When I got to secondary/high school, I was allowed to be myself a little bit…

At this point, I go on school expeditions, social programs but have that mindset of being careful… you are not like the others so embedded in my mind.

So much that it created fear in me and self-pity.

I could be all good one minute.., joined friends for a party for instance, and the next minute have a full-blown episode of sickle cell crisis and I could be blamed for going out in the first place.

This will end in hospital admission for days or weeks. I coiled into my own shell and didn’t open up much to anything or anybody. Those years were adolescent years where boys befriend girls, I was fearful, had low self-esteem, and didn’t even want to be approached by anybody.

I remember this funny incident just like yesterday… a boy who lives in the same area as my friend had expressed to my friend his interest in me, and one day I was returning back from my friend’s house and saw him approaching my direction and smiling at me…, omg! I wanted to vanish, I tried dodging him and almost got knocked down by a car… hahaha… sheer stupidity.

This is how fear can let you feel and act sometimes.

In my final year in secondary school, I fell sick and had to be rushed to the hospital and be admitted. Our final exams were around the corner and I told myself I will not miss this exam for anything. My doctor also says discharge was not an option, I’m not okay to go home and take the final exams.

The time came for the exams and I told the doctor I have to take this final exam, I cannot go through secondary school for four years and not write my final exam to get my O’level certificate…

He made a deal with me… I was to be picked up from the hospital to the exam hall and come back to the hospital after taking the exams each day. God bless my sister who offered to come to get me and bring me back. Such resilience! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Christ in you the hope of glory!

Story continues…