ENTRY 2

MONDAY, JANUARY 30

MY ROOM - 7:00pm

Hey,

You know, school is a very weird place. It’s annoying but fun and kind of exciting at the same time. It’s annoying when you have dozens of homework piled up and then you receive more at the end of every class. And it’s exciting when you have friends that’ll make every moment or at least most of it, enjoyable. I just can’t get the whole homework thing outta my head mostly because I spent the first week of my Christmas break completing my assignments and the first-week school resumed, I got more assignments! Like, do teachers not have hearts? I missed the first day of school for some reason and I resumed last Tuesday which was the second day-very excited. But my excitement fled the moment I heard and saw my classmates rustling about and yapping about the assignments given the previous day. Like, who gives assignments on the first day of school? It didn’t help that my friends were too busy going over their assignments to talk to me. Worse, my best friend was in another class, somewhere upstairs and I couldn’t just leave my class to go to hers. I should probably explain how my school works huh?

Well, it’s a girls’ missionary school that’s both day and boarding so, it’s pretty big. I’m in Junior Secondary School 2-JSS2 for short and I’m among the almost one thousand girls at the school. Like a regular secondary school, the classes start from JSS1 to SSS3 which is short for Senior Secondary School 3. But it’s majorly referred to as SS3 much to the Head of Senior School’s annoyance-he likes to correct us all the time about saying it right. My older sister is a senior and my brothers are still in primary school. In a school with a population such as mine, every grade is separated into classes depending on the number of students. So, there’re four classes for each grade and it goes from A to D. It goes like this: JSS1A, JSS1B, JSS1C and so on. Back in primary school colours and not letters were used and for some reason, I always ended up in class blue or class green but it was okay cause I had a lot of friends-mostly boys-with me but here in secondary school…it’s all girls 24/7. Each class has about 25 to 30 students and a class teacher. My class teacher happens to be my math teacher. Pure joy! That was sarcasm just so you know.

The whole class arms thing is usually a topic of both excitement and anxiety every summer because everyone wants to be in the same class with their friends and have a very cool class teacher. Unlike my last class, 1A, which was filled with a lot of annoying kids, my present class 2D, is not so bad considering that most of my friends are here. I just wish my best friend was here too, that way we’d be together and I wouldn’t have to mind the other girl pestering me for attention. I mean she’s fun and all but she tends to annoy me a lot too and it’s exhausting.

Speaking of exhausting, I’ve been really stressed out this month from the whole New Year drama to school stuff. This term, my school will be having a Cultural Day celebration. It’s an event that glorifies and celebrates the various cultures and traditions of the people that make up the country. It’s also my first celebration since I got into this school so I’m gonna make it count. We’ve had rehearsals every Wednesday and Friday. Before that, every student was put in one of the six zones that the country is divided into based on culture. In Nigeria, there are six geopolitical zones and they are; the South-West, the South-East, the South-South, the North-West, the North-East and no, there’s nothing like the North-North instead there’s the North-Central. All thirty-six states are divided into these zones based on their location.

Every citizen of Nigeria comes from one or two of the thirty-six states, my family is pure South-East which is made up of the Igbo people. South-West is for the Yoruba people, and south-south contains the Calabar people alongside other tribes. All thirty-six states in Nigeria have about three hundred and seventy-four ethnic groups. Gosh! I feel like I’m teaching. Well, to know me you’ve got to know where I come from. The major ethnic groups are the Yoruba, the Igbo and the Hausa/Fulani. The Hausa/Fulani occupy the North. The minority groups are a lot and I can only mention a few; Tiv, Efik, Igala, Nupe, Jukun, Idoma and so on. Nigeria is one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world. Hmm, I sound smart and I like it.

Anyway, I was placed in the southeast zone which is literally where I’m from. I got really excited when I found out but my excitement was short-lived when I realized none of my friends was with me. It’s like the universe is against my happiness or something because I’m stuck with girls who I actually don’t talk to. We obviously know each other since we’re all in the same grade through different classes but we’d never spoken before. And I’m not talking about just one girl, there were like six of them present and certainly more of them around somewhere since not everyone actually participates or is interested in taking part in anything.

