“When you’re young your whole life is about the pursuit of fun. Then, you grow up and learn to be cautious. You could break a bone or a heart. You look before you leap and sometimes you don’t leap at all because there’s not always someone there to catch you. And in life, there’s no safety net. When did it stop being fun and start being scary?”

– Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City.

Isn’t that the exact question we all stop to ask ourselves at some point in our lives? It seems there is this certain moment where we just wake up and realise we are living our lives in fear of what is about to happen or what decision we are about to make.

I can’t remember the exact time I realised I was constantly over thinking everything and consequently letting opportunities slip through my fingers. Of course, we shouldn’t simply throw caution to the wind and disregard the consequences of our decisions, but we should take time out to think about the days when life was fun and simple.

Just take a moment to remember those carefree days and ask yourself why you can’t have that same feeling now. Yes, you may have more responsibilities and be less naive but you can still have a balance.

So, instead of being scared of what is yet to happen embrace everything and sometimes, don’t be scared to leap and have fun. 

By Markeeta Waddington.

Image by Silly Girl 

I come from a poor background and an environment that the only thing teenagers do is make babies

Young girls think a great deal about their appearance and men.

I said no. I said no to poverty, I said no to illiteracy, I said no to mindsets.

I looked around and poverty was covering me. I felt as though I was stuck, I heard people whom I expected to back me up saying ‘You will never make it!’

I heard the person that was meant to love me telling me that she hates me. Doors were shut, opportunities denied, I felt as though I was all alone on this planet.

It felt like going forward was impossible and thoughts of suicide flooded my mind. But my belief in myself helped me to realise that I had the choice and strength to say ‘no.’

I said ‘No I am not going to take this.’

I said ‘No I‘m not staying here.’

They couldn’t stop me from being where I want to be, they couldn’t decide my destiny, I refused to be defeated.

You too can say ‘no’ to people who think you are not worth it.

I urge you to disagree with people who think you are not capable; people who think you cannot make it; people who think you are a nobody; refuse degrading opinions from people...they don’t know what you are made of.

You need people who will respect and value who you truly are- not people who will try to shape you the way they think you should be.

No one can stop you from being who you are, the key to your destiny lies with you, and no one can stop you without your consent.

There is no limit at what a person can achieve…

Written By Christinah Chauke.

Check out this awesome video below...

We’re living in the age of online friendship and cyber love. It’s quite astounding the dramas that can come from social internet mediums like “Facebook” and “Twitter”.

‘Will they add me as a friend? Will they accept my friend request?’...

It’s like a special world with all these secret rules – who knew ‘face-stalking’ was the new trend? Seriously, if you miss one day online you are already behind in the recent news.

It’s stupid and it doesn’t make much sense, really...

Look at it this way; one hundred years ago people were waiting around for days to hear from lovers or family about things that had happened two months previous. That was patience. This immediate need for knowledge, nowadays, is really detrimental to our sanity.

The best solution to Facebook paranoia is to get off Facebook – cold turkey. There’s nothing more liberating than deleting your account, (however long that process may take). Of course, we’re not all going to boycott the beast, but it is a little bit of a problem, don’t you think? Don’t delete it, don’t make it obsolete, just go for a walk outside and realise there’s more to life than wishing people would send you some cyber love.

After all, who really cares?

Find meaning in better things – you’re worth so much more than a few pokes and farming for cyber corn.

Peace,

-Catherine M. Fowell

http://collectiverambling.wordpress.com

In high school I wrote an essay about the choices we make dictate our future. I wanted to share it with you...

Dr John Tibane, a medical doctor, writer and motivational speaker gave an illustration about a man who was a construction worker.

One day during lunch time as the man was sitting with his colleagues to eat, he opened his lunch box and began shouting ‘I don’t want this sandwich, I hate fish.’ 

His colleagues looked at him and continued enjoying their lunch, the following day during lunch time, the same man opened his lunch box and starts screaming again ‘I don’t want this food, I hate fish,’ his colleagues looked at him, ignored him and continued to enjoy their lunch.

On the third day, during lunch time, the same man washes his hands, sits down with his colleagues to eat, opens his lunch box and starts shouting again ‘I don’t want this sandwich.’

His colleagues, now irritated, said to him ‘If you don’t want the fish sandwich, why don’t you tell your wife to stop preparing it for you?’ The man replies ‘Who said I have a wife? I made this sandwich myself.

The moral of the story is that we are responsible for most of the situations we find ourselves in. We are in charge of our lives; we are in total control of our future.

We prepare our lunch box and we must eat it. Yes you might find that you did not really contribute much to the situation you find yourself in; perhaps you are affected by your parent’s divorce, an accident, a difficult family background or lack of support from your parents. But you can soar above it all, you can choose today to accept the things that you have no control over and focus on the things that you can change - your future.

Choose today to be happy, choose today to accept the past, there isn’t really much you can do about it. Forgive the people who hurt you, free yourself from anything that may hinder you to be the best person.  And remember that you are in charge of your life...it’s a matter of choice.

 Written by Christinah Chauke.