Secondary School: The different categories of Individuals.

I went to a very reputable FGGC. By reputation, our girls are known to be very fine, accomplished and generally very correct. (Hi Haters) :-D
A bunch of us also migrated to this end and so I've been hanging with them a lot these days. Every time we get together, we reminisce about how things used to back in the day, the punishments that we served… ‘Kneel down and fly your hands’ or those cries for ‘A junior girlllllll’. LOL. Fun times…

Either way, I had to sit and think about the categories of characters that we had in secondary school and so I present to you...

The Popular Jingos aka bubblers: These were the ones who were popular chicks in school. If we had a Press club or Senior Lit event, na these popular jingos wey go climb on top stage to mime to songs. They were known for being hot steppers and usually had official roles in all the happening social clubs on campus. People in this category usually ended up getting the role of Social Prefect and they knew all the who is who that there was to be known in school.

The Spiros aka SU: These ones were always in church or some kind of fellowship. You would NEVER find a spiro climbing on top stage to mime to songs. Ah ah, that one would be breaking news o. It would make headlines. Most of these spiros ended up being the Catholic prefect, the Protestant prefect or having roles in the fellowship scene. We usually kept an ear glued to their conduct off campus in order to determine if they were living the spiro lives off campus as well or if they were bubbling.

The Defaulters: Ah ah, if dem tok say write down names of noise makers, these ones would always make the list. Their ‘brush’ was on some defaulting status and they never obeyed the school rules. These were the girls who would scale campus gate or leave school without prior approval and permission. They hardly ever got roles as prefects because they had already earned a reputation as main defaulters.

The Daystudents: These ones were pretty much on the dry side. We didn’t know much about them, as they came and went after school was over. We did have a couple of bubbling day students sha but it was pretty rare. They were dry by default and only came in useful during Valentines day events when we needed them to help us buy gifts that we could send to our ‘vals’.

The Ajebotas: These ones were known for ‘janding’ every summer and coming back with some nice ajebo looking stuff. They had groupies and followers because of their ajebo status. If you looked inside their lockers, you were bound to see a bunch of rice kripsies and other ajebo looking provisions. These group of people usually ended up also falling into the popular jingo category.

The Americanas: This one na new one because one semester we got to school and discovered that a whole bunch of ‘Americanas’ i.e Girls who were born and raised in Yankee got sent back to Naija to go learn their culture or whatever. It was like an American explosion on the school grounds... Na so so we go dey waka pass and hear ‘schwi schwi’ phonetics…most of these girls by default fell into the ajebota category and these ones na the tried and true ajebotas for never in their lives had they ever had a reason to fetch water in a bucket and carry it for one mile to their dormitories, never did they have to take baths in such bootleg bathrooms or hold their faeces in for 1 week because the toilet situations was just not cutting it…amongst other things. He He

The Wannabes aka Swagger Jackers: In all sense of the world, these girls were naturally WACK and DRY but they were really sweating the Popular jingos, Ajebotas and what have you and tried their very best to be recognized as such. Unfortunately for them, we saw right through their BS and they ended up being the virtual punching bags of the people that they tried so hard to be like (although everyone else knew it, but they didn’t).

The Efficos aka Bookatees: My school had this habit of announcing the top 3 and bottom 3 in their classes on assembly grounds and the efficos never failed to make the list of the first 3. They were known for their studious and serious ways and a bunch of them usually ended up being appointed as prefects because they were considered to be a good representative of the school. Most efficos hardly ever climbed stage to mime.

The Bad girls: Some of them fell into the popular jingo category as well. These ones were known for being badoski babes. In fact rumor dey fly say some of these girls had done abortions (some of them dey use hanger for the abortions sef), while the rest of them were known for sleeping with their boyfriends. Abeg o, at 16 what did we know about sex? In my mind these babes were BAD girls. Na these same babes wey dey scale school gate to conduct rendezvous with men from the neighboring Government college. Most of these girls fell into the defaulter category as well.

The Razz babes: Just like we had our popular jingos, we also had our razz babes. Very razz babes who no send anybody’s side and so they got their own form of respect for staying so true to themselves.

The Outcasts: Those babes wey dey wet their bed even up till SS1-3, those babes that were known for stealing and/or being kleptomaniacs. Those generally DRY chicks who no one gave 2 chits about, na the outcasts be that.

The all rounders: They didn’t fall into any specific category and could relate with most people in the different categories. They were generally liked by all and were a good asset because of their versality.

