Enter 2018

Greetings.

It is the last Friday of the year and that makes this the last article of the year. As such, I am inclined to wrap up the year with a word of gratitude. The support I have received from Richie Online Readers has been overwhelming and I have learnt to appreciate the value that all of you have put on these articles. Every Friday I do get reminders that I need to provide a read in the form of a Richie Online article and while others have made it a norm to be reading every Friday, there are some who have confessed that they let the articles accumulate and read three or four in a row. That is all awesome and it fuels the team to provide the best it can. You have all been awesome, and I guess it is high time we made you all “Fact-based Opinion”, “Richie Online” and “I am the Venomous Hope” t-shirts with a link at the back.

Today’s read…

My observation has it that people still haven’t calmed the festive season hype. With the New year around the corner, people are still moving barbecue stands around in readiness for the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations. I on the other hand am disappointed with the Mayor of the city of Blantyre who has remained mum on how the city is going to transition into the new year. The people of Blantyre miss Noel. Away from the celebrations, however, I have noticed a general sense of readiness for the year from my circle.

I happen to be part of the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Class of 2016 and this is a class that joined the College of Medicine on the 6th of December in the year of 2010. I like to think of me and fellow members of this class as people who have been walking a pretty much predetermined path for the past 7 years and counting, having had to finish the studies and complete internship to be eligible to practice. For me and a few others, 2018 offers us a chance to spread our wings and fly as it is the year that most will finish their clinical internships. Outside the class of 2016, the other members of my circle are also making a lot of plans ranging from moving out through changing jobs to buying cars. All this makes me think that 2018 is one of those years that a lot of people are looking forward to for all the right reasons.

Interestingly, 2018 will see us move to within a year closer to the 2019 elections. This entails that there will be more than enough politics for us to enjoy or loathe. Both the opposition and the ruling will be in full campaign mode with or without the official opening of the campaign period by the electoral commission. We will see a lot of conventions and enjoy the drama thereof. I am still not sure if the whole period will contribute anything to our thought processes and help us make informed decisions in the 2018 votes. On the other hand, I feel like the coming year offers us a good platform for observing and listening to our potential leaders as we await for what I think will be yet another interesting election after the 2014 one.

The end of the year has seen an eruption in memes about failed goals and appeals of what shouldn’t go into the new year. The most popular of these things have been about those people who received promises or prophecies of good fortune (and marriage) from their spiritual leaders. Many have gone on to produce nicely designed picture messages and some have even recorded videos to mock those who have received such prophecies. I am not too sure as to whether we should be throwing out mean memes to our friends for whom prophecies did not come through, but I think we have a lesson or to to learn from such experiences. Some of these lessons have something to do with how we manage our expectations and how we gauge who to expect one from. I know that this is a sensitive  one considering that there is the involvement of a Supreme Being and “His servants“ but I guess we all know that not all of us who are shouting the name of God are doing it for Him.

There has been another group that has been throwing out unsolicited advice on what we should leave behind in the year 2018. The interesting one was about slay queens (probably normal HD-happy girls too) having pre-birthday, birthday and post birthday photo shoots along with luncheons, dinners and swimming outings just for one birthday. We all saw those pictures and on a couple of times they were accompanied by praising captions for the birthday girls. On some occasions, pictures of similar situations always had the hashtag #SuadGoals in the caption. This hater who made this post was talking about how people celebrate these birthdays with so much hype as if the birth of the people in question brought us salvation from the frequent blackouts. Someone also made a post on how we need to quit some of the time wasting habits like unnecessarily attending gatherings like rallies, funerals and weddings, spending too much time on social networks and spending too much time on football or political chats among others. This one was probably more solution oriented although some may find it impractical.

Looking at the things that people are proposing change in and people’s goals for the year, one would wonder whether the changes are programmed to change the moment the 7 at the end of the calendar year number gets replaced by an 8.

The main point here is just that if we want our fortunes to change in the coming here, we should change the way we do things. On the other hand, significant changes like those do not happen overnight and they need to be planned over a period.

I am sure that this has been too long a read. I am wishing you a Happy and Prosperous 2018. I do hope that you have attached feasible plans to the goals and aspirations you have for the year.

By the way… I want to be in a squad too. I mean… Who doesn’t want to go out to Kamuzu View for a braii in a custom squad t-shirt?