MY TALENT ANNOUNCES ME TO THE WORLD

I wasn't the most popular student during my days in school, and the reason for that isn't far-fetched: one is that I'm an introvert, another is that I'm just a little above average academically among my peers in class, and adding that to being an introvert makes me literally unknown to some of my classmates because I hardly talk, but along the line there is a particular thing I was so good at that attracted a lot of people to me, and today I'll be sharing that with y'all.

_{Image designed by me on canva.}

This particular thing I was popular for wasn't displayed during my school days because I was just too shy to step out of my shell, and the only thing that made everyone know about me in secondary school was when a female classmate of mine beat me to pulp with my own belt because I offended her; that news broke out to the entire school, and I was a laughing stock to both students and teachers. I mean, who won't? Hahaha, well, that's a story for another day, so let's get to the business of the day.

Without further ado, this post talks about one of the things I was so popular with and that made people come around me, and it's worth noting that I'm writing this down in response to the Hive Learners community features prompt. I hope you'll enjoy the read.

One of the things that made me very popular among people around me was my drama and acting skills. I started acting at a very young age when I joined my church drama department, and I grew up in that, becoming more good and perfect in my acting, although I still kind of wonder why I'm so shy in real life, but whenever I mount the stage, I'm always bold and filled with courage to do whatever the cast I'm given requires of me to do.

This continues till I'm of age, and I remember becoming my church drama director, coordinating the affairs of the department, writing the script, and choosing the cast for any movie we want to act in church. This made me so popular, and being in a student environment and a church where many students attended, most of my department people usually draw close to me just so I can cast them, and also church members also usually admire my acting skills.

From this same acting, I rose in rank from being a parish drama director to being the zonal drama director of my church, which comprises at least six parishes. It was an overwhelming position to hold for an introvert because, as much as I was good at writing spirit-elevating scripts and casting, I still needed to deal with the crowd and attention of the drama members, and as we all know, introverts don't really like being the center of attention, but I must confess I managed it and even enjoyed the attention to an extent.

_{Image by cottonbro studio on Pexels}

The height of this attention and popularity, according to my perspective, was when I went for my NYSC, a mandatory one-year service to the nation for all graduates in Nigeria. During one of our activities at the camp, I joined my platoon's drama and dancing team to compete for the first spot among the other 9 platoons.

Most of those in my platoon can only dance and act, but none of them can come up with a perfect storyline of what we can present for the commissioner and reputable people that'll be in attendance during the competition, so I shoulder the responsibility and came up with a storyline, which we acted, and this brought about a standing ovation from all dignitaries and army generals that were in attendance that very day.

To cut a long story short, despite being the 7th to perform among the 10 platoons, it was obvious that we would be the winners because none of the other dramas and performances were as mind-blowing as ours, and at the end of the day, aside from the prices that were stated before the event began, the commissioner gave me and my team a whopping 1 million naira (though we later didn't get a penny from it because the nysc officials took it on our behalf), but at least we enjoyed a royal treatment during the remainder of our days in camp and I was made president of the cultural and tourism CDs group during my service year.

_{Image by Matin Ziya on Pexels}

That skill of mine and the act I performed at the camp made me so popular among both old and new corp members, even among the nysc officials during my service year, and I guess that's one of the reasons why I wasn't really given an actual place to serve during the one year, aside from being the president of the CDs group and leading my colleagues to different interstate competitions as a corp member.

That's about all on what made me so popular among people at a point in my life. I am no longer acting or active in the drama department, and one of the major reasons is more responsibility to provide for my family and my tight schedule, but once in a while I still stop by at my church drama department meeting to share ideas and help out in any possible ways.

Thanks so much for your time. I hope you enjoyed the read. Like I said earlier, the write-up was inspired by Kronia's post that encourages us to write about what makes us popular at one point in time. Please read it to get more information.

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NB: I make use of Quillbot grammar checker features to help correct some of my grammatical and punctuation errors after writing my content by myself.

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Have a blessed day ahead.