Twenty-five is the
year of confusion. You are not a child anymore, but then you are not fully
grown-up adult. It is that age that one need to make major decisions about
one's life. Thirty, the year of grownups, is just around the corner. I was
eighteen the other day, I mean, twenty-one was just a few months back! Like a
creepy crawling creature, twenty five is here, without warning, without a
signal.
Here are a few things that I think that every twenty-five
year old and those aspiring to be twenty-five years old should have or do.
Have a savings plan : I know we all blow our money on shoes,
a nice car, a nice jacket and oh my God, that jacket was super fabulous, I just
had to have it! i know I should have saved but then how would I have had that
form-hugging dress? Hey, I need to look fabulous. That is
the-before-twenty-five-me talking. The two-months-away-from-twenty-five-me is
thinking, oh crap! Thirty is just five years away, forty is less than twenty
years away, and sixty seems closer still. I need to save! And to think of a
retirement scheme (cringe).
Be in a steady relationship : Yes, the years of hook-ups are
over. No more "chips fungas", one-night stands or
just-for-fun-girl/boyfriends. This is Africa, and a (wo)man reaches an age that
he/she needs to get serious, especially where relationships are concerned. Your
aunties and uncles start introducing you to a friend's daughter/ son. The
message they are passing to you? Your biological clock is ticking and they
desperately need little nieces and nephews to pamper, or at least, an in-law
they can bully. Twenty- five without at
least someone you aspire to spend the rest of your life with, according to
African customs is too old, and don't say that I never warned you when you meet
up with your friends who are happily married or in steady relationships, while
you go home to a cold house or call up one of your many "fungas" to
warm up the bed for you.
Move out of your parent's house: I know, you love your
mother (and father). Your mother is the best cook. You don't know how to wash
your clothes. You cant be bothered to do the dishes (after all, your parent's
have a house-help). A wise man once said that, you can help a hungry man by
bringing him fish everyday, but to really help that hungry man, show him how to
fish and he will never go hungry again. Imagine yourself as the hungry man.
Your parents are the fishermen who are constantly giving you fish. Don't you
think that it is time to go fish for yourself? After all, all they have done is
fish for you for twenty-five years. Who knows, you might find out that you
inherited your mother's talent in the kitchen, and who said that cooking cannot
be turned into a money making venture?
Get a serious job: Earning your own money is the greatest
freedom a human being can have. Get a job. Stop asking your parents for money
to top-up your phone. Stop asking for money to buy sanitary pads. Be
independent. At twenty-five, be responsible, trek to look for that job you
desire. Being a coach potato does not help much. As I earlier said, learn to
fish and you will never go hungry.
Lastly, look forward to being twenty-five. You are going to
enjoy it (I know, I am. I am not yet there, same way that I was not twenty a
few years back). I had fun at twenty, twenty one, who said that I can't have
fun at twenty-five? The only thing I am going to do different is to GET
SERIOUS! Happy twenty-five years old.
