End of Year Note

This happens to be the last Friday of the year 2016. As Richie, it has been an eventful year but above that, this year's has been awesome for the Richie Online blog. Those of you who started following from last year or before would agree to the fact that this year has seen Richie Online grow in terms of diversity of articles and whatever else. This, dear reader, would not have been possible without your clicks on the blog, your feedback, your article requests (for some reason some people requested that we write about some things, and sometimes we did comply) and the articles for those who did that sort of thing called guest writing.

The other positive thing that we have registered is the increase in the number of followers. When we write we need people to read and the boom in the number of followers comes as an encouragement to those who put the pen to the paper. Simply that. If you are a follower of the Richie Online blog on Facebook or if you are the sort of person who clicks the link first thing upon receiving it (like TNO), or any other time, really (Achina George Liomba ndi Stephen Macheso amawerenga Saturday and Sunday respectively), feel it that You are awesome, even by Richie Online standards, which I must say are mean.

Ideally people would expect me to be writing something about preparing for the new year and writing down goals. We discussed that last year and I had a discussion with one reader called Ian, who upon reading the article in which I recommended buying a diary went straight and bought one only to come back and ask me on how to use it.

All in all, goals were set for 2016. When I look at the 10 goals I set, I think they have been fairly achieved, but worth noting was the fact that my success rate when is comes to achieving goals has dropped in the year 2017. Some of you might be wondering why I am personalizing this whole thing, but as usual, despite every personal or stupid thing I say or write, there is always a moral. Well. Almost always. Not always.

When I look at the goals I have achieved, they were the sort of goals that I was working on alone; no help, and (minimal or) no involvement of other people. No examples Will be cited, but worth noting is the fact that I have miserably failed to come to the realization of  all the goals that involved external parties... if you know what I mean. I probably would have been in the US now and probably married, but the people I counted on didn't come through. Here I am, a bachelor languishing in Chitawira, with nowhere to watch the night's English League games. The moral is that you shouldn't count on people too much, because they disappoint. Almost always. Do I sound bitter? Adopt the rest of the article. I will allow you to maintain your views on this chunk only.

Some of you have seen the Whatsapp message of Henry Kachaje's Facebook post which actually says we shouldn't think things will change for the better just because of the mere fact that 7 is replacing 6 on the year number or something. While that may be true, I still believe in 2017 Ambuye atisinthira nyengo. If pastor said tibooleza, who is Kachaje to say no? Breakthrough, basi.

We could say a lot of hibber jabber here, but the point is that for 2017 to be the year we want it to be, it has to be nicely calculated. Nkhani ndiyomweyo.

As CEO of Richie Online, I am thinking of bringing in some innovations. We could probably have a Whatsapp group for this and maybe t shirts. Who knows? Some of you have suggestions for the improvement of this whole thing. Bring them over, because this isn't just a one man show as we have seen lately.

One little favor. Would you please vote for the article you liked the most this year?

Management is preparing an e book of Richie Online 2016 writings and it will contain all the articles we published including some of the unpublished views on the abortion bill (analemba achina Nandi Nyirenda and they sent them ndilibe airtime yopangila post).

I am wishing you a wonderful weekend and above that a Happy New Year.

Consider this an Epistle.

Much love from Richie.