{"id":1121,"date":"2016-04-12T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humansofnigeria.org\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2016-04-12T09:57:03","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T14:57:03","slug":"owe-to-my-upbringing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humansofnigeria.org\/owe-to-my-upbringing\/","title":{"rendered":"What I am today, I owe to my upbringing"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The typical African parent is very strict, but my parents were not extremely strict. Yes, they were strict but, they gave us a bit of aptitude to explore certain things and try to discover ourselves. However, there were always boundaries. For me, growing up was quite challenging at a point because I was the kind who\u2019s very reserved. You know quiet children are not encouraged in Africa; a child is supposed to be active and highly sociable. This expectation created some challenges for me because the expectations were that I would be more active, but I was very shy. In fact, there were many criticisms that I was too timid, too slow, too this, too that, so I had to endure that while growing up.<\/p>\n

Despite the criticisms, I had some things going for me because I was always curious to learn more, and I read so many books. While growing up, my father encouraged me to study and taught me certain things while growing up such that at the age of 7 I knew about 99% of all the capitals of all the countries in the world.
\nWe weren\u2019t rich, and my parents were very strong in values, so I wasn\u2019t the kind that would steal, cheat, or engage in anything that would be injurious to my reputation or the name of my family. So that helped me deflect any negative influence that came my way. I think that my upbringing has stayed with me up till now because lot of what I am today, I owe to my upbringing.<\/p>\n

My mom was a teacher at my Primary School so it was cheaper for us because students that are children of staffs at that school would pay half of what others paid. So that helped us. My secondary school was located close to the slum areas of Lagos, in a place called Ajegunle district of Apapa, Lagos. That was a challenging environment because in there was a guy like me with very sheltered upbringing, and I didn\u2019t even know how to speak the pidgin. On average I was close to the top of my school because I discovered something about myself. I always thrive best when my abilities intersect with my passion and things I believe in. If I were doing something but weren’t passionate about it, yes I would do well, but it won\u2019t be something that would be talked about. So for me, that was the trend.
\n