Did I forget anyone?Ha! School was too much fun sha o. I sha observed that most of the efficos kept up the trend and turned out to be those super achievers even here in Yanks, the Popular jingos also kept the trend and some of the so-called outcasts actually metamorphed into some really correct chicks.

School Daze part 2: After the SSCE and JAMB

After my post on the Secondary School Daze here, I decided to write about life after secondary school.

After we finished secondary school, we waited with anxious and beating hearts for our SSCE and JAMB results. (Well, the rich kids who knew that they were going to Obodo oyibo waited anxiously for their SAT and TOEFL...Ha Ha)
My school had this wicked habit of posting your SSCE scores up on a notice board beside the Principal's office for the world to see. So imagine if you were one of those evil ass senior babes. Come exam time, you better make sure you study your butt off 'cos when the results came out, we Ju babes would flock to the board and specifically look for the names of all the wicked senior babes, the bubbling senior babes and what not.
I remember one very foolish and wicked senior babe wey come pack all F's on that board. Na correct laugh wey we laugh that day. Nonsense and Ingredients...

My SSCE score was pretty good. And thankfully I didn't have to take JAMB 2,3,4,5 times. I took JAMB once and my score was good too (No expo needed either). Na God ooo.
I'm chuckling here remembering my JAMB exam and how one foolish girl next to me was doing some serious Giraffe work ehn, the thing no get part 2. I no even get strength for am, I just let her be. Do any of you guys remember that term 'Invigilator'? I saw this one FineboyAgbero's blog one day and I wan laugh die. It certainly reminded me of my JAMB days. Those invigilators used to watch us exam takers like some serious hawks sha o. To pass expo in the JAMB hall required some serious maneuvering and techniques.
The day before JAMB sef, no one was at home. Everyone went to go and look for the 'expo'...lol. Naija sef!
And man, people had such intricate ways of hiding that expo ehn. I hear say babes would go and fix micro braids before the exam and hide the expo inside their hair, inside their bra, inside their shoe. Nna ehn, people were determined to get into University by ALL MEANS. Can't say that I blame them though, taking JAMB 10 times could frustrate a human being.

While I was sitting around bored and waiting for my SSCE and JAMB results, my mother asked me to go and register for the GCE examination. Initially, I dreaded the whole concept of it + I got posted to some wack exam location so I really was not feeling it at all but looking back now, I had a really good time sha. I made a new set of friends who I termed my 'GCE clique' and one of the guys in my crew had the hookups to all the supposedly legit expo. I really was not trying to study for this exam o jare, so every morning before exams we would all meet and plan on how we would pass the expo to each other. Needless to say, I FAILED pretty woefully...and they swore to me that the darn expo was the legit stuff o. Yeyerism...

Thanks to my good SSCE and JAMB scores, I was off to University within a couple of months. and thanks to those scores, I got admitted to study the only course that made sense if you were in the 'arts' field = LAW. Uh uh believe it or not, I the Original Mgbeke was gonna be a Lawyer? Pretty funny stuff since I came to Yankee and totally took a left turn from that field. But even till today, some of my friends insist that I could have gone to law school since I tend to be overanalytical/will not let an argument go until it is resolved and blahblahblah. Na them sabi sha...
But back-tracking to that sha, good scores were essential 'cos you could get admitted to the uni of your choice but get assigned to study some random azz course like Agriculture or some chit. Abeg wetin I wan carry Agriculture do? Or Secreterial studies...errrm no offense to any individual who may have majored in these o jare. Na so I see am oo...
Hmm hmmm but law, it was. And it was a pretty interesting department too. We had to wear black and white most days (for some yeye reason), and it couldn't even be cute outfits in black and white i.e maybe a nice pair of black pants and cute white shirt. No o, they wanted us to come to lectures looking 'corporate' and like future lawyers. I really used to wish I was in the engineering or computer science department so that I could rock my jeans and t-shirts as I pleased.

All in all, Uni days were pretty interesting. I definitely had a lot of fun being one of the hot jambites. It was nice to be a fresh and new face on campus. Hehehe, I remember how we would reapply our lipgloss when it was time to walk past the Engineering buildings just because that Engineering required a sister to put a pep in her step and an extra switch to her hips 'cos man o man, I am convinced that all the fine men in my Uni were in Engineering. And they had a habit of just chilling outside the department, hanging around so every chick who walked past, was subject to a good eyeballing by ol' dudes.
I had my Uni clique...we even gave ourselves some funny name. I don forget the name sha...twas about 7 of us babes, we would always have lunch together, party together and during someone's class break, we would go and chill in someone's on campus room or boys quarters aka BQ.Ahhh, memories. I was pretty darn miserable when I had to leave and come over here, I mean I was having way too much fun!

