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I overheard a very interesting conversation in a matatu recently. I wasn’t eavesdropping, the guys were yelling. They happened to be speaking my mother-tongue so most of it got lost in translation but I got the general gist of the conversation. Just like every other Kenyan out there the topic under discussion was politics, who to vote for. From my understanding, these guys were family. I’m thinking a man and his two sons or an uncle and nephews.
The nephews asked him if they should register to vote and where. He went off on a speech about where to register so they can vote for specific candidates in certain spots. Here were these two grown men being told where to vote and who to vote for. And as they went off on politics, one digressed and brought in love issues and asked about how to fix an issue with his girl. The man says “dump her, in fact send her a text right now†and sure enough this fellow gets his phone and proceeds to send a break-up text.
Not only was I shocked, I was also disgusted. Here is a guy I’m guessing about 23 dumping his girl coz dad/uncle said so. It’s not just him, most of us out here are busy doing what others say, what they want us to do. Some call it ass-kissing. I call it stupidity.
Why do we let others decide for us what’s important? You want to vote but you ask someone where to do it and who to vote for. You want to date that girl but because they don’t like her you dump her. You want to work for a certain company but because your friends hate it you don’t apply for that vacancy. When did we completely give up on our self-importance?
I’m not saying go out there and be arrogant. Why can’t you just sit down and think for yourself, decide for yourself? Does the opinion of others have to affect your entire life? There are situations where it’s ok to let them tell you what to do, but other times you just need to shut them down and think for yourself.
Its high time people stopped following the crowd. Have some self-respect, some self-importance. Life would be so much better if instead of letting think for you, you did it for yourself. You do not need others to make you important, you can do that all on your own.