We, somehow, have brought ourselves to a world and time whereby expectations that are naturally supposed to be for a certain age have become the burden of every age.
Growing up, I knew things to have a pattern and time age-wise.
As children, we’re allowed to dream. Dream as big and as wide as we wanted to, but with a sprinkle of reality. So you’d have a child say “I’d love to be a doctor and I’d love leaving home in the morning and coming back by night or the next day” or “I’d want to be a teacher so children would respect me.”
Dreaming… All dreaming with an iota of reality because there was a limit to what our ages allowed. And from there came the next phase — The teen ages.
In the teen years, we’re much more knowledgeable and have more clarity on what we want to be, why we want to be it and what it’d take to be it. We envisage clear cut vision, proper alignment and choice making to suit the needed process to achieve these set goals. And this brings us to the stage that’s supposed to be final — The adult/grown up years.
The grown up years have us, in different ways, either working towards achieving the set goals or having to humble ourselves due to the unpredictability of life and creating room for other things just to keep it pushing. But things are different now. Now the world changes, the reality of life sets in and we all get caught up in “The rat race.”
The rat race, as it is commonly called, is the impulsive need to be something or someone in the society. Some people are determined to be something or someone in life no matter the steps or processes involved in getting to the finish line.
But has it ever occurred to you that the bar might have been set too high?
Have you ever thought about what lies at the end of the track?
Have you ever looked around you to discover that the so-called “rat race” now accepts rabbits and hares?
Or have you ever even thought about the fact that you might just be running in circles like rats do in hamster wheels? Continuous, tirelessly and without any clear direction.
A sit down with an average Nigerian youth or teenager will leave you in shock by their materialistic wants for their twenties. They dream big and have Pinterest boards filled with yachts and houses. It’s not a bad idea if the majority of them are willing to put in the work to earn these things.
And that’s the question that I genuinely have. Are you willing to put in the work or do you just sit around watching videos of Andrew Tate who is telling you to get millions of dollars and fast cars without putting in any work? Or do you hope to wake up one morning and discover you are the missing child of a billionaire so your dreams are achieved? No gree make imagination kee you, my gee.
A popular slang among Nigerian youths nowadays is “school na scam” and with the current education system of Nigeria, it’s disappointing to say the least.
And even if the case was so, have you ever thought about other legal ways of making that money? Like starting a business people are willing to invest in, surrounding yourself with business and goal driven oriented people, reading books that put you on the right path or learning a skill?
Your go-to source of funds shouldn’t be money that your grandfathers invested overseas
Sure your Linkedln profile is not as stacked as you want it to be, or the jobs are not just coming in, but it’d be much better to keep on trying on your own terms. Be clear on what you want, put in the necessary work for it and be rest assured other opportunities will come along.
Remember you must walk, before you run.
Love,
Ayokunle.
