I spent the whole day wondering if I should write this blog. Not because I did not have anything to share, but because I have so much. There is so much going on right now, it's actually scary. Let me settle my heart by first saying this:
Black Lives Matter.
I am not going to trigger you with today's blog. I don't think we need any more triggers. I am going to come for your neck though. Because I love you and because I believe that your life, as a black child, matters!
I had a conversation with a close friend of mine, and at some point, he asked me this question: what do we do now?
"We need real solutions to our real problems." That's the first thing that came to my mind. We need deep-rooted solutions to our deep-rooted problems. I believe every one of us can contribute to finding deep-rooted solutions. We have it in us.
But a thought crossed my mind and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It was one of those moments where you have a conversation with yourself. Oh, people don't do that? Oops, I guess it's just me then. But anyway, I asked myself "what are we ultimately trying to do?" and I immediately said to myself "we are building the Africa we want to leave to our children as a legacy, the Africa of our dreams."
This statement has been stuck in my head all day:
In the pursuit of our dreams, we get to build the Africa of our dreams.
But every time I think about this statement I get bothered. And this is what bothers me:
On so many occasions, I get a text or a call from someone who wants advice from me regarding what they call their "dream"/"passion". Now this in itself is not a problem. The problem is that a lot of the times, the same person calls/texts more than once. Depending on what day it is, we are discussing a particular passion/dream. One day they want to be an artist, the next day they want to be a model, two days later they want to study accounting and three months later they want help finding a school that teaches marketing or graphic design. By the way, they are doing all this while studying IT in class and captaining the soccer team at school. And on some special occasions, they want to be a doctor. (let's not talk about their Maths & Physics marks okay!) Some of these people are actually full-time employees! They work here but would love to work there but have a "dream" to do that but they are "called" to do this and they are "passionate" about doing that over there. (Read this the way it is typed - no commas means no pauses!)
Crazy right?
Today I have a question for you, yes you Mr Daily Dreamer and Queen "Multi-Talented" ...
Do you have a dream you are committed to pursuing or are you just a liker of things?
Because the truth is you are holding us back. The era we are entering into requires commitment, passion and dedication. The era we are entering into demands that we intentionally, unreasonably and unapologetically pursue our dreams, the dreams of our ancestors! We cannot say we are our ancestors' wildest dreams while every day we keep having a "new" dream!
Listen! Commit! We need you to commit so we can help you relentlessly pursue your dream! Your dream is an African dream, and that means it is our dream as Africans! But we cannot help you pursue what you are not committed to! If you believe "god" is giving you these dreams, hit him up and have a chat with him. At some point, he also has to make up his mind regarding what he wants you to pursue! We can achieve more with a single-minded focus on one dream than we can we half-hearted pursuits of what we think would impress other people.
If you cannot commit to a pursuit then this where we must part ways - this blog is not going to contribute anything to your life. Thank you for rocking with us to this point, it was nice having you around but where we are going, nice is not going to be enough!
Black Lives Matter.
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