The Sunday Mail
Sharon Mtetwa
U6 Regina Mundi High School
Elimination has always been one sort of a snag.
I am sure even mathematicians do agree with me on this one. Likewise in life, it requires eminent strength and courage for one to have the ability to eliminate.
Like my role model Nelson Mandela once said “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, it is that we are powerful beyond measure” and well, this is in actual fact true. We tend to fear the power within us, but it is through conquering our fears that we realise how much might we have. As teenagers, we go wrong when it comes to eliminating bad people and things simply because we want to avoid that situation of feeling alienated and appearing intolerable to our peers, forgetting that sometimes it’s worth it.
A wise man, Michel de Montaigne, is quoted to have said “a man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.” Honestly, those people and things we ought to eliminate so that we realise the greatness in our lives cause suffering when we let go of them and this makes us fear to do so, but then we forget that we are still suffering from our fears and this is really worse because procrastination is the thief of time and the dilly-dally of not being assertive to eliminate fruitless people and things on time hinders our success and actually coaxes us to let go of some opportunities unknowingly.
It is not only studying that makes us see it through the journey to greatness but also the ability to eliminate the valueless things that we preserve in our lives.
Our very own Zimbabwean singer Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana sang, “in life I know that there is pain, but after pain I know there is gain, that’s why I tell myself I can’t be held down; “handibvume handibvume” (I refuse, I refuse)”.
After the pain of eliminating valueless things and people, there is the gain of not being distracted from our goals thus attaining them. Therefore I refuse to be held down by people who have no ambition in life. An emerging author of Zimbabwe, Chrispen Muyeche, in one of his books wrote “teach yourself to always do what is necessary no matter how difficult it may seem” and in my own experience, since it is the best teacher, I have realised that the very people and things that dominate our lives are exactly those we ought to eliminate since they overpower us. It is really necessary to delete these in our lives and only the determined can conquer this difficulty.
The company we allow ourselves to be around us determines the extent of our achievements in life as Muyeche goes on to say “your everyday actions and choices are the surest way of predicting your future accomplishments”.
This adroitly unearths how the inability to eliminate valueless friends and habits at this stage ruins us in the future, yet all we hope for is success and achievement after achievement.
Success will come your way if you have the vigour to strive for it and do all it takes to get there. It’s that easy.
Students, 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 0772936678.
