Dreams misplaced?

‘Vhenekai what to do you want to be when you grow up?’ That was the million dollar question my grade 1 teacher Ms Zindi asked me and I froze for a second. Then with a squeaky voice I answered. ‘A doctor ma’am.’

The same question kept being repeated for my entire primary and part of my high school life. By the time I got to grade 7 I had changed my career ambitions from doctor to pilot to nurse. Honestly deep down I didn’t know what I wanted to be. When I got to high school I was sure I had made up my confused mind. I wanted to be an Accountant. Now this was my dream and top goal. I made sure I excelled in Accounting and even assisted some of my classmates. Grade 12 I passed Accounting very well. My oh my! Was I not proud of myself. Then BOOM I failed Mathematics dismally. All my dreams, my hopes and ambitions down the drain or so it seemed.

Now what? I had made a few applications to different universities to study Bcom in Accounting and had been accepted but I had to pass Mathematics with at least 50%. My final mark was nowhere close to the pass mark. I was offered different degrees but my main goal was to study accounting come rain, come thunder, come tornadoes. I managed to scoop a bursary to study a Diploma in Accounting which really helped but I still wanted to pursue my degree.

With my mother being the sole provider we knew immediately that she could not afford to pay annual fees for the next 3-4 years so I had to get a job. That was the first time I started questioning dreams and ambitions. Had God denied me my dreams or maybe I had chosen the wrong path or somewhere I had tossed my career coin and misplaced it? Reality wasn’t so polite to me.

At that moment it felt as if I had come to the end of my career journey without even starting. How cruel I thought! It is through this situation I learnt the process of becoming. It is called a process for a reason. You evolve, you stop at some point and continue and go around in circles. I immediately realized that I was going through the process of building my career.

Sometimes in life you don’t have to have all the answers or have it all figured out, you get some answers as you go through the PROCESS. No I hadn’t misplaced my career gold coin. My dreams were still valid, it’s just that I had to tweak them a little bit or maybe a lot because 2019 made me choose a whole new career path, LAW and that’s a story for another day….