DIARY OF A UNEC KID

PUBLICATION 6

🎓 Final Year Diaries: The Last Hostel Hustle & School Fees Scramble
Risa Beth Blog — Final Year Special Edition

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They say the final year of university is a mix of joy and chaos. You’re counting down to freedom, yet buried under a pile of registrations, project deadlines, and the haunting question — “Where will I stay this time?”

This post is dedicated to the drama of final hostel registration and school fee payments, which — if you’re a UNN student — you already know is a survival sport.

🌐 The Great Hostel Race

Hostel registration at the University of Nigeria is not for the faint of heart. It starts with the announcement. Then the countdown begins. Everyone refreshes their portal, praying it doesn’t crash.

For me, this year felt personal. Final year! I didn’t just want any bed — I wanted peace. A safe space to study, rest, and reflect. But of course, that’s not how UNN works.

Enter Tonia — my friend, sister, and the tech wizard I didn’t know I needed.

When the portal opened, I froze. Network issues. System delay. The usual. But Tonia? She opened 10 different browser tabs. Firefox, Chrome, Opera — even browsers I didn’t know existed. “One must enter,” she said with fire in her eyes. I laughed. She didn’t. It was a mission.

And then the scream came.

“I GOT MARIERE!”

We both jumped. Victory! Or so we thought.

Hours later, when she finally printed the slip, the name staring back at us wasn’t Mariere. It was Ibiam. The betrayal was real. But we were too tired to fight it. At least there was a bed. We moved.

🏦 The Bank, The Portal, and Remita Wahala

If hostel drama was one thing, paying fees was another mountain.

Let me paint the scene: You go to the bank to pay through Remita. The bank network is down. You go home. Try online. Remita delays.

It was a cycle of “try again later” and “we’re working on it.”

Some days, I felt like shouting. Other days, I simply sighed. But there was always this quiet determination that this will work out eventually.

And you know what? It did.

✨ What I Learned

• Final year is not always smooth, but it shows you how strong you’ve become.
• Friends like Tonia are gold. In the chaos, they bring strategy and support.
• Even when things don’t go as planned (Ibiam instead of Mariere), you still land where you’re meant to be.
• The stress is temporary. The memory? Forever.

To everyone doing their final year registration: breathe. Drink water. Call your own Tonia. It might be messy now, but somehow — it all works out.

Here’s to the final lap,
Risa Beth 💜