Life is a precious gift, giving us both pleasure and pain. From one day to the next, we may not even know what will come our way, but life goes on anyways. Back in the golden days of our grandparents, life was so smooth and easy. To start with – neighbours were neighbours, family was family and so friends were friends. But guess what, times change though and by now everyone has either moved away or drifted apart. In fact, the social norms, standards or expectations within our space became so different.
Nowadays, our lives are influenced by so many things like society, celebrities, friends, enemies, fictional characters, jealousy, successful people, the internet, etc. Let’s talk about competition in almost every aspect, not with oneself, but with everybody surrounding you: frustrations caused by peer pressure to look cooler on social media, monopolies, and greediness, just to mention a few. After all, the purpose of our lives is to be happy. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” So, take control of your own life today and know it is okay not to be okay.
* Shelikita Malakia Khalifa is a language teacher at Shapwa P.S, Ongwediva.