Teenage dreams

Flashing back into my life as a 14-year-old lad, lying in bed with eyes closed as my mind wanders off to a sweet journey to dreamland. I picture a life of paradise and I smile at the thought of a life only punctuated with ease, happiness, love, warmth and little difficulty. As a child I dreamt about securing a good education, fat job, decent house in an uptown settlement, posh car and finally get married to a beautiful woman. My dreams always craved for cute kids, and to bottle everything up, have a family surrounded by love and lives envied by others. Little did I know that I had to fold my sleeves, get my hands dirty and work so hard if I wanted to achieve my aspirations. Seven years down the road, out of the comfort and shelter that my parents provided, I was cast into this harsh world. I chuckle at the faded reflection of my teenage dreams because I now look at them as stupid and childish. The world seems so welcoming in the eyes of children but that soon changes as soon as you enter the real world. That is when you begin to feel its wrath, labour, frustrations, pain and sadness. Allan Rwimira is a frustrated graduate in his early twenties who has been job-hunting on the streets for two years. “Man, life outside is hell, things look totally different. I have wandered on almost every corner of the streets, dropped my job application forms on every potential office, all to no avail. No company has called me up ever since I graduated. My life is a nightmare and I wonder whether this is the ideal life I have always wanted. Sometimes I usually slap myself hard in the face to make sure I am not dreaming,” Rwimira says. Many teenagers are shelved in the warm security of their parents. They think life is an easy ride so, they take everything for granted and find it difficult to adapt to the factual world. Hassan Kabunga, 28 years is from a well-fixed family and still lives at his parents’ house. He says he gets everything he needs because he has grown up being pampered. Doubtlessly, he can’t sustain an independent life of his own. Therefore, in order to wrap-up this teenage dream, parents should be at the forefront of giving direction to their children. They should stop handling their children with baby-gloves and desist from introducing them to lavish lifestyles they have not worked hard for. Doing this only serves to mould them into lazy, careless, dependant and irresponsible young adults. Parents should instead tutor their children on the values of hard work and arm them with life skills that will help keep their heads on top of this world, since anything less will drown them. ivan.ngoboka5@gmail.com