“For as long as you rely on an external system to define who you are, to give you credibility or enhance your capacity to influence, you are weak.” – Adeolu Akinyemi

I was at Ife over the weekend to speak at an academic seminar organized by one of the campus fellowships. The event had two key speakers, myself and a friend Deji Olatunde. We spoke from different angles about how they can make their academics work. We spoke about a number of things, and from the response of the audience the key concepts sank in. There was however a module of the presentation that left a very strong impression on my own mind. Why do graduates live forever under the classification of an imperfect system? Who told you that making a 2:2 makes you a second class, or making a 3rd class makes you 3rd class? Does any system, perfect or imperfect have the right to class you?

In my study of intelligence, I have come to learn that human beings have multiple intelligencies. We also have many avenues through which we learn. For some of us, what the university system ranks, our ability to take in and regurgitate, is our strength, for some others it is not. Some of us are very smart logically and some of us very wordsmart, these kind of smarts will grant you the priviledges of good grades in most Nigerian university courses. What about the others who have other intelligences? Must you forever live under the impression that you are not good because one university that still has courses that have not changed in 20yrs says you are not? I don’t think so?

You are good in more ways than you have discovered! Are you the type of person that can smell the scent of a perfume and know the brand? Are you the type of person that remembers what you read by the type of music that was playing when you read it? Are you the type of person that learns and connects things just by looking at nature? Are you the kind of person who hears a song for the first time and can pick out all the wordings? Are you the kind of person who hears a music, forgets the lyrics but can hum the baseline from beginning to end? Are you the kind of person who just needs to see one picture and a whole textbook falls into perspective? Are you the kind of person who learns most when discussing with someone else? Are you the kind of person who needs to be alone in a tranquil enviroment to learn? Are you the kind of person who can creatively mix food items together to get fantastic results? Are you the kind of person who sees patterns in things that don’t make sense to others? Are you the kind of person who always dreams about major events before they happen? Are you the kind of person who feels extreme emotions and intuitively knows what to do ahead of crisis? Are you the kind of person who knows how to make people relax and tell you secrets they’ll share with no other? Are you the kind of person who knows how to connect with powerful people without much effort? Are you the kind of person who draws attention wherever you go? Are you the kind of person who knows what colours to combine? Are you the kind of person who… Tell me did your univeristy measure any of these things? Does your class, grade or GPA reflect any of these things? You cannot be effectively classed by any known system.

The human make up is interesting. I believe that every human being has a unique combination of skills, flairs and opportunities that if properly maximized can make you into a first class personality. You can be number one at being yourself. You can be sui generis (In a class of your own)! Stop living under the cloud of that rating, stop thinking talking and acting like a 3rd class, a 2:2, 2:1 or even a firstclass because it was your grade? Who says that is your grade? Who says you were fully measured? Who says that you are not more than this? Who?

For as long as you rely on an external system to define who you are, to give you credibility or enhance your capacity to influence, you are weak. – Adeolu Akinyemi