VENTURING INTO THE UNKNOWN.

I've always been an introvert, very calculative, all my actions are always planned ahead, enjoying my own company, I've always been my best friend. So I always stayed close to home, unlike my other siblings I didn't attend a boarding school.

My greatest fear was the University, it's not difficult surviving as a loner up to high school, all you had to do was sit alone and run home immediately after your last class but it was a different ball game in the University. Different people exploring the freedom and wanting to carry everyone along, and the hostel, arrggghhh I dreaded the hostel!
Time came for me to selected a school, the closest school offering my choice course was a state away. I had no choice.
I had a fight with my parents just before leaving home as they decided I must stay in the hostel opposing my plan of renting an apartment outside. I was defeated.
I still remember that Sunday, my whole family saw me off to the bus park and waved till i was out of sight, I couldn't hold back the tears.

My earliest days were hell, I had 7 roommates who never stopped talking, classes was always filled beyond capacity so I skipped them, I abstained from all school activities until I met Mary. One evening while sitting alone at one of the recreation parks she approached me, smiling as usual, her chatter always precede her. She said something about meeting me sometime ago at a diner, I couldn't remember. She then turned switched to a choir rehearsal going on in a nearby church and pulled me along, she didn't care about the church she said, she just loved singing in front of people. That changed everything. Being a newcomer I was the centre of attraction, everyone was nice and the music was superb, I've always loved singing but had never tried before then. Too shy initially, it took a while before I was able to mount the stage and got on top of things. Before long I was the one dragging Mary off to the rehearsals.
It was here I discovered boys too.

Four years down the line (currently in my final year), I can proudly claimed to have lived life, it didn't take long before I hatched out of my shell, although I still cherish my private life (i can never have enough of me), I still want to hang out with others, have fun, go swimming, hiking, I even tried fishing once. I ventured to everything, school politics, academic contests, church departments and everything that happens in school.

The University was my greatest fear, it turned out to be the mirror I used in seeing the real me.