My sister recently told me that she ran into a guy who went to Uni with me, and he walked up to her, asked about me and confessed that he used to have the biggest crush on me in Uni. Hahahaha, I was like abeg ooo, who dat is? I hope it was one of those engineering cuties that I used to eyeball. *Chuckles*...unfortunately my sister forgot his name so that one may be one unsolved mystery. Ha!

School Daze

I always say that you didn't have the true boarding school experience till you went to a Federal Government college. Sorry, Queens College babes need not identify, una ajebo-ism no get part 2. Oh, and awon Vivian Fowler, The Bells aka Horse riding school, Olasore, Adesoye, Atlantic Hall and what not, y'all should not even cough in this FGGC product's presence. Ha Ha!

I went to boarding school in the east. For someone who was born and raised in Port Harcourt, you'd think that I would have opted to go to Abuloma but I wanted to try a new city. (In retrospect, I'm glad I aint go to that Abuloma aka I blow garri with those their extra special chicks.)

LOL. I am really trash talking all the schools aint I? S'all in good fun o jare.

Infact ehn, before I went off to my FGGC, while I was waiting for my Common Entrance results...I did a brief stint at an Airforce secondary school. All I have to say after that experience is God forbid! Those teachers/whatever they were called were MEAN, but that's another tori for another day.

Back to my FGGC gist...
Heading off to my feddy gals college, I was nervous, scared to be away from home, expectant, excited. I still very vividly remember my first day in school...the senior girls assembled all the newbies and started asking us about our backgrounds and if we had brothers (See them, desperate chicks...) If they determined that you were an ajebota or if you claimed to have a fine brother, they would make you their school-daughter.
There were benefits to being one's school daughter; if you were serving punishment aka kneeling down, lying down, or doing any form of gymnastics that some evil senior made you do and your school mother happened to be in the vicinity, odds were that she would intercede on your behalf and you would go scott free.
If it was SAP season (Structural adjustment program) and your ass was starving, you could go to your school mother and she would hook you up with some good ol' Cabin biscuits, Nasco cornflakes or the main the main staple; Garri!

Adjusting to the feddy lifestyle was initially very hard. Prior to secondary school, I had never had to share living spaces with about 24 girls. I had never lived life by such a strict schedule; From breakfast to class to lunch to prep to lights out. I had never had to take baths from a bucket, talkess of in a 'bathroom' with about 11 other girls splashing their own dirt on you.

I had never eaten food with the sorry excuse for meat, that my school had. Not to talk of those extra tiny portions. Infact we used to do food swaps which was pretty much, you telling someone 'May I please eat your morning food, and then you may eat my afternoon food'? Abeg allow us o, babes were hungry!

I had never experienced water scarcity, where we would take our buckets from dormitory to dormitory and beg people for scoops of water. In the end, we would take our buckets back and hide it very carefully under our beds only to wake up the next morning and discover that some cunning thief had helped themself to almost, if not all of your hard earned water.

I had never had to literally fly from my top bunk when one random senior babe called 'A junior girl' in an effort not to be the last junior girl to land because if you were the last junior girl to get there, best believe that your ass was getting SENT.

I had never had to scrub an entire block of toilets (Read: 6 toilets) as my dormitory work for 6 months. And nna ehn, this wasn't not regular scrubbing o! Those toilets were always dirty as heck. So every Friday before Satuday's inspection, I would grab a big stick and start pounding 1 million blue house girl's maggot covered crusty shit, then I would use a bucket to wash it out, pour some dettol around the zone and start scrubbing. Ah, I always tell people...don't be fooled by the soft, ajebo looking skin o. I don did some dirty work in my life time.

I had never had to ask permission to enter a senior girl's class. I mean, in retrospect I was probably the same age as most of these chicks but before you entered their classes, you had to call out 'Excuse me senior 5A girls, may I please enter'? and if 5A girls were in the mood for some comic relief, someone would call out 'Yes. Fly in' or 'Yes. Dance in' and woe betide you if you don't do any of the above. Ohhh and you didn't even want them to catch you walking on their corridor. You would find yourself kneeling under the hot sun for a couple of hours.

