Wasn’t always an A+ student. Often times, in primary school, I would obtain fifth position in class. This always disturbed me…the thought of being stagnant in my academic performance, yet, I was but a child. After getting into junior secondary school, I spent most of my time on my books. It was a mutual relationship; I would study an extra ten minutes, then thirty and this increased to an hour. What I did not know was that I was building habits, and these habits stayed with me up to date. As said earlier, I formed a mutual relationship with my study sessions, the more time I spent on my books the more increased my academic performance and passed my tests and exams. I was in my ninth grade then, and, as a female child, I would top the class every term. “If anyone in this class obtains a grade higher than ‘this girl’ I will give the man award.” My class teacher once passed this announcement before we sat for our mock exams.

A few years later, I was sited on a desk amongst my classmates as we discussed a topic in Science. I dreaded these classes, lord knows. To think of waking up each morning to attend a Science class made me want to drop out of my tenth grade. “Why has school become so hard?” I thought to myself. After my first term in grade ten, I had decided to switch classes and take the Pure Sciences, this made life harder!

“Girl, why are you taking the pure Sciences? You can’t make it, you are not smart enough, and even guys who are smarter than you have chosen to take the normal Sciences, so, why are you making things hard for yourself?”  Day after day I received so much pressure from myself and people around because of the type of Science I chose. And, day after day my grades became worse.

After seeking help from my teachers and elder sisters, I was taught one thing, “there is nothing too hard for you to achieve under the sun. Whether you are male or female, whatever you set your mind to achieve will come to pass.”

In my twelfth grade, after my first term, I studied more with past exam papers, I attended extra lessons in Chemistry and Physics, forever question I failed, I would reviewed them to know where I went wrong, I spent the rest of the months before the final exam studying, and cut down on fun, social media, parties (these would waste a lot of my time back then).Above all, I stopped listening to what people said, and started believing in my self.

I sat for my mock exams, and truly felt mocked. All those study sessions did not yet pay off, but I was taught to focus on the next exam, which I did. We wrote the final exams, then waited for the results.

One morning, the following year after results were released, I received a phone call. “Girl, I heard you got six points, is it true,” the caller asked. This was my response, "yes, I got six points.”

I got straight one sin all the subjects I sat for, which made me happy.

Currently, I am pursuing a career in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB).

My title, ‘If Albert Einstein were a girl’ is meant every little girl out there who dreams big. In relation to academics, you can achieve absolutely any grade you want. All you need to do is focus, and study hard.

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By: LUWI MUWEMA

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