By Chol Peter Majoh
Life has no better description than the reality that it’s full of cries and smiles. In fact, cries weigh heavier than smiles when it comes to life on Earth. There are few times for smiles and many times for cries. This is a sad reality, as nothing is doable for life to appreciate us. Whatever you do, however you struggle, life will never come with a thank you. It doesn’t appreciate at the end of it, it’s death. At its beginning, it cries. Every baby cries at birth.
Look, it was at birth when you started feeling and thinking that when you later began to crawl, things would get better. Not later than five months, you began to sit on your own buttocks and also started to crawl, only to discover that you needed more than crawling. That pushed you towards another hope. The hope was that when you started to walk, maybe things would change.
Again, it came to pass that you indeed walked, but life increased the volume. Instead, things started to be touchier than before. Time went by, and you realized that education was the only way out. Thanks to God, your parents took you to school. You began your education at pre-school level one (1), also known as baby class, and you managed to beat the odds and pass to primary. There, hope never ceased.
You told yourself that maybe at high school or after it, there would be change, but to your dismay, there was nothing. Absolutely no change. Things remained the same.
Okay, because you were somebody who didn’t want to give up in life, with the help of your parents, relatives, and friends, you managed to go up to the university level, where you earned a bachelor’s degree. With all these struggles, life still presses harshly upon you. Getting a job has become another issue, another battle to fight. You keep asking yourself why such things are happening, but no one even seems willing to offer himself or herself to answer you.
Sometimes those who sympathize with you say it’s life, or that’s how life is. They don’t give you answers that are satisfying. You are anxious, perplexed, and confused, but there’s no solution.
Worse of all, after 16 years of struggling and believing that a bachelor’s degree would make a change in your life, now you’re told a Ph.D. is better.
Life proves to be harder and harder as the days pass by. Biological growth is another thing that never wants to favor you. You are aging without any achievement, not even marriage, but what can you do? It’s life!
Dishearteningly, the politics and economy of your country are worsening day and night; hence, your hope is diminishing, and there’s nothing you can do.
Absolutely, that’s how life is. And sadly, that’s life. There will never be a single day in life when life will say, “Thank you. You have lived up to my expectations.” Never! That won’t happen. Of course, you will get a job, but problems will multiply. I’m sorry to say so. It’s not any wish for you; it’s this life. Problems never miss. They will increase. When you get a job, your expenses increase as there will be bills to pay, people to support, a house to rent, school fees to pay, and so forth. That’s life!
In the past, I had the idea that there’s a level in life when one gets rewarded for his or her sweat and that life there, at that time, appreciates, but now this idea is an illusion. There’s no such thing as a day in life. That, perhaps, has been your thought too. It has always been the hope that people keep, but it’s a never-coming hope, for there is no day this world will ever exist without problems as long as paradise is still in heaven. This is the secret behind why mothers manage to forget all the problems they succumb to during pregnancy and labor pain and cast their hope on their children. They believe their problems won’t again be the problems of their children. But is this true? I don’t know.
What I now hold is a new idea about life, and this idea is that life is all about fighting or battling a series of problems, one after the other, without giving up. Each day presents a new problem in order to prepare you for the next day’s problem. Problems are endless! Today is different from yesterday’s, and tomorrow will be as well.
But the good news is that problems never last. They come and go, but there’s no space when one is free from having a problem to solve. No condition is permanent. What do I mean by that? A problem comes and goes; anything that comes around also goes around. Yes, you know this, and it should be your strength.
Woody Allen once said, “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering [in fact, problems] and it’s all over much too soon.” This life is not for cowards. It’s for those who are brave enough to face problems without shyness. Those who are never brought to shame by the problems they meet face problems face-to-face. They are never down because there’s a problem.
In fact, and that’s an absolute truth about life, strong people are always up because there’s a burning problem to solve. Whether it’s school fees, a challenge, mockery, abuse, criticism, illness, rejection, or whatever problem they face, these folks seem like they don’t care when indeed they do.
Too often, problems train us to become fit in life. Have you ever seen a person who grew up in a problem-free zone handle a small problem? How did he or she do? If yes, you will never wish to live in a world free from problems as long as we still live under the sun.
Life doesn’t discriminate. It gives each person a problem to solve. Whether you are rich, poor, short, slim, tall, black, or white, you have at least one problem to solve. That’s life. The rich, emperors, and great men and women of great achievements in both the ancient and modern worlds made it in life because they accepted that in problems one is able to filter good out. Whether you build a plane, a mansion, develop an application, or do whatever, life still won’t come with a thank you, and problems won’t stop coming because you did good in the past. Instead, they will continue to come. But you need to be strong and able to stand face-to-face with your problem.
When a problem attacks you, all you need is to be strong and positive in your thinking. By doing so, you will always have a solution to it. I repeat, be positive. No matter what, life will never appreciate you.
The author is reachable via email at cholpetermajo@gmail.com. WhatsApp: +211(0)922295373.