EDITORIAL: BEFORE WE BEGIN TO LAUGH…
It is quite expected to be in an ultimate state of euphoria when we top the class, have the highest CGPA or be the best at whatever we do. Similarly, it is quite expected that one get soaked in the pool of sadness when one is at the lower or least ladder of the class. Everyone wants good grades to be attached to them: to make their friends and enemies while checking their results on the BOL (Book of Life) to pronounce “whoa! This guy has improved oo. Wow! I can not believe my eyes!”. Thus, when the Book of Life came out yesterday, October 9th, 2018, it is usual that some students will cry and get depressed and some students will laugh and be happy by what they see on their phone. But one should not be too excited or too depressed by this or else one wants the book to define one’s life. Life goes beyond the result of an examination.
Disappointment is one of those feelings that we try desperately to avoid. Sometimes we can avoid it while in most cases, it is inevitable. It always hit us hard when we look forward to something and it does not come out as expected. But what can we do? Life has a way of setting battles which must be won if we put in our all and if by doing so, things do not plan out as expected; we do not relent but rather learn from our mistakes. On the other hand, also, if the ship seems to be sailing smoothly, the goal is not to be carried away but to ensure that it does not sink.
Dear freshmen, at the very end of the day when a good result is obtained, the right thing to be done is to work harder and smarter and not get swayed away about it. The second semester is notably known to be the semester where one’s CGPA drops like an album. The semester is presumed to be the shortest if things go as planned; therefore, all hands must be on deck to keep the flag of progress flying.
Similarly, we had the annual inter faculty and halls debate, which is perhaps one of the biggest platforms where students fight not with swords and armour but with their intellects and jaws. In the history of the event, the Faculty of Arts had been the first to be crowned winner but has no record of winning it afterwards. At the preliminary round of JAW WAR 2018, we all had our hair standing and tongues trying to swallow the impressive speeches given by speakers. Most certainly, we anticipated the same striking performance from our own speakers whose reputation of speaking well had gone far ahead of them. Fortunately for us, we did obtain victory but the larger audience present on that very day needed no eagle eye to tell that it was a battle won with no beads of sweats or jaws seriously at war. The opposing party, the faculty of Dentistry, much to the shock of everyone was obviously the least prepared with their speakers forgetting their speeches and stumbling on their words. It was therefore a rather fortunate coincidence that we had opponents who were nothing in comparison with other faculties that set the stage on fire with speeches heavily rich in contents and appropriate delivery.
As the next round approaches dear AFASites, before we begin to get too excited over a victory not justified and completely won, we might as well begin to reflect on the credibility of the faculty’s literary and debate team who appear to be invincible but comes into spotlight with the dawn of JAW WAR. Or how do we begin to explain the outright reprimand by the chief judge that the faculty speakers could not pronounce some words they kept on repeating inappropriately like faculty of ‘ARTS’ and ‘VEHEMENTLY’. No one is above mistake but in a battle like JAW WAR, speakers undisputedly are aware that the judges watch out for right pronunciations especially if such words are repeated in the same like manner. But of course, if the faculty debate team had been well prepared, done rigorous searching and read out their speech on countless bases to ears or as the case may be, would have most likely gone above pronouncing words correctly and giving the audience the vibes that they stand a great chance with the top-notch faculties.
Dwayne Johnson states that “Success is not always about greatness. It is about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success and from there greatness will come.” If the faculty is still living in the shadows of its past glory, then we all have to wake up in order to revive it and ensure the glory stays at home. Quite emphatically the whole statement dwells on consistency. This explains why not so many a student remembers the glory of the former days- the days when Faculty of Arts had great speakers and speeches. They have to bring in their best if we want to stand a chance at winning as fate has been too generous with us in the first round. Whatever may be our achievement so far in our studies or other stuffs we are into, they only last for a fleeting moment in the minds of people and once we allow ourselves to get too excited and wallow in self-confidence, the high bar we have set begins to drop and we are no longer the star the world wants to see.
PUB 4/ October 8, 2018.
