Back to School Wahala: Why First Week Already Feels Like the Twelfth Week

 Back to School Wahala: Why First Week Already Feels Like the Twelfth Week

Imagine Credit: Pinterest 

Joy Olu-Ajayi 

Every time school resumes, it feels like a movie we have all watched before. The first few days are full of energy; fresh haircuts, new and long braids, new books with fine first pages, new shoes and bouncy loafers and that bold promise: “This semester, I must change.” But give it just one week, and you will start hearing students sighing, “I can't wait to go home.”

It is almost like the semester grows older than us. The energy fades, stress takes over, and suddenly school feels longer than the Ramadan fasting.

Trekking, Trekking, Trekking

One thing that drains students faster than any lecture is trekking. If you have never trekked under hot sun from hostel to faculty, then from faculty to library, and back to hostel again, you have not truly resumed. Some days, it feels like you are competing in the Olympics without a medal at the end.

The worst part? After sweating, rushing, and maybe even skipping breakfast just to make that 8 a.m. class, you get there and hear: “Class cancelled.” That single sentence can disrupt someone’s whole day. It is even more painful when you’ve been on campus since morning, waiting for that one last class, only for it to be cancelled just minutes before. Imagine leaving your room by 7 a.m. without eating, waiting till 3 p.m., and the only thing you achieved was attending the first lecture of the day.

The Timetable Wahala

Also, it is widely said that whoever designs university timetables must enjoy student suffering. Classes are scattered like locust beans in stew; one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and another one in the evening. In between, you are just stranded. Too tired to go home, but too bored to stay.

So, students find ways to kill time. Some stay in the library to read, others scroll TikTok or Instagram till their eyes hurt, while some just sleep in any class that is free. By the time the next class comes, half of the energy has already gone. And if that class is cancelled too? That day is officially wasted.

Hostel Palaver?

Hostel life is another premium wahala on its own. The moment light goes off, the real struggle begins. Heat fills the rooms, and students are forced to fling their doors open even if it means rats will visit at night and then, the buzzing of mosquitoes becomes the new hostel anthem.

And then comes the battle with phones. With no light, batteries die fast and some students start rationing their phone use, switching off data just to save their battery. Others trek around looking for where to charge and once the phone finally goes off, wahala starts as parents keep calling, and when they cannot reach their children, fear of the safety of their children enters. Meanwhile, the poor child is safe, sitting in darkness with a dead phone.

Water also does not help matters. Once there is no power, taps run dry and students end up trekking long distances with buckets just to find water. Some do not even succeed and are forced to go to class without bathing. Others simply manage with wipes or perfume to cover up. These are things most students would never face at home, but on campus, it becomes normal life.

No wonder hostel stress makes many crave home so badly because it breaks students down not just physically but also mentally. After chasing degrees all week, all some people want is the comfort of home; steady food, steady light, and no trekking for water.

The Hunger Struggles

This struggle is so real; as real as Jesus’ second coming. At home, food is almost always ready. Even if you complain, at least there is something in the pot. On campus, it is survival of the fittest. By the second week, noodles or an unbalanced diet become your best friend. You eat noodles with no protein in the morning, you drink garri in the afternoon, and at night, you eat eba with okro that has one fish head.

Many students start looking lean just a few days after resumption. It is not malaria. Neither is it stress alone. It is hunger mixed with poor cooking. Those who live close to home are lucky; they run home every weekend to refuel. The rest just swallow hostel-made concoctions and hope their stomachs behave.

You Think Homesickness is a Myth?

No myth about this because beneath all the trekking, hunger, and cancelled classes, homesickness is one heavy and big load. Freshers feel it most, but even final-year students are not free. The sudden change from family comfort to campus hustle hits differently.

You start missing the small things; your mum’s soup, your dad’s jokes, your siblings making noise in the background and the everyday jokes you make with your family. By the first week, many students already count down to mid-semester break. And let us be honest: if some people had the option, they would choose holiday over resumption every single time.

Coping With the Stress

So how do students cope? It is simply by laughing through the pain. It is known that jokes fly around faster than mosquitoes especially in Nigeria. Memes about absent lecturers circulate in class groups and students just laugh away their sorrows. 

Sometimes, humour is the only medicine that makes resumption bearable. Because if you sit down and think too much about the trekking, the hunger, the timetable, the rats in the hostel, and the lecturer who forgot you existed, you will cry blood. 

Campus life is a mix of stress, drama, and survival skills. Resumption starts with energy, but the wahala quickly humbles everybody. Still, somehow, students keep pushing through cancelled lectures, empty taps, dead phones, poor nutrition and endless trekking.

And maybe, that is what makes it all memorable. Years later, nobody remembers the pain of waiting for eight hours only to attend one class. They remember the laughter, the struggles, and the survival hacks that kept them moving.

So, as another semester begins and the cycle repeats itself, the question is simple: are we chasing degrees, or are degrees chasing us?