The Sunday Mail
Mazvita M. Mafuta
First Choice College L6
Up until a certain stage life was a dream. One big fairytale filled with sweet candy and fragrant flowers where happily ever after was a given.
That all changed one day when I got a rather rude awakening…
When I was 7 years old I learnt that life wasn’t fair…that you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do when you’ve got to do it simply because nobody is going to do it for you. Why? It’s simple really. Because everybody else is busy doing the same for themselves. Did I mention I was 7?
When I was 8, I discovered a very disturbing human trait. People will love you, use you then leave you. People will pretend, feign ignorance and once in a while really hurt you.
By the time I was 10, I realised I would never have Paris and that the world wasn’t my oyster after all. It was a dangerous place filled with beautiful things that will somehow hurt you in some way, someday. Pretty much like a bed of roses.
At 13, I was blind and cynical, distrustful and at the onset of puberty. With a hormone-fueled zeal I set out to change the world. And I almost did it too, except I realised I was just a little speck in a world of giants.
In a haze of flings and complicated relationships that left me in a daze, 14 passed. At 15 I was grown in almost every sense of the word – almost. But then again, that’s never enough now is it?
At 16 I “rediscovered myself.” Whatever that means. I realised that even though it isn’t all bubblegum and daisies, just like the proverbial bed of roses, life indeed is beautiful…it’s the thorns you have to watch out for.
Now at 18 I’m learning all those things I didn’t learn and doing all the things I couldn’t simply because I was being “grown up”.
Truth be told I’m not sure whether I should act my age or my feelings.
Somebody said to act your shoe size. I’m a size 8…how do 8 year olds behave?
I’m learning to take each day as it comes. Although I have to tell you, it is pretty hard to accept that which you cannot change but you probably know that already.
Being an 8 year old in an 18 year old’s body is tough but the best part is you don’t have to deal with it…life is indeed beautiful.
Students, YOU CAN SEND YOUR ARTICLES THROUGH E-MAIL, FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP or TEXT Just app Charles Mushinga on 0719936678 or send your articles, pictures, poetry, art . . . to Charles Mushinga at [email protected] or [email protected] or follow Charles Mushinga on Facebook or @charlesmushinga on Twitter. You can also post articles to The Sunday Mail Bridge, PO Box 396, Harare or call 0719936678.
