Life in a tree house

Mpho Tlale | Monday June 30, 2014 06:59

 

The truth of the matter behind all this is that I don’t want to live a life enslaved living other people’s dreams. Many have done and are still doing this, and I believe it is why life has become a task to them.

My biggest fear is of living live an ordinary life with no X factor. I don’t believe I was given the gift of life to merely co-exist with my fellow human beings and just be. I was destined for a life of adventure and everything that defies what has been set as normal.

On the July 11, 2014 I will turn 26 and this has had me thinking about my life and what I want to do with it. It’s still a work in progress and I am not sure what I want to do or where I want to go. It’s all a bit confusing, I must say.

However, I am certain that I don’t want to end up living the ‘Botswana circle of life’. I say Botswana because I am a Motswana and live in Botswana, but somehow I believe it would also be safe to say the African circle of life. This circle of life is very contagious.

It starts with finishing High School under pressure and aim thereafter to enrol at Varsity, graduate from varsity, find a job and then get married and have kids- or have kids and get married depending on which one comes first.After the above mentioned life is regarded as complete- with the added  cushion of things that complement it like building/ buying a house, buying a car, having more kids and basically just keeping appearances of a solid and happy front even when things crumble.

I am at a point in my life where this circle of life is starting to kick in and I don’t want to be its victim. It terrifies the hell out of me! My friends,acquaintances and some random people I know are either getting married or having kids. At first I felt left out and questioned how normal I actually was for not doing either one of those.When the realisation hit me, it hit hard. I realised that those people are living their dreams and I wanted to hijack those dreams simply because its deemed ‘normal’.The conclusion is that I am not ready for either one, maybe in the future after I figure out what I want out of life and what life wants out of me.

The mystery to my puzzle might be solved perhaps if I got to live in a tree house and rode a bicycle to run errands. It might be literally or figuratively, but the bottom line being that I have to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone.

I, like most of my country men and women are crippled by the system that we were born into.We have a dependency syndrome that might take another century to shed off. The way we were raised also counts.We have been taught to fear the unknown, in this case a life outside Botswana is never really an option. Instead when we dream, we dream of a life in Botswana and not anywhere in Africa or the world.It took me years to imagine myself working in Tanzaania,Zambia,Namibia,Mali,Senegal or Kenya but now I do.Its an opportunity I am looking forward to and would embrace with both arms. When I find or get it, I won’t think twice -just plunge in.

Mine is the African dream. I have always believed that Africa is beautiful and I still hold that belief; nothing anyone says can change that.If our Africa was not beautiful, there would be no scramble for her by outside forces.

Although it might be misunderstood, my dream is pretty straight forward and simple: It iss to live life and share that life with the rest of  Africa. My soul was not meant to be confined to Botswana,it is meant for the whole of Africa and the world .

I am an African who is tired of living the Western version of Africa because if I was to live by it, I would never explore my continent. Parachute journalism has been done us an injustice for the longest time. I want to explore and question the root causes of these civil wars and  who supplies rebels with all these fancy ammunition they use to murder their fellow people?At the same time, it would settle my ccuriousity to understand why there are African countries who still pay tax to France today?

At this point, it all might seem like a far fetched wish or a quarter life crisis talk but it is a challenge I am posing to myself.  I am ready to try something new and know that there is the possibility of failure and success.The fear to fail has seen the death of my dreams before they were even birthed. However, I feel I am now ready to follow my heart and see where it takes me. I am ready to experience other people’s culture,eat their food and just bask in their way of life.That would seal the deal of my quest in life. To date, I believe I would be far in life if I lived somewhere in the heart of Africa or the world.Change is what I am yearning for really. Though I contemplate on buying a house and a car, I struggle with the fact that I won’t be buried with those.That’s why I am still at a loggerheads.I feel my soul doesn’t need those material things but longs for something substantial but not material.Something that will not be in vain even after my death