When I Have A Platform

When I have a platform.

When I have a platform, I hope I remain true to my values and principles.
I hope I give love everyone, even to those who hate me. Especially to those who hate me.
I hope I respect and treat every human equally irrespective of their race, background, sexual orientation, political views, age or status.

When I have a platform, I hope I'm empathetic enough understand people's struggles, rejoice in their victories and criticise without hurting them.
I hope I'm able to do my best in every situation no matter who is watching, or not. I hope I can be a worthy example and positive inspiration to all who encounter me.

Now that I have had this platform for 27 years and counting, what have I done with it?

Who's Going To Give You a Chance? Fight!

When you're just another kid from Africa
Whose president goes abroad for healthcare
And tells the whole world that you're lazy and corrupt
Who is going to give you a Chance?

When all everyone ever hears of your corner of the world is violence and corruption
Your good news and good deeds are mere tear-drops in this sea of negativity
Who is going to give you a Chance?

When the institutions that are supposed to work for you turn around and work against you
And the ones meant to protect you are actually the ones you have to run from
Who is going to give you a Chance?

When kids dream of flying yet don't even have access to basic primary education, are their dreams invalid?
The ones kidnapped from their schools and as a result become scarred for life
Who is to going give them a Chance?

Unfortunately, our reality is that our talents, skills, educational qualifications, hard work, ideas and sometimes outright genius are just not enough.
No matter how much of the above virtues you possess, you still need someone to take a Chance on you, to give you an opportunity to show what you can do.

Since you're automatically a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th class citizen of the world by virtue of being born in certain places or with certain shades of skin colour. The odds are stacked against you. Heavily. So what do you do? You fight. We fight. We don't throw punches yet we fight.

We fight, not like our lives depend on it but because our lives actually do depend on it. We fight for everything we want and everything we get. We fight for every job, every single door we go through, every pound and every last cent.

We dont wait for anybody to give us a chance, we take chances.

If and when we become successful, we fight to stay successful because the higher we go, the harder the fall will be if we fail to keep fighting. We fight till we can fight no more, then we rest easy in our graves knowing we gave it our best shot. We came, we saw the odds stacked against us and we fought our way up. Fight!

We All Struggle

I saw this tweet recently and it made me feel some type of way. I realised how easy it might be for people to just look at Instagram and assume everyone's else life is perfect. I can see why someone might, looking at Instagram, conclude that they are the only ones whose life isn't perfect, the only one who struggles.

Well, if anyone like that follows me, I want to assure you that you are not the only one who struggles. We all struggle. Maybe on different levels but we all have problems, we all have struggles. We all have days when our income just doesn't seem to be enough, probably most days actually. We all have fears that keep us up late at night. The problem is there is no way to take a picture of that and put on instagram.

Even if it was possible to snap our worries and fears, why would anyone want to do or even see that? It's much easier to take pictures of the good times, the perfect sunsets, the amazing views we see on vacations or even just around town. It's easier to take pictures of food at the ridiculously expensive restaurant we can only afford once in a blue moon or the spa treatment we give ourselves as reward for persevering for another 6 months at our not-perfect jobs.

In the end, a lot of people do not want to dwell on the negatives in their lives. We want and try to hold on to the good moments for as long as possible. We take pictures, make videos and share them in the hope that people can share the joy we derive from these things with us.

I understand that some people may post pictures or videos of the finer things of life just to make others feel bad or think they have awesome lives. Imagine how sad someone's life has to be for them to do that. You ought to feel pity not  be jealous of them.

I know some people have "fake it till you make it" as their motto. Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. You shouldn't either. It's their life and so long as they enjoy it, it's all good.

I guess the point of this post is to let you know that my life is not half as easy or smooth talk more of perfect as my social media may suggest. I'm sure it's the same for a lot of people and it's no fault of theirs because human nature means we are less inclined to publicise or document the negatives we encounter on this journey called life. So please enjoy the, few, nice pictures I post on social media.

Don't be so fast to wish you had mine or anyone else life, you have no idea what really goes on in it. Post your nice pictures too, share your positives. Sometimes my day is so shitty that I look forward to getting on social media to cheer myself up with the beautiful pictures of stranger's cats, food, cars, celebrity encounters and all round positive and joyful experiences.

I'm Worried!

In one of my more sober and reflective moments, which are far and few between. I started wondering why people worry to much. I mean, why do we humans fail to enjoy today because we are worried about a tomorrow that we are not even sure we will live to see?

It didn't take me long to answer the question myself. I figured it's because it only takes 24 hours for that uncertain tomorrow to turn into an uncertain today. A today in which one is, maybe, jobless, mourning the loss of a loved one, broke or even simply unable to celebrate St Tottenringham's day for 2 consecutive years.
 
You see, 24 hours can be a very long or short time, depending on your situation. When the going is good, it's too short. When things are not so rosy it draaaaaws out. The thought that our fortunes can change in a twinkle of an eye scares the living daylights out of most people. Most reasonable people, anyway.

Think about it. One moment you're just a kid in college, feeling invicinble, taking risks without fear of any consequences and like five minutes later it's 10 years after college. You're employed or otherwise and forced to be an adult, pay a bunch of bills every 30 days just so you can have the right to live peacefully, earn money and pay even more bills. All these while not even being married to your crush?

What a load of cold, fermented cow dung to swallow smiling.

There is an alternative though. You could just as easily be the owner of a successful business or doing your dream job, have an accountant(s) who handle your bills. Now you may not be married to your crush but you're rich and comfortable enough to convince yourself that you're now way too cool for your crush.

Smooth.

Which ever one of both scenarios is closest to our reality, most of us just can't escape worrying. I say "us" because I'm as guilty as anyone else of worrying unnecessarily or necessarily, depending on your view. If anything, I think I worry more than most people.

I worry about my loved ones getting hurt every second or minute I don't have my eyes on them, sometimes even when I'm looking at them. I worry about what might happen if I lost my job. I worry about what might happen if I don't secure another job before my current contract expires. I also worry about having to explain to current employers that I have to terminate my contract before time if I got a better job on better terms that demanded I start working immediately.

I worry about becoming so rich that I forget the people that helped me when I was struggling to make ends meet.
I worry about becoming so successful that I can't be there in person for friends and family, if and when they need me. I also worry about not being successful enough to help them financially if and when they need my help.

These are just a few worries of mine that affect me on a personal level. Don't even get me started on the general shittyness of the world. The wars, terrorism, famines, droughts, poverty, AFTV, school shootings and general douchebaggery of some humans.

Now I know I dont have direct influence over a lot of this things and there isn't much I can do about them personally, but does that stop me from worrying about them? You probably guessed right. Basically, I'm worried because I worry too much about things I shouldn't really worry about. And that, my friends, is my biggest worry in all of this.