The Society of 6
We were little but daring. We were bold, adventurous and ready to take the world. Nothing could stop us from achieving our dreams. We took the first 6 positions in the class year after year. We also watched each other’s back; we would never allow any of us to be cheated. We would fight back whoever dares to fight any of us. We were the ‘Society of 6’.
The story of the Society of 6 started when in Primary 3, our class teacher, Mrs Aburime read the story of the ‘Society of 6’ to us from the Macmillan Elementary English textbook. The story described a group of 6 artists in California, who participated in outdoor paintings, socialized, and exhibited together. Their paintings stood out from the other painters of their time. They created several masterpieces that were full of original methods, profound ideas, and far-reaching imaginations. They were desired by everyone and were the envy of every artist. She would conclude her story by saying “If you want to succeed in life and create masterpieces then you must change your beliefs about luck, talent, and success just like Society of 6”.
The story of the society of 6 inspired me. For several weeks I would visualize how a society of 6 pupils who loved and shared everything would look like. I would go ahead to list out the names of my friends who would join me in forming a society of 6. I was little but understood the power of community. I wanted to form a group that would enable us to emotionally support each other, study together, exchange knowledge and ideas and ultimately add joy to each other’s lives. I would then go ahead to call my best friends; Segun and Emeka to join me in fulfilling my dream of building this community. One morning, during the break period, I called them both and whispered: “let us become the society of 6”. They looked at me with utmost disbelief. Segun replied, “How do we form a society of 6 when it’s just the 3 of us?”. We then embarked on a mission to get 3 more people to join our ‘special’ group. We approached the 3 smartest girls in the class Toyin, Tolu and Amina and they agreed to join us. I laid down the ground rules; “We will care for each other as best friends would”, “we would share our foods” “we would never fight or argue” and “we would know each other’s houses”. It was funny to see a group of 7-year-olds form a friendship and have rules that guide the friendship. But we were committed to making it work. Above all, we made up our minds that no one would beat us in class. We would often stay back in the class after everyone had gone for a break to study, discuss our assignments and encourage ourselves. It all paid off. The next term, we were the best 6 pupils in the class. While I and Segun took the 1st positions, Tolu took the 2nd position while the 3rd, 4th, and 5th positions were taken by Aminat, Segun and Emeka. We loved and bonded in the deepest way possible. For the remaining years in school, we always came top in class. Though little, we were driven by an ambition to never be beaten.
Reflecting on this story now, I realized how much literature impacted my childhood. Even though we were young and naïve, we understood what community, ambition, and winning meant. That experience also impacted my writing significantly. I fell in love with writing (read how I started writing in my first writer’s journal). I would then go ahead to win all the available prizes in English and composition while my best friends would win the remaining prizes. In primary school, we were made to write simple sentences and learn the basics of writing. By the time we got to High school, we started writing complex sentences and longer essays. We were made to read books like ‘The Bottled Leopard’ by Chukwuemeka Ike, Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, Cyprian Ekwensi’s ‘The Drummer Boy’ just to mention a few. I recited poems like ‘Africa my Africa ‘by David Diop, poems by Wole Soyinka, Dennis Brutus, Kojo Laing, Niyi Osofisan, Chenjerai Hove and JP Clark. We started learning more advanced vocabularies and practice different styles and genres of writing. Even when I opted for the sciences, writing never left me. I continued writing up until university when I took to campus journalism. I also ran a technology blog for about 5 years.
I have come to realise that the secret of writing is to keep writing. Many times I have had to push through writer's block by dint of determination. Writer's block can be painful, but no matter how long it lasts, never stop writing.
This is a writing assignment for my Narrative Writing course at Arizona State University.
