ABOVE AVERAGE

Prior to seeing her that afternoon, I have always known her to be a very shy and withdrawn person. She had recently joined the fellowship and it was only natural for me to notice her. She was quiet, light in complexion and smallish but she had this determined and focused look on her face yet she was innocent in many respects.

She approached me and asked to talk to me in private. I asked what it was and she said she needed to discuss an issue and would take some time. We had to reschedule. The rescheduled day was Sunday and after the church service, it was pertinent for us to see, for me, I wanted to fulfill all righteousness and be free from her.

She spoke swiftly and without stammering, calmly told me her tale of a horrible
academic grooming she underwent while in her senior secondary school days. It had made her so unsure of herself and her conclusion was that she wasn’t academically sound. She summarized her discuss in these words.

“I cant understand mathematics, I have tried my best but nothing is happening”

I told her it was a lie and asked her what made her think so. She continued to recall her background and the absence of studious practice which even led to some shady things that their teachers had to do in the school certificate exam for them to graduate. She said she had two (2) weeks to prepare for JAMB (Joint Admission and Matriculation Exam) and had no hope of making the cut-off mark.

I prayed with her and told her to come with her mathematics past questions and answers. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do for her because frankly speaking, all I can recall is the full meaning of JAMB, any mathematical concept has long grown stale but I was her leader and I had the grace to reassure her and that’s what I did.

As the week began, she reminded me and visited as scheduled. The moment I saw the past questions I remembered the scripture that says “…old things have passed away…” but that scripture didn’t help me at all. This was the battle ground and she was looking up to me, I was a graduate and I told her she could understand. This was the time to prove it. I took the questions and looked through them, then I noticed my heartbeat had skipped and it kept skipping. I had forgotten all these mathematical and arithmetic formulas. I looked at her face and the hope she had in me, kept me on my seat. I must help. I must.

I told her that in writing exams, you don’t have to start from the first question. Well, you know it is true, even though I actually didn’t know the first question. So we started somewhere and that was when my brain kicked into gear. We solved all the ones I knew, I gave her new questions and she picked up. We had one or two contact sessions in the next few days and I was surprised she had never seen Matrices before but when we solved some, she picked it up immediately. I asked her to repeat what she said about not being able to understand mathematics and she couldn’t. She was surprised herself and for the first time her smile looked different to me. She was happy. She began to solve more questions on her own and bring to me for checking. Oh boy, how relived I was. I was free but most importantly, she was free from the bondage of self-misconception and the evil of underrating oneself.

The JAMB exams came and went. I held my heart in my hands praying that it wasn’t a wasted effort and it wasn’t. She came telling me that the particular questions we solved had relatives that she identified and defeated in the hall.

When the result was out, her mum sent a personal message of gratitude. The young lady had beaten the cut-off point. I was happy that the act of faith I took saved a lot of things, including myself. I wasn’t even sure I could handle JAMB mathematics but I was sure I understood what “Possibility” as a word meant. I knew and still know that men are endowed with mental acumen that is hardly fully tapped.

Today she had joined the choir, has the confidence to sing and lead songs before people and I am still searching for the shy girl I once thought she was. One aspect of life can hinder many more that we never know about. I am glad not just that she made that result and my words stood but that she knows better now and values herself more. I was actually worse than she was and I am a product of someone’s help too.

We all need help and we need to help others, the ability to tell the right timing and the difference is the wisdom that we daily need and should consistently seek. Selah