Final Year Brethren Service - A Celebration of Academic Achievement

The road to being a graduate has been filled with different experiences; some are pleasant and others, not so much. And yet another experience I have come to share, although it is also pleasant, is the Final Year Brethren Sunday - A Climax Crew Thanksgiving Service.

Here's the thing: becoming a graduate is big accomplishment, especially given that one may have spent more years than they signed up for. Imagine finishing a 5-year engineering course after seven years. Therefore, graduating from a university is considered a big deal, so much so that every church that has students holds a special service to celebrate the latest graduates; it's basically more like a send-off. And guess who the latest graduate is? Yes, me.

It's no news that I am a graduate, actually. I have shared about my sign-out day, final project defense, and the party (owambe) I attended just last Saturday. To top it all off, we had our FYB Sunday just last weekend, after a week of activities and responsibilities.

Here's the thing: It's customary in churches for people from various departments of the workforce to take on different roles in the church and serve. As for me, I am with the church choir to simply play the guitar. However, things are much different in this type of Sunday service. The graduates in the house take up most of the responsibilities for that day. That is, the members of the choir get to be on break as the graduates take on the roles to sing and play musical instruments too, if anybody is capable.

I didn't do anything different from playing the guitar, as I have always done, other than dance like never before. I will get to that part in a minute or two. But I had a tiny weeny problem—actually, two; I didn't know what to wear for that day, and I wasn't sure how I'd juggle going to the FYB rehearsal and the Owambe party on Saturday as they coincided.

Engineering graduates

I had been so preoccupied with thoughts of surviving the week, such as preparing for my presentations on my project, managing my department as the class governor, hustling for money, and the like, that I didn't give much thought to how I would go about preparing for the owambe party on Saturday and the FYB service on Sunday.

Thanks to my mother, who surprisingly helped me bring some of the things I needed from home for both events, I had the issue of dressing sorted. It was how I would avoid missing the rehearsal as well as the Owambe party, which was next on the agenda. The owambe was scheduled to begin at 12 p.m., following the rehearsal at 11 a.m. Meanwhile, my friend had been kind enough to pay for my party ticket, so I just had to go to avoid disappointing them.

Musician brothers

With a lot of thinking, I concluded to go for the rehearsal first and then attend the party afterwards, and not the other way around. This was because I just had a hunch that "African time" was going to be used, as it's a normal thing for parties. And my hunch was right, as I got to the party around 5 p.m. and they had only just begun. That's African time; not starting at the stated time.

FYB Service

Sunday morning came, and the service started as usual, except that we were the ones responsible for almost everything. I did my regular job of playing the guitar, although I could have joined them up there to sing, but I still chose to play the guitar instead. However, I wasn't 100%.

I had danced so much the night before at the party, eaten and drunk a lot as well, and then got home late only to wake up early for church the next day. Throughout the service, I was running on backup energy, but that didn't stop me from dancing.

Later in the service, all of us (the graduates) were called up to the front of the podium for of prayers and a dance (thanksgiving praise) session. At this point, I asked my brother, @starstrings01, to help me play the guitar, as I needed to groove as well, and so I joined my fellow graduates.

Despite the 3 hours of dancing at the party the night before, I still managed to pull another one or two on stage. I just could not hold back my joy at finally graduating and leaving school after so long. I deliberately stayed close to the end of the stage, where there was enough space for me to dance. Although I am not the best of dancers, I was willing to try.

With my backup energy, I still danced, and I danced like never before—maybe like yesterday, though. Either way, nobody could hold me down if they tried. I was just so happy.

Afterwards, my papa (our pastor) prayed for us all, and then we ended the service not long after. But it wasn't over just yet. It was time to take photographs with everybody in the house. _{Not everyone, of course...}

I just knew that after that day, I was going to rest as much as I wanted, watch Netflix and chill, and most importantly, live like a graduate, you know, so I wasn't bothered that I was really exhausted.

I am really glad that despite all the stress and everything, I was able to be present at all of these important occasions in my life, as they have now ingrained beautiful new memories in my heart.