On Wednesday the 15th of March, 2017, I went to the Palms Mall in Lekki and I had a very interesting conversation with two 11-year old girls, lets call them Ayo and Seun.
I walked into the mall and I saw these girls, wanted to talk to them but saw them seated with adults whom i thought they were with and so i respected myself and went to sit at the Food Court to wait for my friend but she had left the mall for a meeting. I decided to step out to go look for children or young adults to talk to and then I saw these same girls at the gate by themselves and asked to talk to them.
We sat outside by the gate for an hour then the scorching Lagos sun drove us back into the mall. the conversation was interesting... Geez, they made me laugh but during our serious talk,I realized a lot of things but I am going to be discussing what they told me about schooling.
So I asked them what they wanted to do for career (some 11 year old know already) and Ayo said she wanted to be a doctor. I asked why and she said because her mom said so. i pressed further and asked what she truly wanted and she said she did not mind being a doctor. I asked why and she said because she likes helping people. Prior to the career conversation, I had helped settle a quarrel between her and Seun so it was easy to tell her she can help people in various ways. Apparently, she likes to talk like me (🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈) so I told her she could help people by talking to them just as I have been helping her and her cousin`since I met them.
I then told her people like us who like to talk are some of the most powerful people on earth because we can create or destroy in seconds with our words. I told her to learn to create and speak life only with her words. While I was walking them to the bus stop, she confessed to me that she does not like going to school but her mother will never agree to her dropping out to start an apprenticeship (she'll like to be a tailor) so I told her to take dropping out of school off the table for now and just tell her mom she'll like to start going to a tailoring school in the evenings, after school hours. If her mom agrees, she should take her classes seriously and by the time she is done with high school in 5 years, she will be a pro.
From my life story, that and friends and my continuous work with children, I have realized that parents think formal education is all there is to have a successful career. My dream for every Nigerian, no matter what you do is that we are all able to read and write so that even if you are a farmer, you can read and write contracts for those who want to buy your farm produce. That being said, can we stop forcing our children to become doctors and lawyers when they don't want to? Some children were confused and because they did not get proper guidance while growing up, studied what they could but immediately they knew what it was they had a passion for, they followed their dreams. They did not waste their time stuck in jobs they did not like, no matter how well-paying it was. they followed their dreams and endured all the hardships, to truly be what they wanted.
Can we encourage our children to follow their dreams even though we might not understand their path? can we allow them to be creative and maximise their God-given talents? Can we let their career path be on their purpose path? we should tell our children that not everyone will go to a university and that were are okay with it and that even those that want to go to the university do not have to study Medicine or Engineering. they can study Arts or Music, actually, they can even start something new, something completely unheard of that will benefit the society.
Michelangelo, Beethoven we not Doctors, If Thomas Edison was forced to be a scientist, I am sure he'd have given up when the light bulb did not work after 10 times (I Know how tired I used to get when I did not understand an engineering design technique after 2 tries). These people followed their passions and their names are written forever in History.
Parents, family, friends and influencers should please help us harness our God-given talents so we can maximize our potentials and be all that we want to be.
I will love to read your thoughts and comments.....
Xoxo,
Oyinlola.
