WE ARE A PRODUCT OF OUR UPBRINGING! (part 2)

It is amazing how much of a difference the choices we make at a young tender age affects us for the rest of our lives. This is regardless whether they are good or bad. While I believe in fate and chance, I am also a strong believer in faith and prayer. On the previous article I ended by talking about the old fashioned values. These go hand in hand with the choices we make, or rather we do not make. Some people say that not planning is a planning to fail. The reverse is true. I grew up in neighborhood where there were not too many role models around. Every body's goals were just average and local. Being able to buy a new pair of shoes , trousers and a decent dress shirt was quite an achievement.

Its hard to imagine one's self rising above the set standards of their local heroes. One must have some inspiration. This is what the late American Civil Rights leader and champion Dr Martin Luther King calls a "Dream". One surely needs a dream. I have great respect for few of my fellow homeboys and girls, who by both grace, chance and determination, were able to rise above the local average standards. Some did it through sports, while some did it through the rough road of academics excellence. I can testify that these guys made tough choices. They worked hard and lived weired lives, in pursuit of their dreams and ambitions.

Where there is no vision.

Proverb 29;18 reads "Where there is no vision people perish, but he that keeps the law happy is he". Another translation says,"they cast off restrain". This is true for any family, community, and nation. Lacking a glimpse of purpose is dangerous. The young people who struggled, not being comfortable must have been driven by the glimpse of better life. I will never forget a friend and a neighbor of mine Nkosilathi Moyo. This guy devoted himself to books so faithfully. He lived in world of his own. Isolated and lonely. Nkose, as we use to call him, was the first child in the neighborhood to get University of Zimbabwe.

Former Zimbabwe national team kingpin and midfielder Ronald Gidiza Sibanda is also one of my biggest inspirations. From a very early age, anybody who knew this guy will tell you that he was a hard worker at his game.This is not to say that this guy was not naturally talented. He was naturally talented, yet at the same time he did not rely on his fancy footwork. There were many young boys in our area who could have gone places because of soccer, but it took a determined Gidiza to do that. I will always salute him. He defied the odds.

In that same area of area, I saw a lot of people messing their future because of temporary pleasure. Opaque beer and weed.(Imbanje, amasese legwayi) Everybody wants to be cool.We all want to fit in with our peers, and friends, but sadly some do it at a very high price. Some even catch some serious diseases that will send them to their grave prematurely. A lot of us are reaping from that seed that we sawed many years ago. The laws of sawing and reaping have not changed. (1) Reap more than you saw. (2) Reap later than you saw.(3) You reap what you saw. Some of these were sawed by our parents. Good or bad we reap them. "Those who plant in tears will harvest in great joy" Psalm 126v5.