared the winner of the Writinggamesng2017 under the second category. It was a victory that proved the power of my words, and my potentials as a writer.
Under his constant mentorship, my children fiction, Aminant the rascal won the Imbube Creative Writing Prize last year October. I also published my first collection of poetry titled 'Feelings' on Amazon. On May 19th this year I was given an Award of Excellence by Raising Young Authors for my contribution to the creative world of writing.
I am now proud to say the words 'I am a writer,' and after being mentored by Mr Zion Oshiobugie I have seen the need to change the status quo and through my pen I write on issues that affect our Immediate society and world at large. My dream is to create a revolution of teenagers fuelled by passion who will be leaders of various industries. It is time that the limited career mindset of our people are expanded and enlightened.
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