Spend the holiday responsibly

The holiday is here again and I know that most of you are already at home with your family members. It is always exciting to interact closely with the parents, siblings and friends after a long period of serious academic activities at school. The struggle for excellence should be your daily slogan whether you are at school or at home. I would like to encourage you to ensure that you relax meaningfully by remaining focused on studies. The holiday is a mere stopover along your long academic journey and it should not be perceived as a period of total bliss. You have reached a critical moment of the year whereby you have to energise yourself to prepare for the end of year or final examinations that are supposed to push you to another level. It is important that you reflect on what you have achieved since the beginning of the year and make sure that you consolidate those achievements by creating some time to revise the lesson notes. I know that some of you do not want to read anything academic during this period because you consider it as time for fun. Such approach to life is counterproductive because you are the same person who will be required to report back to school for third term. Keep yourself in the mood of learning such that by the time the new term begins, the brain is ready to consume new content. There is need for you to have a simple revision time table that does not stress you. If you are a candidate, this is the right time to compare notes with friends from other schools. Find out what they have covered which you do not have and make arrangements of updating your notes. It is also helpful to read various sources about the same topics in order to widen your scope of understanding subject content. Do not limit yourself to the material that you get from your school. Discussing questions from past papers is equally helpful. Social media platforms should not derail you from pursuing your dream. Do not allow yourself to become a social media addict. It is advisable that you use Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber in moderation to minimise exposure to the dangers associated with such platforms. Endless chatting online makes you waste a lot of valuable time and you may become anti-social in a way that you give more time to the friends that you rarely see in real life than those that you live with. Moreover, some of the issues that you always chat about online do not in any way help you to move towards you career dream. You do not have to become a slave of the social media. Do some volunteer service by visiting orphanages and homes for the elderly and disabled so as to share life experiences with the needy and probably teach them some literacy skills. It is through volunteerism that you will be able to know the needs of the various categories of people in the society. One of the purposes of education is to address the needs of the society and when you offer community service, you adequately prepare yourself for the adult tasks that you will take up in future. Life is about service above self and all of us have the responsibility to serve the disadvantaged. Holiday time is ideal for participating in domestic chores. Even if you have maids at home, it is important for you to learn how to perform certain tasks like cooking, tiding up the house and looking after your siblings. Such tasks empower you with life skills that are meant to help you deal with adult life challenges. Therefore, you should spend the holiday responsibly and keep yourself safe from all evil acts because life is precious but fragile. The writer is a teacher