If I have the chance!

Life is full of uncertainty since the day we were born till the day we die. To the best of my belief, our life is dependent on our decisions at some critical times. Our decisions depends on the level of information within our disposal - the level of options available for us to chose from when making a decision.

At the early state of one's life, the role of guidance and counseling is vital and same can't be overemphasized. These professionals help in shaping the decision of any child trying to find his feet especially in settling for a career.

In some cases, the parent play this role in the life of their children. Such children are privileged to have parents that are either trained in that line or have their ideas shaped accordingly due to their levels of exposure.

If I have the chance to live again after death, I would like to live a different life. I would like to be that child who is guided to take some decisions. I lacked it so much especially in the area of chosing my career. Like I explained above, my parents were not able to give me such guidance due to the fact that they were not educated.

When I finished my secondary education and gained admission into the university for a remedial programme, I was just a boy overwhelmed with the joy of going to the University without a clear cut decision about a career path. The programme was structured in such a way that immediately after completion, you would make some choices of the courses you wish to study.

Ideally, there was guidance and counseling department in the institution but it wasn't living to it's expectations.

I rounded up the programme as the second best student in a population of more than one thousand. Because of this sterling performance, I had the opportunity of going for any programme I like. The most sorted after university programme in this part of the world is Medicine and Surgery. If I was properly guided, I would have gone for the programme. I reluctantly picked another course of study which after studying it, rather than practising it, I am now in teaching profession.

Before then I had also made some mistakes as a teenager. At the age of 15, I was taking to my grandfather to help him out in farm work after the death of his wife (my grandmother). Due to lack of school in the small farm settlement where he lived with few other farmers, I was enrolled in a secondary school in a town, five kilometres away from the settlement.

A room apartment was rented for me in the town. Due to peer pressure influence at that stage, I was initiated into smoking of many substances and also drinking alcohol of any kind. I was in this act for more than 15 years and it nearly damaged me.

My wife was able to convince me to have a rethink and change. Since I battled with withdrawal syndromes and won, I started living a fresh life that I never lived for more than 15 years.

If I had the opportunity to make these two corrections, I believe that I would live an entirely different life. I would become that young boy that takes his health more important than some damaging pleasures and also take an informed decision regarding career path.