ZENON IKUPAYE was a young lad in a town in Edo state. He happened to be extremely talented when it comes to sport especially football. Being the only son in the family of four, 3girls and a boy which is him, his parents Mr and Mrs IKUPAYE happened to be a civil servants in which they earn average amount of money but they still put on their possible best to provide for their children. ZENON was the third child out of four, that is he had a younger sister named Zelda and the first daughter named Zuri followed by the second daughter Zoe. However, Zuri the first daughter was already in her final year in the university where she was studying Mass communication and Zoe the second daughter was in her third year studying Law while ZENON the third child wanted football so bad that he was already considering studying human kinetic but his families wouldn't allow that, they wanted him to study Engineering perhaps, Civil Engineering or nothing.
This brought a lot of pressure upon ZENON. None of his siblings supported his football dreams, he spent everyday convincing his parents to see future in his football career but they would never listened and instead they would threatened to disown him despite the numerous awards he had won in his secondary school days as a result of football, moreover most of his secondary school mates were already in universities while he was still wandering around thinking of what to do with his life. Every noon, ZENON would snuck out with his football boot and jersey to the nearby field to played football with some street boys he had been doing this for a while now and none of his family knew about it until one day one of his team members known as Billy showed up at their house in the evening to check on his wellbeing and to know why he wasn't at the football field that day unknown to ZENON that particular day would be the fateful day his parents would banished his dream as a future footballer, his mom went straight to his box, brought out his training boot and jersey and set them ablaze not only that she punished him severely and deprived him of eating that night. ZENON wept like ever before, he locked himself inside the room for good 3days starving, he got depressed and fell ill afterwards yet his parents weren't considering his dreams they were hell bent on him studying Engineering. " over my dead body would you become a footballer whatsoever under my watch, if you like kill yourself I would bury you without tears but it is either civil engineering or you stay back in your father's house wandering around like a mischievous idiot" This were the harshed words his mother said to him when he was rushed to the hospital the evening his training boots and jerseys were burnt. For a couple of days, Zenon was drenched in regrets and depression he was of no choice but pressurized to apply for the civil engineering at the prestigious university of Ibadan with the hope of also applying for a football academy whether his parents likes it or not. Although he already gave up on his future dream as a footballer but he was on the other hand willing to still pursue his potential dream.
The following year, he sat for the general UTME entrance examination into university and passed it successfully with the score of 312. He then proceeded for his post utme at the same university which he passed successfully. His parents Mr and Mrs IKUPAYE were truly and awesomely impressed by his academic performance despite depriving him of his future dream and forcing him to study Engineering.
Eventually he was offered an admission to study his family dream course in which the news came as an elation to everyone, in no time his parents began to packed all his necessities belonging for school as he was about to step into a new life at the age of 19 by then his eldest sister Zuri was already a graduate in mass communication and the second elder sister Zoe was in her Fourth year studying Law nonetheless everyone were always proud of them. As the day of resumption was approaching his parents sat him down to candidly advise him, "I don't want you to go there and start misbehaving because we are hindering you of your stupid football dream" Said her mother. ZENON responded," Mommy, being a footballer isn't a stupid dream". His father cuts in " But you have to become a civil engineer, or don't you want to be address as an Engineer? also do you how proud you would make us feel if everyone are referring to as the mother& father of Engineer ZENON instead of footballer Zenon? c'mon you can do better, so go there and make us proud" ZENON nodded in agreement and they all went to bed. The day of resumption finally came and his mother accompanied him all the way to Ibadan which became an absolute begining of a new life. The life Zenon would be so smooth started giving him some goosebumps, as soon as his mother dropped him at the school gate and turned back Zenon wept like ever before he pleaded with his mother to stay for at least a day but she refused, Zenon wept like a baby forgotten in a cot, he felt somehow embarrassed after some minutes of tearing as some ladies who were probably a student of that school were seen making jest of him, he then proceeded to locate his assigned hostel with his swollen red eyes, he thought to himself that he signed up for this and of course he had to face whatever challenges it brought upon him.
Luckily for him there was a local football field where some boys in his hostel compete with themselves. On sighting this, he became so relieved and overwhelmed, he knew he would be able to challenge some claimed pro in that school so maybe from there he could gained the courage to pursue his dream career. He stood there obviously lost in thought, probably imagining himself on the field. In his mind " I believe I can do it, I know I can make it in being a footballer",He said to himself doubtedly because he knew no one but him could ever encouraged his heart desires and his future dream. Moreso, he already chose to study the civil engineering so "what's the essence of pursuing what my family members perhaps, would ever encouraged him"With his sad face he said, "watching people played football is always gonna break me forever, I will do this no matter what. Mummy, Daddy I'm sorry but I really can't help it at all" with tears rolling down his cheeks. Suddenly, An Average height looking dude started to walked towards him, It was then he realized he had been lost for a while, as the guy was approaching ZENON starts to packed his belongings pretending to took his leave, nevertheless he was about looking for a direction to locate his assigned hostel administrator.