Tips to help you successfully deal with Academic Difficulty Part 2

1. Stay positive-This is so important.. Speak positively about the situation. Think positively about the situation and stay positive. You have to make a conscious effort to do this because it is not easy. Life is all about perspective, so give a positive spin to the situation.

2.  Counseling-I remember one of my classmates suggesting this to me. I went for two sessions and that was it. I have nothing against counseling; try it if it works for you use it. Personally, I didn’t stick to it because I made God my counselor. What does that mean? I would literally schedule time to spend time with God to get through this.

3. Speak life to the situation- I changed my vocabulary about the situation. Every time, I remember that I just failed. I would open my mouth and say “I am a success story.” Yes, you just failed. It doesn’t make any sense to use your words to beat yourself up. Use your words to speak life. You can say, “The lord will perfect that which concerns me” but make sure you speak life.

4. Exercise-Do whatever you do to help you with stress. If you like going out with friends to relax, do it. It has to be something you enjoy. For me, exercise helps me a lot with stress. I suggest, it should be something that will help you relieve stress.

5. Read– One of the books, I read which really helped me out was “the traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. This book talks about a guy who is going through failure all around and he goes around meeting prominent people in history who give him some amazing advice about life. You don’t have to read this book but read a self-improvement book.

6. Take responsibility for what happened. Don’t say this teacher didn’t like me. You can’t move forward unto you take responsibility for what happened to you. Complete this sentence: I am here because I didn’t…  Complete this sentence honestly without beating yourself up.

7. You have to move forward. Moving forward could mean trying again and again. Whatever moving forward means to you do. For me, it meant trying again which I did but it didn’t work; however, I persevered. You might have to change your major etc but do not put your education on pause. Go forward.

8. This is not the time to talk to negative people. When you are at your lowest this is when your friends need to be your cheerleader. Cut out talking to negative people. If the negative person is your family member decrease the amount of time you talk to them. When you are very vulnerable at this time, you can’t afford to talk to people who will pull you down.

9. Look over your school journey what will you do differently next time? Implement the necessary changes you need now.

10. Never believe you are a failure.  Believe that the best is yet to come. People who are afraid to try already accepted failure. You didn’t, you gave it your all and that’s what will put you on the road to success. Successful people are not discouraged by failure, they are encouraged by it.

11. Create a journal and write down your thoughts. If you don’t like writing; at least, do videos on your laptop and store them on your computer. You don’t have to upload them on youtube (except you want do).

12. Write down new goals and go after them.

13. See yourself already where you want to be. This academic difficulty situation caused me to post pone my graduation. It was very important for me to see myself walking across that stage before it happened.

Day dream about where you want to be and see yourself there.  I had pictures of people with graduation gowns all over my dorm room. Your mind is the canvas you use to paint your future. Paint wisely! Remember as a man thinks in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7)

14. Watch this video:

No matter how many times you get knocked down, you have to get back up. Please, get back up and move forward!

He Got Me..

If you glance over my blog posts, you will notice I don’t share personal information or experiences.
I like to think, I am a private person but every now and then (like now..) I open up a bit.
Nothing cheesy.. Here we go.

I took a trip to another state with another person to relax.
We went to this Nigerian restaurant to eat.
While we were there waiting on our food.
This young man came in to order his food.
When I first saw him, he looked like he just got off from a hard day at work.
In other words, the way he was dressed was unattractive.

Before I knew it, he was glancing a lot over my direction..
In my head, I was like “Oga, leave that thing, you no be my type abeg.”
He started talking to the owner of the shop and I heard the intelligence that was coming out of his month.. Yea, my head turned.
Hands down, intelligence is so attractive.
His looks didn’t catch my attention but his brains did.

Morale of the story: Go to School, intelligence is attractive!!

Excuse my honesty,
I am personally not attracted to thugs.
I don’t understand why a woman would shun an educated, God-fearing man and pick a thug, who walks around sagging his pants..
I digress.

An educated, God-fearing man will always get my attention any time, any day!

Africa 101: Trivia

Try to answer these questions before looking at the answers.

1. Name the largest country in Africa?
2. Name the smallest country in Africa?
3. Name the most populous country in Africa?
4. Name an African country that has two African countries inside it?
5. Madagascar is a country in Africa..True or False?

Answers:
1. Algeria
2. Seychelles
3. Nigeria
4. South Africa
5. True

Africa 101-The Lion King

Never go up to an African and say “Hakuna Matata” (I know lots of you will still do it, LOL).

Info from Google Scholar:
The producers used an African National Park called Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya as the setting of this movie.
hakuna matata“- Swahili phrase which means “There are no worries.”

Look at the picture  below: Swahili is spoken in East African Countries (Info from Stanford.edu; click on the picture to read the full article). Yellow shaded regions are countries where Swahili is spoken the most.

ImageNext time you meet an African from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi feel free to say “Hakuna Matata” (only when it is appropriate or you will embarrass yourself..LOL!).

 *Never assume they know the language, it is more wise to ask first*

Africa 101-West African Culture

This guy is from Ghana.
I am from Nigeria again.
Ghana and Nigeria are countries in West Africa.
Most Africans from West Africa has some similarities in culture.
Don’t generalize this video to every single West African Parent.

Watch this video and see what you can pick up about West African Culture.
Enjoy the video, it also very funny.

If you didn’t pick it up from the video..

West Africa Culture value:
1. Respect
2. Education

Africa 101- Clicking Language

Lesson #3

All Africans don’t speak the language that makes clicking sounds.
The name of the language is Xhosa language and it is South African (Info from Google Scholar)
It is very appropriate to ask someone from South Africa about this language.

Asking other Africans about this language is not appropriate.

Again, this language is South African.

Tomorrow… I will answer this question: Where do Africans live in huts? trees? forest?

Africa 101-Speak “African”

Lesson #2

Here are the countries in Africa.
Image
Each country has their own set of languages and cultures.
We don’t have a universal language.
Pls don’t ask an African person to speak “African” to you.
The best way to ask this question is to first ask:
“What language do you speak?”
Then, you can ask them to say something in that language.
Some countries in Africa have more than one language.