Magic of self-discovery

Isn’t it absurd that sometimes we don’t really know what we are or what we can be? Most of us think that we are born or meant to do particular things in life; little knowing that our beloved creator endowed us with a range of gifts. All we do is get tied to these things our mentors or society introduced us to .Sometimes, most of these careers dictated upon us (either by society or circumstances) are dangerously boring. And this perhaps largely explains why certain individuals don’t find pleasure in their work however big their pay cheques. I also just recently discovered that, some individuals have let criticism and judgment from society determine their fate- perhaps because a folk one time screamed at you, saying “you are useless” or “you hold no future”. Then this has a heavy negative impact on your self-esteem, and you definitely begin perceiving yourself as worthless. However we don’t notice circumstances under which such undesirable statements are made to us; either the person is under emotion or they are just out to hurt our feelings. So never mind what people say, because any one can say anything (even when unjustified) and just get away with it. Just the other day, with a mixture of excitement and surprise, I discovered I am good at playing the guitar. This is something that had never come close to my imagination, let alone my wild- day dreams a few years back. Jack (my naughty primary school friend) had consistently reminded me that I could do nothing else better than eating and sleeping. So I didn’t expect a lot from myself because I grew up riding on the judgment some evil-minded and equally in-experienced little rascal had imposed on me. It’s only after putting aside all prejudices and fears that I decided to break tradition by trying out some things like guitar that slowly but certainly, began getting amazing revelations about myself; it suddenly occurred to me that I was more creative and endowed more than I ever thought or expected. On discovering that life had more in stock for me than what Jack (foolish puppy) had prophesied, I started giving many things a try I had always originally evaded for fear of failure: volleyball, poetry and public speaking became my new explorations and the results were exceedingly handsome. After witnessing that success in life was not a monopoly of particular people in society, I started moulding my thoughts in a positive line, worked on my fears and set a new horizon. Negative or discouraging comments or statements from colleagues no longer had a negative mark on my self-respect, in short; I started taking charge of my own life and became a free man. It is so unfortunate that here, in Africa especially, a notion is largely held that a meaningful future life for a child can only be achieved through going to school-so every child has to attend it, yet this is not the case for some people who have talents in other spheres outside the school setting like boxing, athletics, music, so on and so forth. One should be reminded that in the western world, football and basketball are one of the most paying careers but they are paid little or no attention in our ordinary school curriculums. It is also important to note that self–discovery is an endless venture; it’s a lifetime thing. So one should not give up on the self-exploration journey, no one is too old to begin realizing their full potential. In conclusion, if you have always fancied something, go for it, don’t just sit back and look on or just admire, anything less, you will make day-dreaming your habit and life purpose. Ends