📅 Date: August 5, 2025

🏫 Location: University of Uyo

*🧠 Mood: Frustrated but hoping"

Let me not lie — yesterday broke me.

It was supposed to be a simple process: final year screening for all students. For Education students like me, ours held on a Thursday. Coincidentally, it clashed with our CHM 422 (Organic Synthesis) class. Yet 95% of my colleagues attended the screening. I didn’t.

And it wasn’t because of the class.

It was because of a huge mistake I made back in year one. During our first screening, I used a statement of result, because the real certificate wasn’t ready then. But for this final year screening, that statement is not accepted. Only the certificate.

Now, here I am, 5 years into a 4-year journey. All this time, I forgot about retrieving my certificate. When the final year screening came around, I realized what I had done to myself — and I wept. Real, painful tears.

What made it worse was learning — too late — that each faculty had only two days allocated for screening. I didn’t know this. I assumed the screening would be flexible for a full month. But no, each faculty had its window, and mine was already closing.

Shout out to Esther, one of my coursemates, for giving me this bitter information. If not for the news of a supplementary screening, I’d have had to come back next year just to complete it. That would have crushed me. But before then, she was the one that made me understand that the screening was done batches by batches, faculty by faculty, each faculty allocated just two days. And I learnt about this when my own day was already crashing.

So, fast forward to yesterday, August 4 — I went to school for the supplementary screening, thinking I was finally about to get it done. But the devil had other plans.

First blunder:

I messed up the screening form.

The space for subjects and grades? I filled it with just the subjects. No room left for grades. Panic took over. But I had to swallow my pride and go back to get a new form — pretending I had never collected one before. Thankfully, the man didn’t recognize me. Whether it was, the crowd or God's intervention, I don't know — but it worked. I filled it carefully this time.

Second disaster:

I didn’t come with my original documents.

One of the files contains original documents while the other, photocopies of the original documents.

And no, I didn’t forget. The truth is, nobody ever mentioned it. All I saw were people photocopying and arranging their papers in files. I thought originals weren’t needed. But when I got to the venue, a lady told me that the originals were for checking, while the photocopies would be submitted. Thereafter, you go with your original.

It was like a slap from reality.

Worse still, I live very far from school. It wasn’t just about the wasted transport fare, but the thought of going all the way home and rushing back within such a short time frame. Still, I summoned courage, paid the fare again, and left the venue at about 1:00 PM.

I arrived home around before 3:00 PM — traffic was hell. Grabbed the documents and returned to school with fire in my bones, arriving around 3:25PM.

Just when I thought I had made it…

I heard these words:
“Ladies and gentlemen, there’s nothing that has a beginning, that doesn’t have an end.”
That was the statement that pissed me off and destroyed my day.

And that… was the end of my day.

They shut down the process. They got me pissed off without knowing nor caring. I had spent ₦2,400 on transport. And in the end, I didn’t even get screened.

And then came two more punches from our group chat:

Our project defense is tomorrow — Wednesday. I didn’t even see it coming.

After today which is now yesterday, no more course form signing until next week. That is the notice 👇

Honestly, yesterday was sent to test my faith.

Right now, I’m at the venue as I type this. I came early. This time, I brought all my documents — both originals and photocopies. I’ve said a quiet prayer and fixed my mind to endure whatever happens.

Today is the final day for supplementary screening. If I don’t get it done today… I honestly don’t know what next.

But I’m here. I'm hopeful. I'm holding on.

🙏 To Be Continued...

(Final outcome of today’s screening will be added here once I’m done. I want this diary to end on the truth — whatever it may be.)

Ok I'm back guys!
I called it part be because this part was prepared after my experience today. That is, about 9 to 10 hours after preparing the part before part B.
Let me start by saying this: Today wasn’t just tough. Today nearly broke me.

I got to school by 8 a.m. sharp, hoping to get screened early and go home to rest. By 10 a.m., the screening officers showed up and the process started. But guess what? From 10 a.m. till 3 p.m., my name was not called. Not even once.

I was tired. I was weak. Hope was gone. I had already concluded that I wasn’t going to be screened today.
And to make it worse, today was the final day for the supplementary screening exercise.
So in my mind, everything was over.

But suddenly — like a movie twist — my name was called at the dying minute.
I jumped up and went straight for my screening. At that point, I didn’t even know what energy I had left. God just took over.

But wait, something strange took place. Have you ever played a puzzle to finishing, only to realise that one piece was missing?

After my documents were assessed and everything were intact. The woman was about to tick my name and that's it for screening. As the woman combed through everything, row by row, and still couldn’t find my name, then she told me to return to my department and get a list that contains my name. But here’s the twist: my department is on a different campus entirely.

And time was not on my side.

I hurried back, paid my way to town campus, only to find out that the departmental secretary wasn’t around. It was then I recalled that there was a notice that was shared in the group chat. That was the notice coming to explain itself to me in the real world. That's the notice right below 👇

Her assistant was there. A young woman that usually assists her. I explained everything, and she told me to help her call the science education lab attendant. I called but he delayed, busying with other stuffs in the lab. He was the man in charge of helping me solve the problem somehow. It was then I remembered that I saw him earlier at permsite, maybe for the same issue that I later had. But guess what? He said he won’t go unless I gather more students with the same problem — and by then, time was already up. I went there for screening and ended up being turned into an unofficial coordinator. Tomorrow is my project defense, so imagine the twist. Talk about pressure!

But that wasn’t even the climax of the day.

While screening was still going on, one guy wey don tire and frustrated already in looks,the student made a statement that could’ve ended everything. Let me quote what he said. He said,

"We’ll meet in the outside world"

In my own ears, it sounded like a threat, and one of the officers took it seriously. I think the statement was made directly to him. He threatened to call off the screening entirely.

The young man became a lawyer of himself on the screening he came for, it's funny 🤣.

He said it's not what the man was thinking.
On a serious note, I don’t know what else he could have meant, but at this time, the atmosphere was already bad.

Everyone pleaded including myself. Students had to come together and beg the officer not to escalate the matter.

People begged. Voices pleaded. Eventually, the man asked the student to apologize publicly or risk having the matter taken up to the Vice Chancellor.

The student apologized. Thankfully, the officer let it slide. The screening officer had a golden heart ❤️

I can’t even blame the officers too much — there are only about 2 to 5 people screening over 12,000 students. But I still feel they could've organized it better by adding more officers to ease the stress.

As for me, I still don’t know my next move. My screening remains incomplete. But tomorrow is my defense, so I have no choice but to take it one day at a time. If today was fire, I don’t even know what to call tomorrow yet.

The way I'm folding my hands in this image says it all. The smile is a symbol of hope.

That single sentence —

“There’s nothing that has a beginning, that doesn’t have an end” —
cut me deeper than anyone at the venue realized. That was for yesterday.

But for today, immediately I heard,

"Go to your department and ask them to come with you with a list that captures your name".

I knew the chances of getting it done has faded off. Especially when I knew that they will dismiss in no distant time. That statement jeopardise my day.

But the worst statement for today was, when I heard this from the one I was hoping to get a list that has my name,

"Coordinate other students that have the same issue let's see how tomorrow goes".

The statement itself is not confident enough. And tomorrow, being my defence was enough to take away my confidence until I heard this.

It was just a generic closure line for them. But for me, it was a funeral bell to a day I had tried so hard to save.

But I’m not giving up. If life has taught me anything, it’s that pain doesn’t last forever… and neither do bad days.

Thanks for engaging 🙏 ♥️