How I Got Used to Poor Performance in School

By Azuka Onwuka

I was not a greedy child …😊

I never coveted scores or grades. Never craved for positions.

I was satisfied with my position somewhere in the middle of the class –

Between the 10th and 20th positions in a class of 30 pupils.

Safe. Normal. Invisible.

I didn’t want to be seen as an extremist.

But I desperately wanted something…

A bicycle.

I always tried to ride any available adult bicycle.

One day, I rode one without brakes, crashed into our house and broke a tooth.

Papa noticed all this. Then one day he said to me:

“If you take first position, I’ll buy you a bicycle.”

I rolled my eyes.

To me, he was simply saying he didn’t want to buy it – in the language of adults.

Because “first position” and “Azuka” did not belong in the same sentence.

The top three positions were reserved for the know-it-all children of teachers and civil servants who made us look like dullards, not for me, whose parents didn’t finish elementary school.

But a strange thing happened.

In my Elementary 4, I took the 8th position. It sounded unusual.

Then for the first time, I began to read my books after school.

Before then, I didn’t believe schoolbooks were meant to be opened at home.

That was why they were called “SCHOOLbooks,” not homebooks.

Then I came 3rd in the second term.

When my name was called before the school for a handshake with the headmistress, I thought it was a prank.

Then the third term came, and I came 2nd.

Suddenly, what I thought was impossible began to look suspiciously possible.

Then in Primary 5, the unimaginable happened:
I came first.

Me, first?

A week before Christmas, Papa bought a bicycle for me from Avon Cycles.
Brand new. Stainless.

It was more precious than a private jet.

I still remember how it smelled.
How I decorated it.
How I rode it like a royal limousine.

And how other children begged me to let them ride – even for a minute.

Having won the Golden Fleece, how could I return later to my parents with any result lower than “1st”? It meant studying harder. It meant pursuing excellence in all things.

I learned something from the experience:

A kept promise can change a child’s destiny.

A broken promise can crush it.

Papa could have said, “Next year.”
Or “We’ll see.”
Or “You’re young; you don’t need a bicycle.”

Instead, he made a promise and kept his word.

From that day, I understood something I now teach as a communication strategist:

People don’t rise to pressure.

They rise to clarity.

My father didn’t say, “Do well.”
He gave a clear target, a fair reward, and a message that quietly said, “I believe you can do this.”

This incident did three things to my young mind:

1. It created belief – If I worked hard, good things were possible.
2. It created trust – My father’s word meant something.
3. It created identity – I started seeing myself as someone who could win.

Many years later, when I teach communication, leadership, or motivation, I still return to that experience.

Because in communication:

Your promises shape people.
Your consistency shapes culture.
Your integrity shapes destinies.

One bicycle.
One child.
One kept promise.

And a lifetime of belief was born.

You were born to excel – to soar like an eagle.

If you challenge yourself, if you spread your wings, you can soar beyond your imagination.