GROWING UP

GROWING UP

Hi people. I did not post last week sorry about that. Was actually pretty blank on what to write tried to push it to the next day, still blank. For someone like me who always has a lot to say you’d think I had like 10 articles lined up to post. Well apparently not.

This week I am dedicating this article to the generation of young people behind me. It is also pretty personal because I will reveal a lot of how I grew up. I realized that my audience is not strictly African so who knows how this will go.

I was raised in a middle class African family. Pretty normal to me at least until you start to interact with the outside world and realize that you are not as normal as you thought.

In my country there is this identity crisis I have when I interact with people of a higher social class or a lower social class. They both have something to point out that you do not do quite right. You can feel totally underestimated and like you are always out to prove yourself. Well technically I usually do not care but I have seen my friends struggle with a simple decision like living in a lower income area because they grew up in a middle class area. So they end up living beyond their means just to fit in. That doesn’t make sense to me. Well let me share a bit about where I come from [my family] to gain some perspective.

What I know is one thing, I was raised not to fit in but to lead. In whatever way possible I was to lead. Everyone is good at something and I was taught not to compare myself with others.

I was raised not that I should marry a rich man but that I too can make it in life. It is not an impossible task, it’s just that some people take longer to get there than others.

No one in my family who followed their passion ever regretted it, in our family we are encouraged to follow our passions, there was always a huge support system. Men always take the lead and are always the greatest source of support. My grand father led the way being one of the few men of his generation who believed in girl child education.  I may be blessed with such a family but if your support system isn’t your family then pick friends who can be.

There are people who are in your life for a season and some for a lifetime either way cherish the time. If it ends it doesn’t have to be on a bad note but let’s face it that’s not always possible. As you mature in life you realize people walking in and out of your life is normal.

My mother believed in being a home maker just as much as being a career woman. There are just some roles that even if we don’t like them as women they need our touch. Yes we live in the day and age of independent women but it’s still nice to be able to keep some of our femininity and just be girls. No one said we cannot have a career if we want to.

 I was also taught to be discreet. The way people go shaming people all over the place, it was never encouraged in our family. It’s you who got the negativity in the end and people will either look down on you or pity you, which never helps at all in any form. Being the subject of family gossip can really take a toll and generally hurts your reputation and makes 

people perceive you in a certain way.

All in all. My advice is do not be a victim of your circumstances. Just make the best of what life gives you. No situation lasts forever. Life is hard enough as it is why complicate it.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.