Choosing your path

For most people the time right after secondary school or just before the end is when they are at the crossroads of deciding which path they want their lives to go in. They battle with the choices that they have to make and the offers thrown open to them. Your choice at such a critical time usually determines ones your future.

“It wasn’t easy breaking away from the click and the things we had said we would do when we graduated.” These were the words of twenty three year-old Blessing Omeha. “As a student in an all girls’ school, we all belonged to clicks and set standards by which we operated. This was supposed to continue seven after we left secondary school.

“We had all decided we would only go into medicine, engineering, law or any of what we considered the high flying professions. Our motivation then was what we thought was prestigious rather than realistic.”

“When our WAEC results came out many of us didn’t meet the requirements to go into engineering and other science fields. I wasted two years getting my acts together and out of my dream world. I ended up an artist.

“I was lucky to have my mother who set me aright with endless talking and a few sound slaps when it seemed like I wasn’t budging,” she laughed.

She gave our reporter her mother’s contacts.

Secondary school teacher Mrs. Helen Omeha said it may not be easy to do when there are a number of factors to take into consideration with some of them unforeseen. “What the young should know is that the choices they make are entirely dependent on them, the kind of life they want to have, and on what they consider to be priority.

“Over time I have seen many students make decisions influenced by their peers who in their limited knowledge guide them on what is best. I find that many of the choices are based on the need to keep up with The Joneses or because they feel the need to impress their friends.”

Teaching senior secondary classes for close to eighteen years now, Omeha said, “From the nature of man there is only one factor that should judge or influence your career choice and it should be paramount. That choice should be motivated by what gives you the most happiness and satisfaction.

Something that allows you to be yourself, be creative and original. Anything outside this, you can be sure you are going in the wrong direction. Usually the answer when you ask yourself such a question is the one that first jumps straight at you. Finances and other things should come after your happiness and creativity level have been satisfied.”

Mr. Hector Obaze said as human beings we are attracted first to the things that we are passionate about. These are the things that can form the foundation of our lives because we tend to focus on and pay attention to them.

The thirty six year-old website designer said, “The kind of life we live is the one that we have attracted. There is no hard and fast rule about it. When you are happy or sad it reflects all around you and even rubs off on other people around you. For me the same principle applies choosing a life path.”

Obaze said, when you decide on something you love and have a passion for it is likely to have ripple effect and spread beyond you to other people. “Once you are in harmony and true to yourself, you will discover how very confident and positive a person you will become. You are in constant happiness and wealth.”

“If your emotions are otherwise from these you need to purge yourself further and realign your choices and priorities.”

It may seem selfish to make decisions for the sake of one’s wellbeing as in the African setting where generally one may need to consider the interests of the larger family.

To this, Miriam Abba said, our choices must be made based on the merits of the situations we find ourselves in. “Any reasonable family should know that their child’s happiness should come high and above what they expect of him/her.

“I would say that whether family approves or not of your decisions as long as you are justified and are doing right, please go ahead.

“By the time they see the positivity around you and the progress you are making, they’ll have no choice but to give you the necessary support you need,” the forty year-old said.