Yesterday, November 25, not only did I celebrate my 23rd birthday, but also life and a few real good friends God has blessed me with in the past two decades. I thought of doing something unique on my birthday. I stayed offline for 48 hours. No opening my Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook. Just to think and reflect about my life; who and what I have become, and what and where I want to be. It was quite refreshing, I must say. At the age of 23, a typical Ugandan youth should have graduated with a degree from one of the public universities in the country and would be on the streets of Jenifer Musisi dropping myriads of applications looking for that dream job that thousands of other youths are applying for. I, on the other hand, have no degree as yet (come to think of it, I just may walk into Nakumatt one of these days, pick a shopping basket, go through all the degrees in there before finally settling for a second class upper and proceed to the counter for payment….Well, because Frank Gashumba told us that MUK degrees are sold in supermarkets) and I am not on the streets the either. I am full time WhatsApp admin. That’s my job.
On the real though, I think one determines who and what they wanna be in their senior six vacation. If you’re going to be eating and sleeping for eight months just like thousands of other vacists, then rest assured you are going to run the rat race (study hard, get good grades, graduate, get a well paying job and pay bills). You are going to be trapped in it forever. Whereas, when you task your brain to think in your senior six vacation, look for something to do that’ll make you cash in a few dimes, chances are you won’t squander the little dimes you’ve made fwaaa. You will start up something. A small business that’ll keep cashing in some dimes for you when you are at campus. And if you don’t spend fwaa, you’ll build an empire off it. You’ll graduate and shelve your degree and employ guys twice your age.
Enough of the ‘fatherly’ brouhaha; now here’s what I learnt on my 23rd birthday;
- That we can decide to make money now, when we are still young, and fall in love later.
- That your old friends will not show up for your birthday parree and will keep complaining about how you ‘changed’.
- That girls look prettier with undone hair. But again, they hate it, so weaves stay winning all day.
- That if your ex-girlfriend never remembers the day you were born, she never really loved you. And if you were still holding onto anything, move the fuck on!
- That you have all the powers in your hands to be who want to be. The only thing that can stop you is your failure to try. And when you try and fail, keep trying, stretch the limits, eventually, things will start working out. And when they do, live life and flash your middle finger to whomever shitted on you when you were a nobody- all that “staying humble” is bullshit!
- That the best things in life are not really free. If you don’t think so then go to Pana or Legends or any bar and drink free beer. If you get clobbered by those overly endowed bouncers, I am not responsible. Love comes at a cost and so does alcohol.
- That life starts when the newsroom ends.
- That I am not dark…I am Orange. Remember Orange is the new BLACK?
- That a true friend is one who brings ten joints to a party instead of four.
- That being a team leader, you have to take a little more than your share of the blame and little less than your share of the credit.
……and lastly I just made you read a whole lot of hogwash and wasted your data bundle. But then again, if you’re still reading this, it’s probably too late…read on.
The biggest lesson I learnt is that we, the youths, would rather be called learned; even when unemployed (read broke) and be very comfortable with it than be called ‘uneducated’. Swag will never make you money- never!
See you again when I am 24. Bless you!
