Starting Out

Yeah. Literally. In more ways than one. You know how all your life, everybody, and I mean everybody tells you how imporatnt it is to do all the 'right things'. You know. Go to school. Get good grades. Go back to school. Study a discipline. Get out of school. Get a job. Get married. Have babies. By the way, what officially comes after having babies? Just wondering.

Dont look at me. I have no idea where all these rules came from. I just followed them. Up to a point. Up to the get out of school point. If you're Nigerian like me, you probably also had to do the serve your nation bit. Now that's done with and out of the way, all of a sudden, I see my future, looming before my eyes..... Finding a nine to five somewhere, having to wear a suit even when I dont feel like it, hating sunday nights, learning the managerial pop lingo-working smart not hard, learning to think outside the box, visualizing where I see myself in five years, teamwork, diversity, blah.blah,blah. After years of fantasizing about having a career, all of a sudden, i'm not quite sure I like the idea of it. At least, not quite the way I thought I would.

Dont get me wrong, I still want to work. I just worry about certain things. Like having to write a heartfelt letter to my boss whoever he(or she?) may be, once a year, begging to  be let out of the Zoo, i mean office for just a couple of weeks. Having to work alongside people i may not like. Not being able to sleep in late....

I digress. The point is, I am now staring to realise how completely pointless some of the values and ideas we have placed in us directly and indireactly over the years are. I have also learned a few more things that I would to share. I shall call it, "Things-i-have-learnt-about-life-since-i-finished-my-youth-service-four-weeks-ago". He he he. Long title eh? So here goes:

1. A university degree is at the same time a completly useful and yet totally meaningless thing: You have to show them you have one to get the job, and yet having one does'nt mean you know anything at all.
2. Not everybody has to study aeronautical engineering to become really sucessful (Dele Momodu anyone?)
3. It is probably better to stick with your school boyfriend, dumping him 5 seconds after convocation may not be such a great idea. There are a lot of crazies out there in the big bad world. At least he's not one of them. 
4. You know that place you swore on your life you could never work at while you were in school? Yeah. That'll probably be where you'll get your first job.
5. Relax. Sure, you always knew you were going to own your own empire, drive a brand new beamer and live in a 6 bedroom mansion by the time you were 30. But if it does'nt happen quite that way? Don't worry. With life comes hope, and with the dawn of every new day, comes new possibilities.
6. Everything really does work out in the end. Usually. Most of the time. Hopefully.

So here's to starting out, becoming a suit, and a member of the upwardly mobile club.

Cheers.