Pa James- Learn how to use adverse situations

James had been one of the most uninspiring students in our department. We were students in the department of Biochemistry, University of Ibadan. There was nobody that wanted to be friends with James. Right from when we were freshmen in the University, James just couldn’t attract anybody to become his friend, no matter how hard he tried.
What caused this was the awesome fact that James was bald and was also greying at the tender age of 20. So everybody thought he was an old man that had just found his way to school. No man wanted to associate with Pa James. He looked so bald and grey that he was called Pa James, the ancient of days.

Compounding the precarious predicament, the popular comedy series maker, Laugh Out Loud Productions decided to shoot a movie titled ‘the travails of Pa James’. This movie was set to premiere at the University of Ibadan Arts theatre. This made James very popular in the University. He was so ‘popular’ that people made fun of him wherever he went in the University.
In his penultimate year in the University, he ran for Student Union President, and his campaign slogans included these:
“Don’t be a senile old man or a papa, vote for Pa James.”
“With grey hair comes wisdom, vote for wise decisions.”
“Make University of Ibadan fly high with Pa James”
“Vote for experience, ride on the shoulders of giants, vote for Pa James.”
And guess what, Pa James won the elections and became the First Student Union President since the Student Union was reconstituted. How sweet was it to graduate from the University an honour student, student Union President and most liked person in the whole University.

James utilized an otherwise adverse situation and made it work for him.
Some of us had similar experiences and happily fed on the pity that people doled out to us. That should not be the case, we need to pick up ourselves and make the best use of our situations.
Remember, there are many pages in a book, what makes the book finally worth reading is not just one page in the book but rather what the whole book says in the end. So write your own book concerning your life, don’t let one page or some few pages in your book determine the whole book for you. Determine how your book will end. Make your own stories favour you. Lots of people have done it, you can do it too.