When you fall, get up and try again. - creativenonfictionprompt #22

In 2012, I finished my secondary school education and wanted to write WAEC (west African examination certificate), this is an exam that every high school graduate must write so has to enable one to move on to the next phase which is the university, to this time, things were so tough for my parent, so I wasn't able to write it with my other classmates, then I was asked to come to a family member house so stay with her for some time since she just gave birth, I didn't want to go there at first, cause of some things that had happened during my former stay with them, then my aunt called me personally and requested that I go there that she will pay for my exam, so I thought since I will be getting something from my stay I should just go and help them out, so I left my house to another state again.

After i got there, with the whole journey so tiring and all, i stated the purpose i was sent there for, i helped look after the house and also the kids ,and when the time came for my aunt to pay for the exam , she paid for the lesser one which was GCE (General certificate examination) , i decided to just sit for it since it has been paid for, and because i was always busy at the home, i was more like the one running everything in the house , down to washing the cars , i was always tired and didn't get enough time to read, one day i called my aunt and told her i had fears i wouldn't be able to pass this exam without proper preparations, i told her i didn't even have the textbooks for some of the subjects and the exam was about two months away, so i begged her to enrol me in a tutorial close by, but because i had to do a lot of things in the house and at the shop for them, i was always attending the class so late, the whole processed got me tired and everything i was already so scared about how the exam would turn out, so i took courage and continued to read , even stayed up at night also just so i could read, then i didn't have a phone maybe it would have aided me in the subject i didn't have textbooks for, but i still did my best.

Finally, the exam period arrived, and I sat for it, almost missing one of the papers because I was asked to go to the market that same day, but I still went even though I arrived late, and I sat for the exam with a lot of tension in me, and by the time the result came out, it was as if I had feared those subjects for which I didn't have textbooks because I failed miserably in them, and I cried when I checked the result, Even my aunt could tell that I wasn't happy during this time, so after a while, I said I was going to leave so I could go look for money to write another exam, this time the main WAEC exam. Because they didn't want me to leave, they promised to give me some allowance each month, and I stayed. From working, I was able to save some money, and when it came time to register for the exam again, I did so with the money I had gathered.

I decided to leave my aunt's house because I knew that if I didn't, the same thing that happened during the first exam I took would happen again. So I told them I was leaving, I returned to my own home in Lagos, I bought the textbooks I needed to pass the exam, I read as if my life depended on it, I read both morning and night, and there were no house chores to keep me from reading this time because my parents and sisters were understanding and also supported me this time I returned to Port Harcourt without visiting my aunt. Instead, I stayed with my brother, because at least he didn't have anything that would interfere with my reading. I wrote the exam, and at the end of it, I passed the exam. I was very delighted that, at long last, I was able to obtain the certificate, and the result was satisfactory. I was overjoyed.

Since I didn't give up looking for success just because I failed one exam, I pushed on and eventually reached success after many challenges that didn't want me to, I eventually succeeded, and I am now in university, all because I didn't give up, I fell, and I got straight back up to try again. Thus, never give up on whatever you want to accomplish simply because you failed once.

My entry to the inkwell creative nonfiction prompt

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