2. Resumption, first day in AFMS part 1

My mum got the sad news when we got home, she did not want me to go to AFMS, she would come into my room almost every night after I got the letter, sometimes crying and pleading with me “I heard they punish them so hard in that school”, “Jos is too far away from home”, “I heard they don’t let them bring provisions (milk, cornflakes, garri etc) to school”, this was the first time in my life that my mum’s tears was not enough to make me abandon something, this was my dream, my life, I was not ready to back down.

My mum took me to visit Deji and Dotun for some advice, Dotun didn’t say much (I didn’t understand then, but understood much later in AFMS that Deji was his junior and Dotun shouldn’t be talking a lot where Deji is present), Deji told me the different things that happened in AFMS, told me of the many punishments, told me of a punishment called ‘sit on your head’, I tried it, easy… bring on another one, press-up, easy, forward roll, easy… they showed me their pictures, looking all smart in starch khakis and military camouflage uniforms, wow… this is my life right infront of me, I couldn’t wait to start wearing one, I thought to myself ‘the punishments are not even difficult’. Let’s roll.

JS2 to SS3 JAM resumed 2 weeks before us, so Deji and Dotun had left for school, I got myself fully prepared, and my mum followed me all the way to Jos, she wouldn’t let me go without her seeing first hand what the school was like.

We arrive at the school gate… park the car, and start getting out my stuffs, mattress, clothes, box, pillows, cutlass, bucket etc, the soldiers refused to let my mum help me with anything, ‘madam leave everything let him carry it’, I guess my mum was thinking ‘here we go!’, but I wasn’t bothered, I was just about to start living my dream, dressing and marching like the soldiers in my cartoons. Let’s go there!