By : Iyanuoluwa Oni
Just a few weeks back, I remember walking freely along the roads and across the halls, singing and twisting my body at intervals to the rhythm of songs. I normally wouldn’t do that on a regular school day, but the campus was quiet. People were around, but only a few. There was no much hustle and bustle school was on break.
I walked past departments, and the only voices I could hear were those of chirping birds. Classrooms were empty and dusty, almost as though they too were resting, waiting patiently for students to return.
As of this moment, however, it is a completely different story. The noise, better still, the life on campus is back.
First it was the fresh men, arriving with their big and heavy bags. Their glowing faces beamed with smiles and obvious excitement, perhaps the kind that silently screams, “Finally, I’ve escaped!” But I hope that excitement lasts, because they are yet to have a taste of “greatness won with honest toil.” To them, I simply say, “Welcome to the first and the best.”
And now, the returning students are back as well. After weeks of break, they arrive one after another with their bags, greeting old friends and sharing stories from the holiday. The once quiet hostels and walkways are again filled with laughter, conversations, and the excitement of seeing familiar faces.
For some students, the words “I can’t wait to resume” were not necessarily about the joy of the work ahead, but about escaping the numerous chores waiting at home. For many others, however, resumption marks the beginning of another important chapter in their academic journey. Some return with renewed determination to improve their grades, especially after the release of Book of Life(BOL). Others come back ready to continue the progress they had already made, while the finalists quietly restrategize to make the best out of their final moments on campus.
Everyone enjoys the early moments of resumption. Then, reality slowly sets in. Early morning lectures begin again, students move from one lecture theatre to another, and practical sessions and fieldwork return. Gradually, the daily routines of academic life take their place once more.
The hostels, lecture halls, walkways, libraries, and other facilities become lively again as both academic and social activities resume. Once more, the campus breathes, moves, and lives through the presence of its students.
And as the sun rises each morning over University of Ibadan, it shines not just on buildings of brick and mortar, but on dreams in motion. The footsteps along the corridors are no longer echoes of emptiness but rhythms of purpose.
Every crowded lecture theatre carries silent ambitions; every late-night reading in the library holds a story of resilience being written.Soon, the initial excitement will blend with responsibility. Tests will come, deadlines will press, and the phrase “greatness won with honest toil” will move from being a motto on the crest to becoming a lived reality.
Friendships will be tested and strengthened, lessons will extend beyond the classroom, and growth will happen in ways that cannot always be measured by grades alone.
Resumption, therefore, is more than a return to school it is a return to pursuit, to discipline, to shared struggles and shared victories. It is the beginning of new memories waiting to be made, new challenges waiting to be conquered, and new versions of ourselves waiting to emerge.And so, the campus lives again not just because students are back, but because purpose is back.
RENARSA PRESS UI 