After introductions and speeches from the teachers in charge, everyone-both seniors and juniors in the southeast zone was split into groups for different activities like dance, speech, food and drama. I’m not sure what gave me the “brilliant” idea to volunteer to be on the dance team especially because I can’t dance to save my life. My best move-and the only one I excel at-is the left-right side movement like choristers do and maybe jazz hands but even those require a lifetime’s worth of practice for.....well, me! Simply put, I cannot dance. But it was either dance or drama cause I can’t do a speech in the Igbo language and thanks to stage fright, I chose dance which I just realized was actually the worst choice cause I’d be on stage longer than usual-that is if the dance instructor doesn’t take me out before he teaches the next move. You know the funniest and sort of cliché part of all this? I actually made it on the dance team. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing cause I didn’t just make the team...I led the team! Like, how?! One minute I was doing my best to execute the dance moves exactly as the instructor did and the next minute, I’m being asked to show the whole squad how it was done. Hmmm, major upgrade! The dance instructor has a good eye for selection and I happened to be bold enough to demonstrate the routine with zero mistakes and a feeling of self-consciousness. Um, someone still is wondering how? ‘Cause I am.

The whole dancing thing has got me stressed out. Since it’s for Cultural Day, every zone will be performing some form of cultural dance and anything culture related to that zone. So, the dance I’m doing is basically an Igbo traditional dance called “atilogwu” and it involves a series of acrobatic displays and movements. What I love about the whole thing is the music which is produced by Igbo traditional drums and flutes. Also, I guess I’m really good at the dance thing cause our instructor makes me lead the group all the time and calls me his dancer *beams proudly*. I still have no idea how I’m able to lead students comprising my juniors, mates and seniors. Just the thought of it all is overwhelming. Today, I had to lead the juniors and seniors at different times and now my thighs and feet are protesting. This is why when I returned home completely exhausted; I showered and went straight to bed.

My legs really hurt and I did use them a lot this week. Asides from dance rehearsals, I had to kneel for a long time during the week and it’s all thanks to the wonderful and certainly not annoying and loud classmates who happened to be disobedient and notorious, well some of them-especially the boarders who always get the class punished for whatever they do! It’s all thanks to them always having something to make noise about; we’ve spent hours most days on our knees. It’s okay when I get punished for something wrong that I did but it isn’t when I’m being punished for wrongs I’ve got nothing to do. I mean, I literally trudged into the class after hours of dancing and looking forward to sitting only to join the “angels” on their knees. Yeah, life’s unfair!

So, thanks to me sleeping a lot lately, I’ve missed out on my favourite Bollywood series and now I get up early at 5 to watch the reruns before getting ready for school. Now you can say I’m a morning person. Although, it’s just for my fave series like Twist of Fate and King of Hearts and let’s not forget the telenovela I’m currently obsessed with titled Forevermore. I could sit here and fill out pages upon pages about the handsome male lead, Alexander and get this, he’s not the only handsome character, there are many others too *dreamy sigh*. Just so you know, the dream is to meet every single one of my fave celebrities and be friends with them...besties even! Not that I’ll replace my best friend at the moment or anything but the more the merrier and the merrier comes with famous! Am I fantasizing too much?

Good news! The whole of next week is the mid-term break. I’m so happy! I need a break from school and it’s been five weeks of nonstop schoolwork. Tomorrow happens to be Cultural Day and we’ve had a few tests, the mid-term break couldn’t have come at a better time. My plan is really simple. I’m gonna play every single game on my list-yes, I made a list of games I want to play online and just in case you’re wondering what kind of games I play; I play cooking and dress-up games! God bless Daddy for recharging the wifi! So as long as my sister is busy watching movies or something, I’ll be on the laptop playing games. What? I’m twelve and I’ve got no other use of data asides to entertain myself, okay? That being said.....

See ya later!

QUESTIONS OF THE ENTRY (QOTE)

1. What is your cultural heritage?

2. What kind of games do you play?