Steemit Engagement Challenge S8-W3 | Silver Lining

Hello Friends,

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Congratulations to the Steemit Philippines community for being among the selected winners of the season's 8 engagement challenge.

For the first week, you have presented a lovely contest titled Silver Lining by @steemitphcurator.

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Life they say is full of ups and down, as they are moments when we are faced with challenges beyond our imaginations and control. But as the saying goes, "there's always light at the end of the tunnel."

Silver lining as I was made to understand through this task, refers to the turnaround benefit gotten from a distressed situation. Follow my article, as I would be sharing 3 silver-lining stories about myself and my country.

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The Experience Of My First Year In School

I got admitted into the the department of Computer Science and programming in 2019 at the Federal University of Technology Owerri Imo state, Nigeria. It was a dream come true for me, as I had waited patiently for this admission.

I was excited to see my name on the first batch of the admitted students. I was among the first individuals to commence classes with the lecturers. It started well, as I was given the post of course representative, meaning that I would serve as a mediator between the lecturers and fellow students.

Early days of schooling: Passing information to colleagues

Like with every given task, this came with lots of stress and demands. Initially, I taught my job was only to pass information from lecturers down to my colleagues, but it was even more demanding than I assumed.

It so happened that I was asked by the lecturers to be in charge of the collection and distribution of textbooks. I collected money from the students and make plans with the lecturers on how to deliver the books to each student.

This was where the real challenge began. Apart from the fact that this task was time-consuming, and I wasn't having enough time for myself, they were equally threats and accusations from lecturers and students about the mismanagement of funds.

It was very funny how the accusations came that I was extracting extra funds from my colleagues. But in reality, it was the fault of the unserious students who had failed to come for their textbooks and practical manuals.

The lazy students properties under my custody

I could remember announcing to them on countless occasions to come for their books, but most of them didn't come for it, instead, they expected me to look for them daily for their textbooks.

To cut the long story short, It was a rough period of my life, as I hadn't faced that much pressure before then. To the lazy students, I was regarded as a bad leader for not doing their wishes, but the corporative students and lecturers attested to the fact that I did excellently.

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The Silver Lining And Lesson Learnt From This Story

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As the saying goes, "every workman has a pay day", it came to pass when we were presented with the results of the semester.

I came out at the top of the class with all straight A's in all my subjects. It was like a dream come true to see my efforts yielding positive results months later.
What this experience has taught me is that I should always do what's correct and appropraite at all time, not minding your thoughts against me.

I have decided to walk positively in any space I find myself, having a unique and peaceful mindset throughout this this year.

How Fighting For His Country Benefited My Dad

My dad has been serving his nation as a military personnel for more than 28 years now, and we have traveled with him to many parts of the country and we have equally seen him work tirelessly to protect his nation.

His promotions came when it was time, and we celebrated each of his promotions with pride and honor. He had gotten to the rank of Warrant Officer, making him come close to retirement.

It then came to pass when Dad was supposed to get his promotion again, but his spot was reportedly stolen by another soldier who paid his way in.

Some soldiers including my Dad were then sent to the Northern part of the country to help enforce peace caused by the Boko Haram terrorists.

My Dad in the Northeastern part of Nigeria

It was really a tough period of our lives, because we knew how dangerous the Boko Haram terrorists of the North Eastern part of Nigeria were. There are times when the network connections in my Dad's location would be cut off and we won't hear from him for weeks.

News of fight and death was the talk of the barrack, as many soldiers were reported dead or missing in action as a result of the fight in the Northern part of the country. We prayed and had faith that God would protect Dad, and bring him back, which he did.

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The Silver Lining And Lesson Learnt From This Story

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Dad didn't just return safely from the fight against insurgency, but he was given the promotion he rightly deserved. It was a blessing to see Dad come back in one peace, and even a double blessing to see him get his promotion to the rank of "Master Warrant Officer" in the Nigerian Army.

I have learnt that we should appreciate every moment in life wheather good or bad, as it's all part of they are all part of the journey to greatness.

The best as we would always say is yet to come, and I believe that what's meant for me would always come to me at the right time.

How The Endsars Protest Revolutionarized Governance Rule In Nigeria

Nigeria is over 62 years old, and it has been observed that our Presidents are usually older than the country. It was like a tradition that no youth had opposed until things got out of hand.

These older men that were allowed to rule and protect us became a thorn in our fleshes. They became greedy and forgot that they had a younger generation to groom and protect.

It became obvious that every selected leader thought only about himself, and his family, forgetting infrastructural and educational developments.

Nigeria is now known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, because like orphans we follow our unguided instincts and selfish desires.

The Federal government saw that its youths were going astray, but instead of providing jobs and better opportunities for us, they decided to introduce a crime-fighting body called "Sars".

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It was sad that this crime-fighting body ended up killing and detaining innocent youths of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for no reason.

The youths got fed up with the killings by Sars officials and decided to embark on a nationwide protest to end Sars. Youths were killed during the protest, but they never gave up the fight until Sars was completely stopped.

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The Silver Lining And Lesson Learnt From This Story

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The incident of the Endsars protest taught the Nigerian youths a very important lesson, which was that they had the power and right to change things in the country.

The silver lining of the Endsars protest was displayed in the 2023 general election held in Nigeria. A younger candidate (Peter Obi) was the most supported and preferred presidential candidate to win the 2023 election.

This shows the youth are bent on taking back their country from the hands of the older and greedy men. The election was rigged in favor of the older candidate (Bola Ahmed Tinubu), but the youth are not relenting in the fight to see that justice is done.

I can confidently say that Nigeria is on its way to greatness, and in no distant time, we would be better again.

Conclusion

Time and chance happeneth to all men, which implies that we would all get our time to shine when it's right. There's always a good part in a bad situation which we must learn to appreciate.

Both in and outside the Steemit Platform, I have had good and bad times, but I know every disappointment comes with its unique blessing.

Big thanks to the organizers of this contest, keep up the good work.

Am inviting @serap, @m-fdo, and @alegnita to check out this contest.

Thanks for your time here.