First day in (High school diaries Vol. 1)
The key events of my first day in the hostel of Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos remain evergreen in my memory. I spent six full years in the hostels of the school and no one could have prepared me for the experience.
It was on a Friday afternoon in late 2001 (15 years ago) that I first set foot on the hostel grounds of Ijanikin. I had been to the school earlier for registration activities but I only went as far as the administration complex which is just by the school's main gates. Mum drove me from our place in Ilasamaja, Mushin together with all my sparkling new and well marked belongings to Ijanikin. Ijanikin comes just after Okoko on the Lagos-Badagry expressway.
Once I was properly checked in and I had settled in i.e. bunk assigned, bed laid and all belongings carefully arranged into my wooden locker, mum bade me farewell, leaving me to face a day on my own for the first time ever. I did not have anyone tell me what to expect so I was not in the smallest bit afraid of life in the boarding house. Naiveté can be a great thing sometimes. I did not remain naive for long though. In the future, my eyes would fill with hot uncontrollable tears as I watched my mum depart from me.
