On your marks! Get set! Go!

So it was the heat of my schools annual Inter house sports and I was about to run my usual 400m for my house! I have been running this race for 5 years now but I was scared. I was shaking. Will I make my house members proud? Will I come first, second or third? Will I fall down? Will I accidentally cross my line? Will I push someone? Will someone push me? Will I stop breathing? Every year, I was always feeling this way. I always thought I wasn't good enough but the funny thing was, that I always made it to the finals. 

In high school, inter house sports was taken very personal. Friends against themselves. Teachers against themselves as well. It was like CLASH OF THE TITANS. Everyone was hiding their athletes or swimmers or jumpers or basketball players. We all wanted to surprise each other with talented athletes. Nobody wanted to be the last. I mean who likes coming last? Especially houses like mine that had been coming last for yearssssss But WE WERE VERY DETRMINED. ‘We can be one of them’, my House Captain would say. I was Assistant House Captain by the way. I and the house captain (my very good friend) would sit down with the other seniors in my house and allocate roles to each one of them to keep our activities in check. We wanted to get medals in EVERY sport. Even Ludo :( Chess :( Javelin :( LOL. We got new athletes but they were not as good as the ones other houses got so we started training our own. It was tough. We would run before lunch break and sometimes after lunch. We would practice in our estates but others never knew this. My captain will be like ‘RUN ROUND YOUR ESTATES THIS WEEKEND’. We really stressed our athletes. We made the juniors run with us. We wanted to eliminate fear from them. We wanted them to be able to run our races if per adventure we didn’t make it to the interhouse sports. 

The only thing was that the teachers allocated to our house didn’t care if we came last or first. It would definitely be a wonderful feeling to come first but they didn’t want us to see inter house sports like that. They cheered us when we came last and that was A LOT of times. Yes it was that bad. They wanted us to see it as fun and games. It opened opportunities for some students to realize their talents but they were like ‘it’s never that deep’. I remember one year when I came last in a relay. I got the Barton late and could not cover up. When I got to the finished line my teachers were cheering me like I came first. I vividly remember one saying to me, ‘Have you eaten? Do you want chicken?’ Hahaha. So cute. She started shouting to the house members, ‘girls clap for these winners’. I could even hear them cheering me while I was running my race casually coming last. So sweet.

In SS2/ Year 10, I was practicing for long jump and I fell on my toes and my feet were swollen. This was 2 weeks to inter house sports. Other houses were glad. They were like YEAHHHH.. One man down! LOOL. I was so sad. I was still going to the field with my one leg, following my team mates, trying my hardest to practice. They kept on telling me not to bother but we had practiced our formation. OMG! We knew our 1, 2, 3, and Last leg. It was going to be MAD!!!!! I swear :( Until this happened. I always slept and dreamt that I didn’t practice that day. I had never won a gold medal in athletics (I had some in basketball but I wanted one in athletics) and that was gonna be the PERFECT time. *It’s not every time silver silver sometimes GOLD now*. My team mates said they didn’t mind. They could handle it. I knew they were sad but it didn’t stop them from trying. They started training a girl in our set that had never touched the tracked since her 5 years of schooling there. How now? And they still believed we would come first. They changed formation to accommodate her speed. Uurgh those girls. Bless them. I ran that year but it wasn’t my best year due to that injury and we didn’t come first in that race but oh well…

Now, it was my last year in High school and I really wanted to get this gold but I was too scared. I thought I would come first during heat but I didn’t. Hence I wasn’t confident in myself. What I do is that I will scrutinize all my competitors. In my head I would be like,

‘Ah! Oyinda is in my race?? I have come last!!!’

‘Ijeoma ooooo!!! It’s over for me’

‘But why is Oj in my race? Isn’t she is a junior?’

‘Sir! I have Asthma’

‘I am allergic to grass, I can’t run here’

‘Don’t shoot the gun’

‘Noo’

I would cry as I walked to my lane. It was very emotional. I took sport personal. Anyone that knew me then would testify to this. Other teachers would say to their girls ‘Don’t come back here if you come last’, ‘Make sure you come first’. Some will *diss* the other athletes just to boost the confidence of their girls. lol.

This faithful day (InterHouse Sports day) I ran 800m. I never do that. There was no one to do it for the house and trust my teachers to say ‘just represent the house, we don’t care if you come last. At least we get points for participation’ OMG who wants points -__-. We want Medals!!! Out of the abundance of my heart. I did it and came 4^th and my legs started cramping. I started crying not because of the pain but because of my 400m race. This was the time and now my leg is acting up. Why me? Always me? My teachers as usual were at the finish line waiting to get me and I fell on them crying ‘I have another race. This is not fair!! Oooooooo’. I was upset. They got the nurse to massage my leg but it just wasn’t working for me. I jumped up and started jumping on that leg. The pain needed to go. I would jump and scream due to the pain but I was still jumping.

5 mins to my last 400m race in high school, my teacher asked me, ‘Can you do this?’ I knew I was in pain but I was saying ‘Yess’. I wanted to try this. This was my last chance to do it. Then before I went to my lane she said, ‘I am proud of you’.

*PAUSE* Bless her 100,000,00 times. She was my rock during that period. She didn't stop me but she assured me that no matter what, she would be at the finish line waiting to cheer me.

…..One your marks, get set, GO!!

Fam! Pain or no pain I ran like my life depended on it. My brother took pictures of that race. It was clear. I wanted it. I went for it and it was evident in the GAPPPPPP I gave them. Normally, when we run 400m, we start a bit slow at the beginning of the race and depending on you, you could pace up at the 200m point or 100m point but UgoTheGogo had no chill. I ran the whole thing and of course collapsed at the end. I can’t find the picture of me falling down but I looked like a lifeless fish. Yes I did it. 

