By Pearson Mbendera
Many a times the future tends out to be something you didn’t imagine possible. I mean sometimes life has a way of slapping you in the face. The dreams that we had for our future, many years ago have been eroded with an ugly nightmare, more like a horror movie but better known as our reality.
Right here in Zimbabwe you play by the book. Go to school, get good grades, go to college, and earn a degree (which doesn’t come easy) hoping for a better future only to retire before you have even worked a single day because there aren’t any jobs for you. But while that scares most people, the fact that the future isn’t bright after all casts another huge blow on already knocked out youths, whose future is not in their hands anymore. Where is that light at the end of the tunnel? Don’t tell me ZESA cut their electricity supply?
We sang, Nhasi ndezveduwo, itai makorokoto gorokoto kwatiri, wedu wadadisa…. Celebrating graduating from college, but celebrations as expected were short-lived as the reality of a crumbling economy took root, unemployment took center stage, and all the dreams of a better future were erased from the memory.
But what solutions do we have to our problems? And to whom do we cry to? Like what Chuck Palahniuk said, “When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?” I ask the same question hoping at least I will get the answer.
But writing about our fears seems like writing down a manifesto for a political movement. Because that’s where all the fingers get pointed at and blame given to. The people in public office, whose promise of a better Zimbabwe is as it turns out, just another pipedream.
Nobody knows what we want and that’s our biggest challenge; we want better jobs that pay better. We don’t want to earn as much as Cuthbert Dube, but just enough to live a satisfying life. Is that too much to ask? All we need is a chance to control our future, it’s ours after all. Instead of living in fear about what the future holds, all we need is the opportunity to shaping it as best as we see fit.
The crashing of a dream is the worst catastrophe of all. How can one live like that? The fear of an unsatisfying yet hard life ahead casts a shadow towards everything school has taught me. Is it worth it, being educated and unemployed, or working a job that doesn’t suit one’s academic qualification and being grossly underpaid while doing it.
What do you do in a situation like ours? Do we sit at home and watch African Movies all day? Do we have to go to the street corner with a bunch of juice cards and sell like every other vendor? Do you forget all the dreams you once had and accept reality as it is? These are the fears of the Zimbabwean youth.
At the end, we fear for ourselves, our future and the future of our kids. Each passing day, each unresolved economic problem and each job lost brings us further away from our desired future. Marianne Williamson wrote and said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Today, my greatest fear is that our future is bleak, above all, no one seems concerned to fixing it.
If you are a youth, tell me your fears. I may not be able to end them, but together we can figure it out. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The future depends on what you do today.” Let’s do something for our future today, with a little work; we just might switch on that light at the end of the tunnel.
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