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Give your fellows roses while they can still smell them
2018-06-13Staff Report 2 It’s sad when a young person dies. They vanish with their wonderful dreams that could change our country for the best. More young people are losing their lives leaving behind their parents. Is this how it’s supposed to be? Look around and check all your friends who have passed on so far. How old were they when they met their death? Was their death natural or could it have been prevented? How did they live their lives? What about the moments you shared? Life can be extremely cruel. A few years ago, I knew and heard about much older people that passed on, but in recent years more young people are losing their lives compared to the older ones. A few weeks ago we lost Helao Ndjaba (RIP) in a drive by, I never thought in my life something like that would happen in Namibia. That is youth potential we will never get back. While death can cause pain to those left behind, I don’t feel pain for those gone, I feel pain for not doing more with them, for not saying things that should have been said, for not giving them the roses while they could still smell them. Life was supposed to be simple, our generation was supposed to have it easy, because of amazing developments and technology, a lot has changed making living simple, but is it really simple as we think? From a young age, we are brought up with a mindset to always think of our future. No one bothers to teach the importance of living in the present. Only death seems to teach that. Why it is important to enjoy every moment, without thinking where you want to be in the next ten years. Why we should take good care of ourselves and not overwork our heads. Only death teaches that! Our elders teach us from the start that the key to a happy life is education, but they do not show us how to be happy. Everyone is always busy, time is money. The family becomes strangers while online friends become family. Instead of asking something from your elders, you choose to Google it and Google will always have answers to everything. We get busy amassing more money for a perfect future that we might not live to see. We are told old age will be dependent on our youth age. We become consumed by this idea and stop living, sacrificing more hours for our jobs, getting involved in activities and many other projects that promise a good life in the future. Those are awesome ideas and we should put them into practice, but they should not be given a priority when our wellbeing is in question. Like the wise Socrates said before his death “The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways, I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows”. Say less, think loud! * Olavi Popyeinawa has a Diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution and is currently studying law, LLB at the University of Namibia (Unam). He will weekly contribute this column on youth matters. Instagram: niceguy_olavi Facebook: Olavi Longfellow Twitter: @OlaviPopyeinawa 2018-06-13Staff Report 2
