2006 – “But I didn’t chew it miss”, I exclaimed. “Stop lying Tobi, you’ll only make things worse for yourself!”, my teacher asserted. “But miss…” I protested, but it was no use. My teacher had already made up her mind. I was guilty. You see when I was in year 1 I had a nasty habit of chewing pencils (don’t ask me why). Miss Bella had been kind enough to give me a final warning. “If I come back and see that you’ve chewed the pencil again, I’ll send you on a time out.”. At that age nothing was worse than being sent on a time out. Plus, golden time (every 6-year-olds favourite part of the day) was only 15 minutes away; I certainly didn’t want to miss that. It’s weird that I remember these events so clearly. Maybe it’s because it my first time I realised life isn’t fair. Because despite being sent out and getting no golden time, I honestly didn’t chew that pencil.
2011 – “Sophie”, “here miss”. “Samuel”, “here”. “AyOoLaMiDe….” The air was silent; nobody said a word. “Miss my name on the register is Ayoolamide, but my name is actually Tobi.” I explained. “Well, Ayoolamdie, I have to call you what’s on the register.” My teacher argued. “But that’s not my name!” I protested. But Miss.Ambonhoma was a preocular women, in that she refused to call me by my preferred name Tobi. Her defence was that she had to address me by what was on the register. I don’t know whether she did this as a matter of principle or because she got her kicks from pissing off her students. Either way I hated being called Ayoolamide, especially by a Food Tech teacher that continuously found ways to get under my skin. For those of you that don’t know my first name is not Tobi… it is actually Ayoolamide which is Yoruba for the “joy of my wealth has arrived”. Alas, believing myself to be right, I found ways to vocalise my objection. I continuously refused to respond to questions or request if Ayoolamide was used in the sentence. This act of defiance won me many detentions. Another life important life lesson was learnt here, standing up to perceived injustice comes at a cost.
2015 – “We would like to invite you to take a photo with the local newspaper for your outstanding results.” I read, before glancing at my results again. “Well at least I got an A* in Computer Science”, I thought to myself as I put my GCSE results back into their envelops. At that very moment miss Junkins approached me, and said “Tobi well done on your results I heard how well you did I am incredibly proud”. I didn’t do that well I thought to myself. “Thank you miss”, I replied. “Will you be enrolling for sixth form here, we would love for you to continue your studies here”, she asked. “Ummm not sure what I going to do yet miss, I just happy to be done with these GCSEs”, I replied. Unbeknown to Miss Junkins I had just told I lie, I knew exactly what I was going to do… which started with cut all ties to my former poor excuse of a school. Why you may ask? Well despite getting one of the best results in my school, I didn’t feel that proud of my results (at all), I felt and knew I could have done a lot better. And for those of you that think I should be happy with what I got… the number of people who got 5 C was 30% so getting the highest in my school was actually nothing to write home about. Luckily for me I was able to enrol at a decent sixth form.
2017 – “We thank God”, my mum screamed as her hands, covered in anointing oil collided with my head. I guess I’m going to university after all, I thought to myself. You see my A Level results day didn’t go as planned. While, I managed to get an A and B in Math and Computer Science respectively, in politics I got a C. I was therefore swiftly rejected from my first-choice university Surrey, and was instead heading to Aston. Realising that I was only one mark off a B in politics I immediate asked for a remark. Those handful of days waiting for my remark were suspenseful. I called my school every day asking for an update on my results. To my astonishment, on the fifth day, my sixth form actually reach out to me. My politics paper went up by 15 marks (don’t ask me how). And just like that I was heading to my firm university.
Today – TD aka TobiTalkss aka Tobi Dada is now a city boy, living the dream as a software engineer. He still has many stories to tell so if you enjoy this stay tuned and share with friends.