CHALLENGE YOURSELF

I can’t say exactly where my route led to but as I passed the departmental laboratory, I decided to glance at the posters on the wall. It was always a littered spectacle. Ranging from Student union campaigns to scholarship adverts, fellowship programs and business notices. I hardly took time to read all because many were mere repetitions and others were just out of my league. I am not one to go looking for who to vote for via a campaign poster. That day however, I stopped to browse through the myriad of posters. I was skipping them as fast as I could when suddenly I saw one that spun my senses to a halt.

A call for a competition. I took my time to read and sure enough it was my kind of thing. It was an advert for a programming competition. I was spellbound. I had never heard something like this before and this close. It was to be held at the school of science, the date was fixed and the prizes were even mentioned.

My internal calendar did a countdown to the said time and a lot whizzed through my activated mind. I saw that the requirement was simple. We were to come with a program of our choosing written in any computer programming language. It must be indigenous. I smiled knowing that I would be there. I needed to go and watch and meet new programmers because I was new to the field. I couldn’t wait for the day.

As the days counted I began to reconsider my position as spectator. Why don’t I contest also but I laughed it off, wondering why I should give anybody the opportunity to trample on me and feel he won. I wasn’t mature enough, I was a simple BASIC programmer who got enchanted by the compiled nature of VISUAL BASIC. I was a newbie to all these. Yes, I knew the rudiments of programming and I have been toying with computers for many months yet that did not give me the credence that I had in the programmers I have chanced to meet.

As I thought about what I could offer a ray of hope flashed through my doubting mind and I decided that I would take the plunge. I would go and register as a competitor and I would give what I had. If I was laughed at, I would bear it and probably learn but I had made up my mind not to be discouraged by my anticipated failure.

The registration fee was five hundred Nigerian Naira (NGN500). A fee I couldn’t afford. The odds were really against me but I decided to give it a try. I went to my bunkmate and borrowed the fee telling him I would pay in due course. I couldn’t tell him what I needed it for. I also decided not to tell any of my friends and course mates. I was not in the game plan of having sympathizers expressing their feelings after my loss and I didn’t want it to be remembered by anyone. I knew I wouldn’t do well so I didn’t invite anyone. I was really pessimistic or scared or I lacked confidence or …I can’t really say how I felt but I knew I had to do this alone.

The day came and I packaged the only programme I had written. It was called Discloser 1.0. A simple program in VISUAL BASIC that could discover the matriculation numbers of all the students in my engineering set. We had five (5) departments in engineering then and I had gone round the class representatives to get the complete list and I had taken the holiday to code all the names and matriculation numbers. I didn’t know how to use a database so I took the pains of typing every name and matriculation number. It was tedious and strenuous but I did it. Now the program looked so ugly and I didn’t know what to expect. I knew the pains I took but I couldn’t tell if it would be appreciated by any.

I sneaked into the venue on the said day and I saw a lot of people with a pinned badge to their breasts reading ‘PROGRAMMER’. I was badge-less and really I felt I had finally made the wrongest move in this. We were asked to copy our programs to the test computer in readiness for the competition.

The judges came in one by one and they were all lecturers, in fact the chief judge was the head of the Management Information System (MIS). My heart didn’t skip. It stopped.

They stated their criteria for judging and the show began. The first person came up with an application which we could barely see as he utilized less than half of the screen, I knew this was a wrong principle for programming and hope soared in me. One after the other they were called and I was not impressed with what I saw. They were all talk and gesture but their programs lacked luster. Designs were drab, concepts was awkward and the basic principles of design were neglected. I was glad I didn’t have that tag after all.

I was called, though I wasn’t the last, it didn’t matter. Everyone faded before me as I struggled to make a good impression. I used my computer knowledge to win the minds of the onlookers. I had made my program to autorun, something no other programmer did. Well it wasn’t part of the program but it was part of my packaging. I had utilized a background in Microsoft PowerPoint as my interface picture and it wowed them. By the time I went ahead to tell them that the program could be used within the campus but limited to 300 level engineering students, eyes were popping to see.

I had this cool display of a set of eyes that blinked on the startup form and to say the least, they were clapping before the program started. I told them to give me any name in that set and the matriculation number would show forth. By now they knew I wasn’t bluffing. My design included three speed levels for searching, a security lock, a section of over a hundred wise quotes and a view all contacts panel. I never knew I could talk until the questions came in. To be candid, I felt successful before I had the results.

As I went back to my seat, I wondered why I underrated my abilities and the dint of hard work I had put in. did I need someone to praise me before I knew my worth? Did I need to compete before I could tell I was good? I waved all the troubling questions aside as I heard them say since I was the only one from the engineering school, they in the science would give me the prize as the best programmer in the competition.

I was besieged by strangers and admirers, they wanted my phone number, my room number, how I did it, who I was, and my department. The prize gift of a brand new CD-ROM Drive was carried by one of them till I got to my room. Then for the first time I regretted why I didn’t tell any of my friends. This victory may not be believed but I had a prize to show and I know what I had gone through in the last few hours. I didn’t need any other man to believe in me. I was a programmer. I was more than just a programmer.

That was in the year 2003, more than a decade ago. Today I have trained handfuls of programmers who know their onions. I have instilled hope and confidence in people who know less than I knew then. I have tried to give what I didn’t have then. I was taught nonchalantly by my school and lectures and that was why I learnt on my own. I have no regrets. I live today challenging any ignorance I encounter. I grow my confidence and build my trust knowing very well that if God had not brightened my path I wouldn’t be able to testify about these things. Then I didn’t know how much of God was involved in all I did, today I know that without Him, it doesn’t matter how successful I feel.

Every day we live a challenge, a competition. We can either succeed or fail. We may be too scared to let others in on what we do. We may be too unsure of ourselves and withdraw as hermits but one thing I have learnt is “never be too scared to try”. Even if you fail (and I have failed severally), it’s not final. That you tried ranks you above the ones that never did.

Rise today and challenge those fears! Everyone is better than they truly are…if only they would try.