Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans
A young man in his twenties had just graduated from a University. He was excited to join the labor force. He made good grades while in school, so thought he wouldn’t have a hard time getting himself a job. He spoke boisterously of his plans and how fast he had to achieve them. Everything seemed straightforward and workable. He thought little of graduates and friends who were into some jobs he tagged ‘unworthy’. To him, they hadn’t any vision and class. He turned down available job offers, saying such offers are not worth the hard work and effort he put into school. Days were winged into months, and months grew into years. It was now three years since he graduated from school without any job at hand. He tried to lower his standards a little to find a job. He was let down by employers because they were all suddenly looking for someone with at least two years of working experience with core skills which he didn’t have at the time. At this point, he was no longer thinking of his efforts back in school. He only wanted to get a job. His parents began to think he ate a lot of food and should be able to contribute to the family’s income. They never said it to him but their body language said it loud and clear. It was almost as loud as a stereo, though voices were not rendered to that effect. He tried contacting his friends, who he initially despised for taking up what seemed to be petty offers. They had become more experienced in their various fields and had advanced to greater heights. He received some monetary help from friends which made him feel more miserable. He had to dissociate the entitlement mentality, that his hard work in school ought to get him a good job. He took his certificate and locked it in an iron box his dad inherited from his father. He began to understand that though people may have big plans, those plans may not occur as soon as is their expectation. Time tagged with experience, resources, and some little bit of luck brings those plans alive. Having learned the hard way, he made up his mind to go with the least available option at the time. He started to accompany his father to his woodworking shop. With time, he picked so much interest in the work; brought creativity into a business, which was almost dead, because his father stuck to old-fashioned woodwork. With good interpersonal and marketing skills, he did bait his customers. He soon began getting huge contracts and decided to expand the business by employing more persons and opening up some more branches with loans from the bank. His father gradually stepped back for his son to take over the decision-making in the business. It was clear he had a unique touch on the business. After five years of innovation and expansion, the business had grown so much that a young man who hadn’t any penny at some point in his life could now afford a new home for his parents. While going through his Facebook page on a Friday evening, he saw pictures of students who just graduated from the University and were celebrating happily. The picture plunged his mind back to his days when he was a fresh graduate, and like a short movie, his life, from the point of graduation till that day played before him. In deep thought and awareness, he summarized life to be “what happens when we are busy making other plans”
Note: This may not always be the case but always continues to be a huge possibility.
Entry 1