But I adjusted...and I had a lot of fun! As the years passed and we kwa became seniors, life got easier. Now as opposed to fetching senior Nkechi's bucket of water, I could now send Ifeoma to fetch my own bucket of water.
We had 'neighbors', who slept on our top bunk and pretty much did everything for us, as we did for the seniors when we were juniors babes. My neighbor was responsible for fetching my daily bucket of water, washing and ironing my clothes, making my bed and in general...making my life easier. :-D

I joined a couple of social clubs and got a chance to participate in events such as 'Press Club day', which was pretty much was excuse for us male deprived females to hang around a whole bunch of boys from the nearby federal colleges.
For events such as Press club day, we practiced mimes that we would perform on stage, and on the actual day we made sure we wore our shortest skirts...after all, the boys were coming!

I made friends for life!

Visiting days were the first sunday of every month. We lived for visiting days, and we would all camp out with friends at their parents cars, and invite them to our own parents cars to come and eat with us. Post visiting day, every one was happy because their lockers were re-filled with provisions like Nasco (Or Kellogs for the rich folk), Cabin biscuits, peak milk, milo/bournvita, GARRI, cookies...and our wallets were fatter with the pocket money that our parents gave us.

I considered myself to be something of an all-rounder in secondary school. I wasn't part of the popular jingos club, I wasn't a spiro aka SU, I wasn't an effico aka bookatee, I wasn't one of the 'outcasts' either. I just flowed freely with everyone and that made my boarding school experience even more memorable.

Boarding school was fun for real! In my last year, I made friends with a set of very mischievious chicks who were always looking for the latest gist/scandal. I remember one jobless saturday night, we heard word of some lesbians making out and decided to sneak up to their window to watch the action for ourselves. LOL
Ah, we had plenty lele's o. It was the lack of males that caused it sha...

Ahhhh, nostalgia! I'm sitting here, and actually missing those good ol' days.

Or is it those girls who were campaigning for prefect positions? As a defaulter, I know say e no go reach me so I didn't even bother. But it was extraaaa funny when they would announce prefects, and some of the campaigners ehn? e just fly them like say dem dey stand for JFK airport and British Airways flew past them. Flyoooooooooooo. Some wicked chicks would make paper planes, and when they post they were campaigning for no reach them, they would throw the paper planes in their direction. LOLLLLL.

I remember those boxed up chicks who used to go to Jand/Yankee every summer, and when they came back we would be admiring their cute accessories, and acquisitions and thinking how lucky they were. I mean, when I came to yankee and I hit up CVS, I saw the 99c tweety folders and chit that we used to trip for back in the day. Too funny...

I remember holidays and how there was this current of excitement running through the whole school. People with excess provisions would share with the hungry folk like me who always finished their provs real quick. Everyone was happy to be heading home for the long long summer holiday. I remember the Ekenedilichukwu and ABC buses that came to pick the Lagos girls. In those instances, I really used to wish that I was a Lagos babe 'cos those their trips home were reportedly very fun.

I remember the final days, when we jacked hard for our WAEC and JAMB examinations. We pulled all nighters, and it was hella bitter sweet because as we dey jack, we knew that this was it! After the exams, and class party we were O-U-T and we potentially would not see some of those girls again.
Since we pretty much had one foot out the door, we were hella defaulting, wearing 'mufti' to afternoon prep, some girls sef no gree plait their hair again or they would do the extra deep 'brush' that was on some straight up defaulting status.

Man o man, I miss those good ol' days. I really do...
I spent a good 6 years of my life in that secondary school. Well, most of it minus the summer vacations and what not, and I can confidently say that it helped in shaping my character.
I learned not to take anything for granted; I mean I see some people complaining about cafeteria food and I'm like whaaaat? You should have seen what I had to eat in secondary school, this chit is a 3 course dinner fit for a king compared to that.
I learned to work with what I had.
I met so many girls from different backgrounds; from the extra rich ones aka the boxed up ones to the ones whose parents were struggling. It was truly a melting pot for all sorts of characters and people from different back grounds and I learned to accept everyone for who they were.
School daze were worth every punishment I served, I won't trade it for anything in the world!

Left to me, I'd ship my kids off to boarding school too! Let them learn a thing or two.

The end.

PS:- This was a long post, which didn't even cover half of my boarding school experience. Ha ha.