The Ilorin Shock EPISODE 17

Episode Seventeen: The Day I Was Rejected and Accepted Again

There was one place I thought would never turn its back on me.

My school.

Back when we were still with our former teacher, his wife worked in the school I attended. Because of that, I didn’t pay school fees. Everybody knew me there. The classrooms, the teachers, even the sound of the bell felt familiar. That school felt like the one thing in Ilorin that didn’t hurt me.

So when we moved to Mallam Babulhameen’s house and it was time to enter a new class, my senior brothers there suggested I should change school. They wanted to take me to another one close by.

But I refused.

I said, “I already have a school.”

In my mind, that school was still mine. I held onto it like a rope connecting me to the little stability I had left.

So that morning, with hope in my chest, I set out alone. No escort. No fear. Just confidence that I was returning to where I belonged.

But Ilorin had another lesson waiting for me.

When I got to the school and met the staff, I told them I was ready to resume. Their faces changed immediately. One of them looked at a file, then looked at me again and said words that broke something inside me:

“Your former teacher’s wife said you are not coming again. She said it’s not on her.”

Just like that.

No explanation.

No warning.

No choice.

I stood there, confused, embarrassed, and small. Students were passing. The school bell rang. Life continued except mine.

I turned back.

As I walked home, my chest felt heavy. My steps slowed. I kept asking myself why everything connected to my past kept closing its doors on me. I didn’t cry, but my eyes burned. It felt like rejection stacked on rejection.

Then fate intervened.

As I was walking, one man stopped suddenly and stared at me closely.

It was one of our Arabic teachers.

He looked at me again, smiled softly, and called my name.

He remembered me immediately.

He asked why I was outside during school hours. When I explained everything, his expression changed. He didn’t argue. He didn’t delay.

He held my hand.

And he took me back to the school.

This time, I didn’t speak.

He did.

He told them who I was. He told them where I was coming from. Then he said something that froze the whole office:

“This boy’s new teacher is the father of our school principal.”

Silence.

The atmosphere changed instantly.

Faces that were hard minutes ago softened. Papers were rearranged. Voices dropped. Suddenly, there was no more problem.

I was accepted back immediately.

No forms.

No arguments.

No delay.

Just like that, the door that was shut reopened.

As I walked into the school compound again, my heart was still shaking but now from relief. I realized something that day:

Sometimes rejection is not the end.

Sometimes it is only a turn in the road.

If that Arabic teacher had not seen me.

If he had walked past.

If he had forgotten my face.

I don’t know where I would have ended up that day.

But destiny remembered me when others tried to forget.

And as I entered the classroom, I knew this chapter was far from over.

Because Ilorin had not finished testing me yet.

To be continued… Episode 18