My Learning Lines

I thought I needn’t have to learn to do anything in life until my first time in boarding school. I was just nine by then and was the most pampered in a family of four. I had heard about boarding schools and all the scary stories of being there. But I was not bothered because the normal age for attending boarding school in Ghana was from fifteen upward; so I had six more years to think about whether to enter or not.  But I guess I was wrong to have thought that!

It was not so soon that my parents decided to take me to a boarding school in the capital of the country, Accra. The school located in the western part of the capital while my family lived in the centre. In September 1998, I was oriented to my new school and place of residence, at least for the next six years. It was a mixed boarding school with four large dormitories each for both male and female. I was affiliated to the ‘Kings Dormitory’, which was code-named VANDALS. I was My dormitory housed housed about sixty students which I was the youngest.

As long as I was concerned, my main aim of being there was to study and come out with flying colours, but it seemed there was more to it than I expected; the same expectations my parents decided on to send me there. I was there to learn. Learning to live with different people from completely different cultures and backgrounds, especially in a country where tribal sentiments are very high and family ties are stronger than an ox.

By the end of the year 2001, I had gain so much experience from living with people and also, how to live independently. Some of the experiences I gained include tolerance, respect, promptness, and integrity. I combined all these attributes with serious studies and this left me either excellent or very good ratings in my class assignments. This continued till I sat for my final year examination which I passed out with a distinction. My parents were very proud even though they were separated by that time.

I entered senior high school in September 2004. This was the normal level of entry to the boarding school so I had lots of friends who were new to the system. They had great difficulties living with not only living with new people, but also, independently and away from home. For three years I was there and I took it easy all the time. Actually, it was there I really enjoyed the good morals I had learn back from my primary boarding school. My worst time was when a senior student would either punish me for no reason or extort money or services from me. I was not the reporting type so a couple of senior students took advantage, but it’s all good, all part of the learning process.

By July 2007, I was out of senior high school and was offering a diploma in computer networking. I studied that for a year and the next year, I came to the United Kingdom to start an International Foundation in Computing and Technology at the Cambridge Ruskin International College.

TO BE CONTINUED...