MY HIGH SCHOOL ENTRY AND EXIT. Lessons For Future Generation.

Listening to pieces of advice, do’s and don’ts, sayings of fervent prayers, packing up everything my prospectus demanded and required, moving out and finally, the sight of the school’s wall and entrance. The moment I had long awaited patiently.

     Opoku Ware School had always been my top most preferred choice since childhood. My dream to school there became a reality and not a mere fantasy on 12^th September, 2018.

     My journey of Senior High School education started and all I knew was that I was going to face a new beginning, a new community,a new world with a new mindset and a new start, a new focus and of course,  new intentions. What did I expect to gain? New and better results.

     The many experiences and lessons school taught me made me grow eventually making me mature. Being bullied by my seniors, the everyday morning duty I was assigned to, the strict rules laid down by the school’s authority, and the unforgiving nature of some teachers if you ever went contrary to these rules, were all part of the growth process. A process that brutally groomed me to be the person I am today. It wasn’t easy, it was never simple. Even so, I was never willing to stop without reaching the end of it all.

     Adjusting myself to be able to fit perfectly was a difficult task for me, yet, I was able to. I never wanted to be an ordinary student, doing the same old boring daily routine: waking up, going to class, studying, eating, returning from class, prep, sleep, and the cycle begins anew the next day. “Much too boring and stale, makes me feel like a robot” was the very common answer I always gave whenever I was told to let go of certain things in school. Notwithstanding the fact that, I had to do everything in my capacity to learn very hard and to make my grades the best, I ended up joining the Robotics club, Writers’ and Debaters’ Society, spent a few months in the sports club and finally became an executive in the Student’s Representative Council.

     There is this saying that “The worst conditions and experiences teach the best lessons”. Undoubtedly, such worst situations I faced taught me the best three lessons. I won’t lie, I was never an angel. During my first year in senior high school I was somewhat of a rowdy student, not so much as to do anything that would cause punishment, but, anything that would be an adventure had my name boldly written in the list of participants. After a few weeks in my second year, I thought to myself that I had had enough adventure, that I had had enough fun and that I wanted to make a change in my school and to see that change in other schools, to at least if not many, be a role model for one junior. It was with this awakening that I decided to contest for the President of the ARSRC. Although I lost the elections, I never gave up, not once did I lose heart. I persevered and finally got elected into the awards committee of the ARSRC.

     All in all, after my three-year stay with each and every blessed day having its own story, I was able to complete and exit on 6^th October, 2021, having these three principles, rules, and lessons engraved in the very core of my being; “Never stop learning there’s always something new to be found, never stop trying you never know where your efforts will take you, and finally never give up even if the odds are not in your favour”.

Amoah Nathaniel Yaw,

Opoku Ware School.