American University of Nigeria

If I’m asked to define AUN from a general perspective I’ll like to do it from a statistical point of view. To me AUN is just a ‘sample’ and the world is the ‘population’. In a sample you find elements of the population. This means that AUN is a subset of the world. Our school is a little community that represents or replicates the global community. In it you find people from diverse backgrounds, upbringings, races, etc. on a more general note, you find people with different characteristics. If you go to different schools in Nigeria, you will discover that if the school is situated in the north it will be occupied by more Hausa staff and students, if it is in the east it will be occupied by more Igbo staff and students, and if it is in the west it will be occupied by more Yoruba staff and students. But with AUN the case is different. The university is located in the north but yet it encompasses staff and students from different parts of Nigeria and the world. This makes AUN a more diverse community. According to history it is quite difficult to dwell and exist in a location with too much diversity be it religious or ethnic, cultural or behavioural. It takes a lot of tolerance and understanding for peace to reign in such a locality. And since AUN contains people with different characters it is quite easy to feel irritated by people who do things and understand the world differently from the way you are used to. In order to live peacefully with my school mates I learnt to be very tolerant and patient. I learnt to study people and their behaviours and try to understand why they do some of the things they do. This has really helped me in coexisting with roommates, group mates, and course mates. So instead of getting agitated when people do certain things and display certain behaviours I don’t agree with I try to be empathetic and look at it from their own perspective then I become calm. I’m very sure that if everybody will learn to be tolerant, patient and understanding most of the conflicts that cause ugly crisis in the world will be easily avoided.
Just as it is in the world at large, different factors lead us to make friends or lose them. This I have also seen in the world sample, AUN. I have lost some friends because as time went by I realized we were no longer compatible. Some friends get carried away by mundane things that do not matter and many at times things that do not help build an individual in anyway. Many young people believe that by drinking, smoking and showing off their wealth they will attain more prestige. And as the saying goes birds of the same feather flock together so such people stop mingling with their true friends and find those who do what they do forgetting their primary aim of being in school. Well, I let such friends go because if we are no longer compatible there is no way we can relate well and build each other. Thus, in future if friends change and we become discordant I will be able to deal with it. This is because my previous experiences have motivated me to refrain from timidity and make new friends that are more companionable with me and can build me rather than break me. In other words, my bad occurrences with some friends have made me more social so I can make new friends. And with the increase in globalization all citizens of the world must learn to be social in other to liaise and relate smoothly with people from different parts of the world. Wow! Out of a bad experience came a good thing.
I can’t wrap up my AUN experience without mentioning class presentations (group and individual) because they immensely impacted me positively. Our constant class presentations have given me more confidence and boldness to stand in front of a crowd and buttress my point. Although at the beginning it was quite frightening since I initially had intense stage fright. But as time elapsed with constant presentations in different courses for four years the yolk was broken and I finally came out of my shell. Now, with my new found confidence I can gallantly stand in front of great men and kings and command respect with my utterances.
In a nutshell, I am thankful to AUN for making me a stronger, wiser and more social individual, for making me more tolerant, patient and understanding. Today I am bolder, more confident and I have dropped timidity. I am really appreciative because boldness and confidence are vital traits for economists and future entrepreneurs like me in today’s world. I owe all of these to AUN because if this great institution wasn’t a diverse community I probably wouldn’t have learnt many of the valuable lessons I absorbed and much of the positive virtues and attributes I now possess.
To end with, I was in the sample of the global population and I excelled. This has given me confidence and assurance that when I get into the world no matter where I may find myself now or in the future I shall conquer.