The Arduous Thesis

In this life, there are many hurdles that we just have to face. Life keeps throwing then our direction unconcerned wether we have abilities to face them or not.

Truly, it is not easy to exist here in earth free of challenges. At times, we are made to face very uncomfortable and strenuous ones.
Well, in the quest to acquire knowledge we always have to undertake one project or another. Especially in colleges of higher learning, before you are awarded a certification, you have to go on a research and submit a thesis report.

Ours was not an exception. In our final session in school, I along with two other colleagues embarked on a project. We were to categorize the slope forms around a region in my state, Akwa Ibom.

There was enthusiasm and excitement in us all along up until we got the full briefing of what was expected of us. Truly, we were hypnotized. All the initial joy vanished when we got to know that we would literally have to climb up him and descend every slope that spanned about four subregions.

Daunting, will be an inaccurate description of what this was about. We were demoralized just weighing the scale of the work. Imagine having to trek across valleys some that will be full of all kinds of things plus occasional water rivers. Also, having to scale through high rising hills. Our work was cut out for us.

What a fix we found ourselves. Bottom line was, we needed to graduate. A lot of plea, dragging and modifications still brought us face to face with the reality that we needed to move round, an area of hundreds of meter squares, carrying samples and tools, while climbing and descending slopes covered by thick, dense and heavy vegetation in the midst of water and all... This was horrible.

Finally, we surmoned courage and embarked on the mission. Truth be told, if not for the oughtmost necessity lying ahead, this project would have been abandoned on the very first day. After moving across some really wide area, we were only able to locate just a couple of points. For a whole days work, tired as hell and actually frustrated, we came back with no trace of desire to go back.

Devoid of options, we spent the next couple of months, moving round the region, slowly and steadily despite the drudgery and fatigue, taking samples, marking locations and indexing data.
We swamp through streams, cut our way through bushes, dragged ourselves up the hills. Two outstanding occasion I want share:

• On one of the days, we needed to move across a ravine, ponded with water. There was no other route to take unless we wanted to abandon the work for the day. In front of us was massive water, worse of was that on a nearby tree in the middle of the water was a green snake hanging and starring at us. Whoah! We literally spent the next half hour looking at the snake. In the end, we crossed, the reptile still looking on.

• Secondly, on a particular day, after moving around for sometime, we needed to locate a particular point so we could call it a day. Whether coincidence or misfortune I can't say. We were using maps and coordinates to navigate our routes. You can take a guess - two of our phones were out of power. The remaining one could not pick up signals. Worse of , we were in the heart of a forest surrounded by hills and trees. Whether out of fear or desperation, we were hearing strange sounds, probably on normal occasionS would be bird sounds. We were terrified. Man must survive, so we decided simply move in faith. Our resolve was that, whatever happens, we could not stay at a point for the night to meet us. Thankfully, we got out safe and sound.

Fast forward to the future, we were able to triumph, submitted our theses on time and got wonderful grades in return. We had not for once thought we could go through with the project. However, looking back, I can confidently say that man is a reservoir of strength and resources and the only place these can be found, is on the mind.

The stories of our struggles could make three novels or more. There are just too many experiences that we got. Infact, looking back, we get surprised that we actually faced all those. This is truly something to remember for all of us.

The pictures are those of our day of presentation, where we all dressed up in the absence of the dirt and sweat, looking nice as the victors we are.

@awuahbenjamin your contest has actually provoked a lot of memories. Nice one.