On my Youtube channel, I have several videos that discuss How to Survive Boarding School in Nigeria and school advice when it comes to high school, community college, college, and university.

However, there is a disconnect or a missing period between leaving boarding school and graduating high school at 16. 

Leaving boarding school was an abrupt decision; at least that is what I thought until several years later when I spoke to my mom about my dismay of leaving and not finishing what I had started.

Apparently, it wasn’t an ill-tent motive like I believed it to be until 2019. It was strategic, and above all else, necessary. 

When I landed in July 2013, I only had a couple of weeks to decide what school I wanted to go to to complete my secondary school education. The process included taking an exam to determine if I was eligible to attend a private high school.

Truthfully, I didn’t study. I thought if I failed miserably, there would have been no other choice but to go back to boarding school in Nigeria.

Of course, I didn’t know back then that a public school that offered excellent education like Bellaire High School, where their numerous students attend Ivy League schools like Columbia and Duke University, was the alternative.

When the results came in, and I don’t remember my exact score, I wasn’t expecting much.

After all, I failed to prepare. I didn’t look up past questions nor watch Youtube videos on how such exams were administered.

I just showed up on test day and I didn’t even hope for the best.

Needless to say, I was unconcerned.

To my surprise, my mom told me I was eligible to attend schools like St. Agnes Academy, an all-girls private college preparatory high school. I knew for sure I didn’t want to go to an all-girls school and the other schools didn’t appeal to me either.

However, I didn’t have a choice. I had to choose a school because the option of returning to Nigeria was not even considered. I cried, pleaded, and moped around the house, but my mom did not cave in.

That’s how I ended up at Bellaire. I knew little to no information about the academics, extracurricular activities, or how diverse it was.

I just knew that the following semester I would be going in as a sophomore or 2nd-year high school student. That was terrifying to me. I expressed, “it couldn’t be so.” Because if I were in Nigeria, I would be a junior, also known as a 3rd-year high school student.

I won’t explain any further on how I was able to graduate on time, despite that hiccup since I explain the process in this video here: