Students speak: Make this year special

Morris Mtisi
My last student to speak in 2014 was Garvin G. Maduku. And he breathed intellectual fire and burned with youthful wisdom. Enjoy reading his wise counsel for 2015:

BEING LIKE WATER OR NOT IN 2015.

2015 for all us comes with bigger expectations. Instead of supersizing, we go on to mega size. This is how it should be done, but for that to materialise we have to choose a form we would like to use. Water in this instance plays that perfect role. It dissolves to match and like wise manoeuvres through valleys and mountains. In both instances it turns out to be deadly as well as breathtaking. For one to have such characters, it will be both devastating and incredible. This is an idea I got from a conversation at work.

For the first characteristic, one should be able to go round barriers and ultimately achieve their goals. This should be irrespective of how the odds may be stacked against them. As hard as things may be, we should do our best to find the breakthrough. Usually when we do our best, God will do the rest. And this would be the perfect start for 2015.

There are lots of barriers that we face as humans that may be counter productive. There were such in 2014 and will be such as well in 2015. There is absolutely no way we can run away from these, hence we need that water characteristic. In our daily routines, be it at school or at work, we still have circumstances that threaten to hinder our success. Instead of giving up and laying off to rest, we can simply find a way like water does, and ultimately reach our destinies and achieve our objectives.

Your boss may be a ‘slave master’, or that your lecturer simply hates you. Those are no reasons to quit. It should become ones immediate goal to find a way round this. That will be enviable if one chooses to be like such. It is possible to do that, it just takes a brave heart, of which we all have.

That element that threatens to pull you down should then be used as a stepping stone to become whatever you choose to be. Just like waterfalls are created, carve your own success from your struggles.

The bottom line to this characteristic would be that, let 2015 be the year you will find solutions to problems and stop finding excuses. Forgive those who try to hinder your success, not because they deserve it, but because you deserve peace. The important thing in life is that you keep moving. The speed at which you move is not essential, just don’t stop. When you do stop, like water, create something amazing and look back for a moment.

The other characteristic of water creates an even better conversation. Salt solution, sugar solution, sea water, fresh water, beer, soft drinks to name but just a few, are some of the forms water can take when mixed with other elements. Water does not resist such mixtures but just blends in to become something amazing or even deadly. How is this, if a human would choose to take this characteristic and make it their daily routine?

You meet new friends who like to admire dresses more than they do food, in a split second you follow suit, beer guzzlers befriend you, and you blend in, you see people doing underhand deals, it takes you no time to think before you become part and parcel with them. These are some of the negatives one can adopt in this ‘watery sphere’.

It could as well be that you meet a group of studious students and you follow suit or you meet prayerful friends and you embrace the spiritual realm with them. These are some of the ways one can be like ‘water characteristic number 2 and still be successful. You can blend in with others and set yourself up for both success and failure.

With these characteristics of water being equally easy to adopt, it all falls on an individual to choose what works best for them.

My plea to you is that you make the decision to follow excellence and success will chase you. It is those little advantages that we make for ourselves now, that will count later. “Don’t think of doing big things but rather do small things in a big way”, to quote from an acclaimed speaker.

Let 2015 be the year to make history. All the best, ciao!!!

 

Garvin is a 3rd year student at the UZ and on internship in Mutare.