Careful what you wish for

Birungi lived with her widowed mother and her three younger sisters, Mutoni, Keza and Murekatete. It was a daily routine for them to help with the household chores before they went to school which, was a kilometer away. They survived on the meager earnings of their mother Mama Biru who run a grocery kiosk in their neighbourhood somewhere in Nyamirambo.At school, Birungi kept bad company despite several warnings from her teachers and other girls at school. There was one girl she really envied: Uwineza, a girl who seemed to have all the trendy and fashionable things life could offer. She even indulged in binge drinking and was a habitual smoker. Birungi thought she was so sophisticated. ’How I wish I could be exactly like uwineza’, she thought out loud even in the presence of her mother who did not like the company her eldest daughter kept.Soon she followed Uwineza everywhere and realised that she got most of her trendy stuff from men whom she allowed to use her sexually. Not long after, Birungi followed in her friend’s shoes and saw no harm in it. She got all the cool stuff she ever wanted, expensive phones,jewelery, daily shopping sprees at Mr. Price and promises of cars and other luxuries. Every one envied her at school and around her neighbourhood, or so she thought.Birungi got pregnant and all the men she knew abandoned her. She was expelled from school and fearing her mother’s brunt she sought solace from her best friend Uwineza who told her abortion could solve all her problems. Birungi died trying to have an abortion. She was just about to turn nineteen. All the trendy stuff she got was left behind.Not all the things you desire in your teen years are important. Like Birungi, you can actually get these things but, there may be unforeseen and very unpleasant consequences.So, in whatever you wish for be careful lest it come true.