I wanted to be proud of myself. 

I wanted my house mates to be proud of me.

I wanted my teachers to be proud as well.

Of recent I have been going through a lot and I have been thinking I can’t do it but I remembered this story and I was assured that when I put my mind to it. I can do anything. Don't look at your competitors. Look to the finish line. Why? Because that's the goal. that's the aim. Trust me, you will get there. it might not be as sudden as you want it to be but it is coming. Patience guys! Patience! it's a virtue.

I also know that it was graduation gift from God and I bless him for that. I was able to graduate with my First athletics gold medal and 14 silver and bronze medals. AMEN? AMEN!!!!

There is nothing you cannot do!!

Till next time xx

-UgoTheGogo

  

“Forget what hurt you, but never forget what it taught you”

I was in the front of the line during assembly talking to my friends waiting for assembly to officially start. Mind you my friends were short and I was tall hence I was definitely not where I was supposed to be. I was ‘gisting’ with my friends about the weekend and reminiscing over the fun day we had in Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island. Yeah that was once a hot spot for teenagers. Suddenly some girl taps my shoulder and shouts “MOVE! MOVE!”. I turned around to see who was shouting that early Monday morning.

*It’s not every day shout and show yourself. Sometimes act civilised* (How I wish I knew this phrase before now) lol

Yeah where was I? I was still turning my long neck to find out whom the mammal shouting was. I completely turn around and realise it’s my set mate (She wasn’t in my class but we were in the same year). You could see steam coming out of her face just because of I was occupying her space in the line. (But but it’s never that deep. *sigh*)

Anyway, as irritated as I was, I replied, “you don’t speak to people like that”. (Why did she have to shout at me like that though?) I turned back to my friends and continued talking. This babe continued shouting o! She was like “Would you move this Black girl” (lol we are getting somewhere). Feeling myself I replied back, “it’s black beauty” *Flips the front of my all back and base*. She now said the worst, “Yeah sure BLACK BEAUTY THE HORSE”

Dead

Dead

DEAD!!!!

Brief: I just entered secondary school. This was in year 7 or JS1. This famous secondary school was an all-girls secondary school in Nigeria. Coming into secondary school, I was skinny, tall, Black with thick long black natural hair. I was really dark. I am still dark but my colour then was like darkness chai. I was so quiet because I was avoiding intense arguments with some girls before they will start referring to my flaws. I was so self-cautious. That’s what girls do to other girls to be honest. This girl in question was light skinned; not the prettiest but you could see her in the dark, at least. She was tall, skinny with short hair. I can remember this day so vividly as if it was yesterday. I even think our school uniform made it clear whether you are skinny or on the plus side. Nothing could hide under that uniform. Lol. 

Okay back to my story. She called me “Black beauty the horse”. Now I don’t know if you know the story book called black beauty the horse. If you haven’t heard about it. Here’s a picture 

It was about a black horse that lived… bla bla bla.(read the book) I just turned around, went to the front and started crying. I did not stay at the back that day. If not everyone will know I was crying. The back was where gist used to fly. The front had ‘some’ quite girls. I tried to reduce my height. I don’t know how I did it but I was there throughout the assembly. Now, the main issue was that she called me A HORSE. OMG! I hated myself for being black because it made me a target for such insults and the girl? I hated her more for just being her. Lol. I did not tell anyone about this until 7 years ago Lol (yes 6-7 years and I still remembered) I saw her on social media making videos to empower the youth of this generation. I was like “so she is still alive and healthy and she is doing good *shocked face*”. I was so upset at her because she made me feel like dirt for so many years but as I was vexing in my little bubble. My brother pointed out something to me. “UGO it has been 7 years o, what happens to forgiveness? All you need to remember is what you learnt from that encounter with her not the pain she caused you”. He said something that made me feel stupid “Are you ugly?” I said, “NO” without thinking twice about it. Like I knew myself. I knew I was spice. Lol.

Now lessons learnt

1.     How dare you let someone dictate how you feel about yourself? Remember 

2.     Do not listen to anything they say. Turn deaf ears because if you hear just a tiny bit, of what they have to say, you will begin to reassess yourself in a way you should not. In reference to my story, at a point I was classifying people my skin colour, Ugly.

3.     Walk away or if you want to make the person feel stupid, start laughing. It gets to them.

4.     Say a quick prayer for them. Why? Because their hearts are so hard, mallet can’t break it. So God needs to soften their hearts.

5.     Lastly, forgive!!! Don’t fall into the trap of being rude to other people. I think I fell into that trap because when i was in senior secondary school, I became very insulting but in a joking manner. Still not an excuse but don’t be like them. That is the worst thing you can do to yourself, making another person feel the way you did. It’s never that deep.

I am glad to say I forgave the girl. I supported her youth development movement. I remember I told my brother not to like her page but after a while, I realised it wasn’t worth my stress. She is doing so well now and in my eyes she’s become so beautiful. It’s so nice when you see everything like roses, butterflies, basically the things you like. Maybe it’s because I forgot about what she did to me and picked the lesson Everyone is beautiful. That is the most important lesson today guys.

Bless

xx

-UgoTheGogo

Hey guys!! thanks for reading my posts. I would be vlogging guys so be prepared. Trust my tales by moonlight skills to be portrayed. I have a lot to talk to you guys about and ways to motivate you to follow your dreams. Let me leave you in suspense

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