RESPIRATORY DISTRESS

                 RESPIRATORY DISTRESS
         So it’s 3:55AM and for some reason that continues to elude me, I have decided to close my textbooks (with an S) to write this piece. Not because I have the time, nor I can feel the words ringing in my ears, but because I have only about 12 hours to the biggest examination in my life yet, and I want to tell you something about respiratory distress.
                OK, lemme give you the background story, Respiratory Physiology was supposed to be fun (If you’re yet to do it, PLEASE MAKE SURE IT IS FUN TO YOU) One is supposed to learn how oxygen is taken into the body, and carbon(IV)oxide is released, coupled with everything in between, the diseases, complications, control and regulation even the magical stuff I simply cannot explain. But here I am, 12 hours to “kick off time” and I just realized I did not have fun with this stuff.
           Starting from when the lecturer was walking around the class like a Lagos Traffic Warden and he somehow managed to see my steady blue slides, and he said in the coldest-I-am-in-charge-voice he could muster that “You don’t wear slippers to my class, this is a college, not a playground.” Or to the week after, when I jejely decided to go plug my laptop in the college library ( I  have not had light in my apartment for one month, have you?) and I came back to meet a host of people standing at the door, initially, I thought they just decided to have “the corridor experience” ooo, not knowing that my dear lecturer had closed the door, just 5 minutes after he entered….see me see wahala ooo…to now pepper my sores, he decided to take one James Bond attendance, claiming it’s worth 5 marks. Then, to crown it all up. The next week, he asked a question in class, just a question and nothing much happened except that everyone was dazed! And my oga-at-the-top said “physiology you don’t know, anatomy, you don’t know, what do you people know sef?” My people, I tell you, It took every atom of self will in my body to not burst out in laughter at that moment.
              So, what’s my point? SIMPLE – FEAR PUSHES YOU – you just have to channel it the right way. After five weeks of this class, it became quite obvious to all of us that if something did not change drastically, we were all going to fail, terribly. So what did the wise ones among us (yours faithfully included) do, we dropped our egos, dusted our books, and in my case, cleaned our goggles, sat down, and STUDIED.SIMPLE. Now, the exam is just less than half a day away, but I know, we know we will scale through this one, just like the others, simply because we did not sit back, bury our heads in the sand like the Ostrich to hide from our fears, but we stood strong, bent our backs, burnt the candles, because we all fear failure.
         FEAR…it’s perfectly natural, be scared, be worried, but what matters most is how well we can channel this fear, make it positive, build on the positives, work through it…and soon you’d  be singing the victory song.
Like I will, once I leave that exam hall.
Thanks A-Plenty
#SHALLA

CHOICES

11:06PM…..
SOMEWHERE IN EASTERN ILORIN……
15 WEEKS AGO…….
We all make choices every day, from what to have for breakfast to which color of socks to wear, from where to sit in class to who to go out with. Believe it or not these choices define us and affect who we become in more ways than we can imagine….. So, sit back, and let me tell you a story of wrong choices….
I’m sitting at my table ooo, caressing my hot cup of Nestle Milo Tea, pulling the arms of my cardigan tighter…and shaking my head as I remember those decisions…..Really, in less than two hours, I made two top-of-the-chart, somebody-should-punch-me-in-the-face wrong decisions today, BACK TO BACK.
Let’s rewind to approximately 3hrs ago….8pm …I had finished reading my darling Gross Anatomy, and I was just cooling my heels jejely in my friend’s room when I remembered that my football club, my Barcelona, my team had a game that night, of course, I knew I had to see the game….and I decided to (wait, that’s not the even the #1 wrong decision.) I started making my way to item7 (the viewing centre) and I looked up at the sky…saw the lightening, heard the thunder….and I knew without a doubt that Baba God had plans to put on the showers…..so, I began to think to myself, should I just forget my love for football and undying loyalty to Barcelona, tuck my tail between my legs and go home before the rain begins?
But No oooo!....I decided to keep going….knowing fully well that when the rain starts, there’s a 99% probability (abeg, who ignores a statistic this high) that the TV signal would be lost and I won’t even be able to see the game…. Fast-forward to 35mins into the game…the rain started pouring with so much ferocity that you’d think it had been begging to come down since when Awolowo was still at Ife….and the next thing I know, the signal goes! (Surprise!) …..there’s no how I can continue watching….GAME OVER….
The rain continued and continued…dropping melodious beats on the ceiling…I was tired, disappointed with myself and generally frustrated….but Lord, THE HUNGER…it was as if the football match had been transferred to the walls of my GI tract…my stomach was biting. I was stuck in school, no football, no food….Then I realized that I just had to go home… So I called Rose, my editor and dear friend…asking if I could get an umbrella, and the sister said, in her nicest voice, mind you “awwww…I don’t have any oooo.” Want to know what I did next?
I went under the rain! Right under it, I was soaked in milliseconds, I don’t even know if I actually thought this one through, but I had made another decision- to WALK HOME IN THIS HEAVY RAIN…..OK,I just kept my chin up, bouncing in the rain like I’m one kind of boss (but I am, aren’t I?), prepared to walk home if that’s what it takes….15 minutes later, I’m dripping from my head to toe….soaked silly….then the rain decides to stop! ….I was speechless, disappointed, and mostly angry with myself, Fifteen minutes, really! I mean, this rain should have given me the dignity if falling till I got home…but no, it decided to rub my messed up choices in my face and stop in fifteen minutes…I could have waited for those fifteen minutes….and walked home dry, happy and feeling like a good Barca fan! But no, I decided to get all soaked and cold for nothing….TWO CHOICES….
I really don’t know if it’s just me or have you made some top-of-the-chart, somebody-should-punch-you-in-the-face wrong choices too? Go on…drop your comment, share your story and perhaps I can relate.
    Thank You!......You’re the #1 reason I write      #Shalla