A BYTE OF UNDERSTANDING

I did not come into my course of study with a grand plan, a vision board, or a lifelong dream. I came in the way most Nigerian children do...escorted.By parents.By expectations.By the gentle but firm belief that “this one is good for your future.”At the time, my head was like an empty flash drive. Clean. Blank. Waiting.And somehow, data was being loaded into it at full speed.Everyone around me seemed confident. Confident that I would understand. Confident that I would adjust. Confident that knowledge could simply be forced into my head like copying files from one device to another. No warnings. No “are you sure?” Just press OK and move on.I pressed OK.At first, I was running on default settings. I attended classes, wrote notes, nodded at explanations, and smiled politely like I understood what was happening.But internally, nothing was connecting. It felt like I had been programmed into a life and expected to run smoothly, using a language I technically knew, yet couldn’t speak fluently. I showed up every day, but my brain was buffering. I was pressing keys and hoping something would make sense.Then, slowly 'bit by bit' things began to change.A bit, for those who don’t speak computer, is something small. Tiny. Almost insignificant. And that was exactly how my understanding started. One small concept here. One question there. One moment of “ohhh… so that’s what that means.”No big revelation. No cinematic breakthrough. Just small sense loading into my brain.Those small bits began to gather. And when enough bits come together, they form something bigger, A byte. That was when I realised I wasn’t as lost as I thought. I wasn’t clueless. I was just learning gradually, in pieces, booting at my own pace.Somewhere along the line, cybersecurity entered the conversation.Now, I won’t lie and say I immediately fell in love. This wasn’t a fairytale. But I became curious. Curious about how systems work, how they fail, and how people try to protect them. Curious about how something mostly invisible could be so powerful.It reminded me of real life.Firewalls felt like boundaries.Vulnerabilities felt like gaps we pretend don’t exist.Threats felt like problems we don’t see coming until they arrive uninvited.Suddenly, this course stopped feeling like punishment and started feeling like a puzzle.I began to understand that learning isn’t about forcing information into your head. You can’t download understanding overnight. The brain doesn’t work like that. It needs time. It needs repetition. It needs patience. It needs room to debug.And honestly? I’m still loading.Still making mistakes. But I’m no longer pretending to understand just to fit in. I’ve stopped running on default settings. Now, at least, I know what the error messages mean.

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