LIFE IS FOR THE STRONG-WILLED

 

In a conversation with a friend who graduated from one of Ghana's universities and doing her national service with one of the local telecom companies, she said to me, "Anokye, I feel so much pressure. Growing up is painful."

 

I wish I could get the right words to explain to her that growing up was not as painful as she thought. Clearly, she's a young woman in her early twenties so taking full responsibility of her upkeep while juggling the daily demands of work and other engagements came to her as a burden. She was new to the terrain and she was right to feel so. But to those who have been in this terrain for a while now and still think growing up is painful, I cannot console you.

 

This write-up might even add pepper to your troubles. Seriously, life is not promised to be any easier. If so, there's no point being happy when we are victorious or have surmounted a challenge. Life is meant to be for the strong-willed. It is for the mentally-strong. It's not for the weakling.

 

Many of us pray that God takes our challenges away from us. That is a bad prayer to waste your time on. Because as long as you're on this side of the planet, not only will your challenges not disappear, they grow in magnitude as you grow in age. It is the reason you see some old folks ending up so badly in the long run. It simply means their capacity to handle challenges didn't grow as they aged. As you advance in age, you have more on your hands. Hitherto, you had no one to worry your head about. You had someone to provide whenever you needed money. Now, you need to go out there to get that money to fend for yourself. For some of us, not only for ourselves, but our families; our spouses and children. And if you're a business person, you have to think about the well-being of your staff. Handling these challenges at various levels at the same time comes to many as a huge burden. And trust me, it's not as though I have a handle on it perfectly...we strive to do so.

So for those who are ever expecting for life to get any easier, your expectations will be cut short. Grow stronger. Feed your mind to get stronger to deal with the daily vicissitudes of life. It won't get any easier or less tough; you have to get tougher. Growing up is not meant to be painful. It is a call to wisdom; to maturity, and to mental stamina.