MY TEACHERS MADE A DIFFERENCE

Most times when I look back through the days of my life, I realize my teachers played the greatest roles in my life. Through my primary school years and days in boarding school, the greatest influence on my life was those of my teachers. Teaching in Cameroon is not an esteemed job. I remember my father once said teaching was more of a vocation. Some people stumble on it by error, others choose to be educators. Some teachers take out their frustrations on their students, but others carry out their work with a devotion that sparks a fire in the minds they educate; a fire which cannot be put out.

Most times when we as students come out with all these bright results and exemplarily behavior, the credit usually goes to us the students and rarely is the teacher realized. In my life I do recount my primary school teacher, Mr. Peter who once told me, He would believe in me even if everyone else and even I stop believing in me. Then there was my class master and geography teacher, Mr. Ngwa Godlove who became a father and a friend. My physics teacher Mr. Ngam whose faith in me gave me the courage to overcome a subject I found very challenging. My secondary school Principal Mr Njita Wilson; he taught me great leadership. His fatherliness and resourcefulness left permanent imprints in our lives. Dr Achoahere Jane Francis and Dr Lucy Ndip, taught me at the university that gender should never be a limitation. They watered my passion for microbiology, and ignited a dedication towards uniting family and one’s dream. Dr Ndilonga and Dr Lewis; they patiently guided our minds through the laboratory. They taught us that once we were convicted of our goals and gave it our all, the skies wouldn’t even be a limit. Through my scholastic experience I have acquired not just knowledge but insight as well from the great educators in my life.

An educator is like the producer in a movie. These people groom history makers and yet live out of the pages. Teaching is a vocation and an honorable career. As we traverse through life, we smile as we look back at those great minds that carried us through. Every word, correction and encouragement carried us this far. Sometimes we get too lost in our ways to stop and say thank you. Because of your work, we took a U-turn to become better people. Because you believed, some of us grew self esteem. Because you became second mothers and fathers to us; we out grew and forgot the hassles at home. Because you chose to be an educator, so many great minds will make the books of time. Thank you for your work, thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for not giving up on slow minds willing to learn. You made and are making a difference.