Online Reporter
Ronald Takudzwa Sambona
Correspondent
ISN’T it paradoxical how a single path can lead us to a destination far different from the one we first imagined?
We don’t need a flawless beginning, nor a perfect reality. What matters is that we keep walking. Step by step, we become the story.
The story we once dreamed would inspire the world. The story that kept us awake at night, chasing our own destination.
The beauty of life is that, in time, what we call our journey becomes the very narrative that fuels others — giving energy, hope, and direction to curious, yet determined students eager to join the greater human story of adversity and triumph, of having dreams and accomplishing them, of fighting hard for victory despite the endless defeats, and of believing amidst countless doubts and fears.
Students often read of the brave men and women who paved the way for them, of how resilient and determined they were, and of how, when things were crumbling right in their faces, they continued the journey.
At one point, every great person passed through the same academic halls, libraries, institutions, and exam rooms that we are in right now, but what we have, they never had.
What we have today is the assurance and the proof that we are in control of the story that will be remembered about us.
That, after everything, perhaps the same things that kept great men awake at night, what bothered them during the day, afflicts us as well, but we have their stories to draw faith and direction from if we let them guide us.
The real journey often does not start until we truly know what it is, not just where we wish to go in life.
More often than not, what we believe is the way is just a major distraction from the bigger picture.
Perhaps what we have made ourselves believe are our destinations are really tremendous wrong turns, delaying us from our actual destination. Bit by bit, we miss our mark.
What starts as minor errors at the beginning become major errors in the end, but then it will be too late because we are totally off course.
Inasmuch as my message is about direction, it is vital for students to clearly envision how they want their life story to be viewed by those in the future, by those yet to rise.
Your struggles, your challenges, your failures, your defeats, your heartbreaks as students perhaps tell a much more powerful story than all of your successes combined.
Your determination, your love, your relentlessness, your faith, and your drive are made perfect in these hardships. It is said that Christ’s love is made perfect through our own weaknesses, not strengths.
The story is never perfect for most of us.
For me, it is a fight all the way, an unspoken battle sometimes, and how I wish you could know I am going through the same struggles, so you never lose the dream, fellow student.
Our stories are not unprecedented in the history of the world, nor are our suffering and heartbreak. We must stand strong because we have always been in this battle for education together as one.
As students, we must carry each other even when it seems nothing is happening. It is said that even though we ought to pray to God for solutions to our struggles as students, let us not become the lone man stranded on an island who refuses a boat or plane because he prayed.
Our help is right next to us, and we can be stronger together as we travel the journey of life as students.
Thank you! I rest my case.
