Every year almost everyone waits for that one day when everything is all about them, and all of sudden when the clock strikes twelve, they’re magically one whole year older. From your parents’ excitement at your first birthday, to the coolness of becoming part of the double digit world and then the dread of entering your twenties and realizing that life as young, carefree, fun loving kid is drawing to a close. For some of you, turning twenty may seem decades away but in reality, as clichéd as it may sound, it literally passes within the blink of an eye. But when is it that we actually realize that its time to grow up?
Maybe it’s when you graduate from high school and you think that now the world is nothing but possibilities and that you know exactly what you’re doing. Or maybe it’s on your first day at university, stepping into that massive place all on your own and being recognized as your own person rather than your parents’ child. For me, it took moving homes, changing continents, losing a loved one to cancer, learning to live on my own and on top of all that, two whole years to realize that I actually grew up on the very first day.
The thing is that when you first start at university, there’s this buzz all around you, because just like you, thousands of freshers are lost, overwhelmed and ecstatic. You’re not really sure what university has to offer; how much work you need to do and what exactly you want to get out of your experience there, so you follow the crowd. I didn’t do what I wanted to because I was too busy jumping on the bandwagon. Don’t get me wrong, its not that being shepherded didn’t have its perks, it’s just that I didn’t really get the chance to explore and discover myself. By the time I was in my second year, thanking God immensely that I had made it through, that first year buzz was back but I actively chose to make changes. I spent more time with those that had filtered through the many acquaintances and shown me what true friendship is. But a few days ago, I found that I was asking myself how I could move on from being the lost, new girl from the “village” of Dar es Salaam to the much changed girl with new hair and a new outlook and finally to being a well rounded young lady.
It’s now that I realized that I needed to walk through all those open doors and all those opportunities that were just waiting for me. The thing is, although it may seem pretty obvious, being at university isn’t just about holding a scroll at your graduation gown four years later. It’s everything that leads to that one day when it’ll all be over. Age isn’t merely a number, it’s who you really are, who you pretend to be, how you act and most of all it’s why you change each year because it’s only when that clock strikes twelve that you realize how you’ve really grown…
Maybe it’s when you graduate from high school and you think that now the world is nothing but possibilities and that you know exactly what you’re doing. Or maybe it’s on your first day at university, stepping into that massive place all on your own and being recognized as your own person rather than your parents’ child. For me, it took moving homes, changing continents, losing a loved one to cancer, learning to live on my own and on top of all that, two whole years to realize that I actually grew up on the very first day.
The thing is that when you first start at university, there’s this buzz all around you, because just like you, thousands of freshers are lost, overwhelmed and ecstatic. You’re not really sure what university has to offer; how much work you need to do and what exactly you want to get out of your experience there, so you follow the crowd. I didn’t do what I wanted to because I was too busy jumping on the bandwagon. Don’t get me wrong, its not that being shepherded didn’t have its perks, it’s just that I didn’t really get the chance to explore and discover myself. By the time I was in my second year, thanking God immensely that I had made it through, that first year buzz was back but I actively chose to make changes. I spent more time with those that had filtered through the many acquaintances and shown me what true friendship is. But a few days ago, I found that I was asking myself how I could move on from being the lost, new girl from the “village” of Dar es Salaam to the much changed girl with new hair and a new outlook and finally to being a well rounded young lady.
It’s now that I realized that I needed to walk through all those open doors and all those opportunities that were just waiting for me. The thing is, although it may seem pretty obvious, being at university isn’t just about holding a scroll at your graduation gown four years later. It’s everything that leads to that one day when it’ll all be over. Age isn’t merely a number, it’s who you really are, who you pretend to be, how you act and most of all it’s why you change each year because it’s only when that clock strikes twelve that you realize how you’ve really grown…
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