The Currency Of Change: How I Made My First 'A' In School

That sunny afternoon must have been hottest in living memory. I rummaged through my wardrobe painstakingly for a shirt. It was Daniel’s birthday and I knew very well that there was no other place I could spend that day than at Daniel’s house; just a few block away from mine.

My search for a shirt was rewarded with a beautiful blue plaid long-sleeved shirt. I donned my shirt-cum-trophy and made for the door. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a brown envelope tucked neatly a few paces from the wardrobe.

The envelope was obviously addressed to me, but I had no idea what its content was. In this age in which poison-laced envelopes and well packaged hand-held grenades are so easily passed around from one end of the globe to another, I believe that it was only right that I approached the brown mystery with caution.

Trembling, I emptied its contents into my left hand and saw it again. I was furious! Well, you should have

been there to witness first hand my irritation. How could a piece of my past which I so frantically brushed aside still be hovering around in my present?

How could my first year senior high school examination report still be lying around at that point in time? I clearly

recall planning to incinerate the report; it beats me how come I never executed my plans.

You might be wondering how the results of such a “good” student as I could be warrant thoughts of incineration. Allow me to let you in on this little secret: my childhood dreams of pursuing a degree in Medicine and Surgery and

being a medical doctor was nearly shattered in that first year of my senior high school education. Can you imagine that I could hardly make any grade better than an “E8” in the elective subjects?

I was only consoled by the fact that I was relatively better in the core subjects in which I could manage some B2s and B3s. You could say that the 23rd position in class was a plot of land I shared with no one! What I am about to share with you now is how God moved me from grass to grace; how he moved me from the 23rd position plot of

land to 3rd place in just one term; how I made another step ahead to 2nd position the next term: how I made

a grand transition from being an average student to being an ace student.

Back at home, my family was growing frantic about the sudden decline in my academic performance. I

had a series of unofficial academic counseling sessions with my aunt who promised to give

me GH₵10.00 if I could manage to secure the 10th position by my second year. Friends, one

concept of life became very clear to me as I decided to pursue academic excellence.

I realized that one requires the currency called change to get change: one who desires change in any facet of life needs to first change himself. Admittedly, I was not giving out my best as a student initially. I had to change my way of thinking from “I cannot make it” to “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.

I needed to change my usual habits of closing my notebooks and rushing through them just some few days before

examination. I needed to change my seating position in class to a better place where I could pay maximum attention to my teachers and avoid unnecessary conversations in class.

I needed to change from relying on my own intelligence, to praying for the favor and grace of God in every examination. Change! Yes, Change! Change was the requirement for a change in my academic performance.

I believe that the mystery behind every rising champion is embedded nowhere, but right in the totality

of his beliefs.
Previously, I believed that I was a failure and could never make an “A” in school but after I conditioned my mind and

belief system with that of the word of God (Ephesians 3:20), I made countless “A”s from the first term in my second year to the day I completed school. I have had numerous encounters with people who believe that others were just born to fail and nothing significant could be done about that. Although some of the people at the end of such disturbing statements have even accepted their “ill fate”.

I do not buy that idea. I call it a misconception. No one can live above the limits of his own beliefs. After I changed my belief system, I refused to see my E8s as a challenge, but merely as an opportunity to grow. Sometimes,

the problems in our lives are not actually the problem.

The problem lies in how we see these problems. Instead of seeing my failures as a stumbling block, I perceived them as a stepping stone to my success. The famous author, Norman Vincent Peale, in his book

“The Power of Positive Thinking” wrote that “Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution.” I understood that my problems were necessary for the creation of the solutions I earnestly desired. Do you know where I found

the answers to my problems?
Yes, I looked nowhere than into my “E8”s and “F9”s for the solution. Success in every facet of life, whether

education, marriage or work, is conditional. You need to apply well calculated and strategic efforts to produce a fruitful outcome. Success has its own language and one needs to learn it thoroughly until one becomes fluent in the language, and begins to harvest from his labor.

The language of success is positivity. Along with conditioning my mind and belief system, I started speaking the language of success and eventually gained grounds in it. Watch your words! Like the apocalyptic doomsayer I

repeat, watch your words! If you constantly speak self-defeating words about yourself, you’ll definitely burry your potentials in the pit of impossibility.

I knew that the power of life and death lies in the tongue, so I spoke life into my academics. When God was confronted

with darkness in the beginning, he didn’t start complaining and telling everyone about how great a challenge the darkness was.

He spoke life into the darkness for the light to appear. When you are confronted with a problem, don’t just “comment” but speak life into that problem. Lest I forget, on my journey from being a grade F student to a grade A student, I met two different kinds of people: those who had no beliefs in my future and the valuable ones who did. I let the former group of people to my lawyer - time.

I define time as the common legal practitioner; when people do not believe in the dreams and future of its

client, time proves them wrong. On the other hand, valuable people like Gilbert Opoku Jeffery, who became my new seating mate, inspired me with his words and actions.

Indeed, it is an undisputable fact that good company breeds good habits. I reaped bountifully from the seeds I sowed into my life then. My aunt was very amazed when I made it to the 3rd position in class instead of the 10th position she had encouraged me to work towards. I had a special gift cake from her that day aside the GH₵10.00 promised me. I

did not really care about the value of the money.
In my mind’s eye, all I was thinking of was the smiles I had put on God’s face and the faces of my relatives. People marveled and wondered how I made it; my sudden leap could be likened to a quick quantum jump of

an electron from the ground state straight to the outermost energy orbital. Klinsmann Opuni, one of my classmates who was also excelling once asked me how I made it to the top and all that I could say was “I changed a lot”.

Hello lovely readers, this is The Inspired Pen. I believe that God is able to grant you any change you seek in life, but prior to that you need change!

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Prepare for another great time with The Inspired Pen.

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