Steemit Engagement Challenge S5-W3: If Only

Hello Steemians, I'm so delighted to be here again in this community and to present my entry on the contest topic "If Only". Go with me as I shared my experience with this statement with you all.

The phrase "If Only" is a powerful, emotional, and regretful one that usually comes up when things got out of hands when we do things or act the wrong way either intentionally or unintentionally and we wished we had done it the other way round or done it rightly.

There is no how anyone would not experience the situation that would make them say this sentence because as humans we are imperfect and at times we do some things in a rush and take rash decisions by allowing our emotions at that particular moment to take over our mind and thinking. Some people "If only" comes as a result of the words of their mouths, by uttering abusive or destructive statements that would cause other people's pain.

No wonder the elders say this "Oose lo n siwaju, Abamo longbeyin oro, gbogbo ologbon aye pejo won o rogun abamo se (Hisses/Anger comes before "if only" and the wise ones gather together to put an end to "if only" but it is not so possible)". Sometimes we have no control over what we do which makes us end up saying "if only" because we never thought it could result that way, also we trust too much at times which put us in a situation where we have to offer the sentence.

These incidents happened in 2013 when I collected a Jamb (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) form and after the result was released, I came out with a good result then I applied for the Post-Utme of Ladoke Akintola University (Lautech) since it is my first and second choice university on the form.

While waiting for the day of the exam to come, my mother told me to take my examination slip to my uncle, since he is well educated and would be able to guide me right but I know she wanted me to show him so that he can have the idea that I was processing admissions and would be able to render some assistance financially later.

Furthermore, I took the slip to him and the first sentence he would say after seeing my university of choice was that "How could you choose this university, don't you know that their fee is high and it's about #150,000 per year, how would your mother afford such amount of money?" I felt bad immediately after I heard this words and blamed myself that why didn't I do my research about the institution's tuition fee before applying to study in such a institution because of a truth, my mother can not afford it.

I left his place very sad and reported everything to my mother without mixing words, she too felt sad and told me to forget about the admission because there is no way she was going to pay such an amount of money and I agreed, after a year I gained admission into the College of Health Technology Ilesa Osun state.

Only after I finished my 3-year course that I went to work at Ogbomosho where Lautech is situated that I got to know that the school fee was only #66,000 per session and the students are allowed to pay the fee twice a year. I felt so pained when I heard this because the fee I paid at the college where I graduated was almost the same with the university.

I was sad because I believed my uncle's words without verifying it from another person or visiting the school for verification since I did not have access to the internet then. I felt like If Only I had visited the school to confirm or enquire from those studying in the school about the cost of studying at the institution.

I realized he uttered the statement and discouraged us because he also thought the fee was that much and if I was given admission, he will have to shoulder part of the responsibility which he does not want since my father is not taking any responsibility and does not care much about education. Though it is pointless crying over split milk but I still can't help but blame myself so much for not doing proper findings about the fee and also learned a lesson that I should not just believe and trust blindly without doing my proper findings.

The words "If only" can also be termed "I wish" but in a stronger form as it's the type of words that comes after an incident in which our actions, words, or steps did not go well and we ended up with blame or regret thinking if only we could have done better than that then the result would have been a pleasing one. All these incidents comes with a lesson for every individual that experiences them because it teaches us more about life and what to do in every situation we find ourselves.

Some people were in the police custody all because they could not control their angers, while some experience loss of funds because they believe blindly without doing any proper research about the investment, from my story too, I believed someone that has no strong idea about the school and only fed me with unverified news and when I knew the truth after some years I was having a regret that if only I can do more findings about it, I would have known that the fee is not that high and from there I learned not to trust blindly again. Thank you for reading.

I invite @msquaretk @yakspeace and @jasminemary to participate in this contest.