I know. You thought Richie Online was dead. Well. It is not. Among the reasons you did not have Friday pieces over the past few months was that I was a bit too tied sorting out the other parts of my life to an extent that I lost the drive to share what was going on in my head. The other reason? I may not have been in a good headspace. When inn such situations, the articles tend to be a bit more negative and not worthwhile. Here we are, then, with a return article and hope that we will return to normal services soon.
A few days
ago I found myself having an interesting conversation with an old friend from
college on Facebook. Here is how it had started. I had posted about the
Commonwealth Shared Scholarships being out and my willingness to share some
winning tips to candidates that were applying for the same. This good friend of
mine commented on the post with a question on whether these scholarship things
I often talk about come with any money. Stupid question, right? You may think
so, but apparently it was not. I will explain.
We all know
scholarships involve someone or some organization paying money towards your
education and that with the Commonwealth scholarship go as far as giving you an
allowance for winter clothing. You didn’t know about the winter clothing thing,
right? I only got to know it last year, of course. Long story short, there is
money involved and a reasonable chunk of it goes directly into your pocket.
What my good friend was asking was whether this money was enough for us to be
making noise in the name of encouraging others to apply for opportunities that
will allow them to study outside the country, when the people could have the
alternative of staying at home and making money through work and the different
side hustles. I also need to mention that this guy runs several businesses
apart from being a medical professional.
Looking at
the question, I realized that what he was asking was not about whether he would
get money from a scholarship opportunity. What he was asking was whether the
money he would get from studying abroad was worth leaving his businesses and
jumping on an iron bird to pick up an intensive postgraduate program in Glasgow
or Newcastle. If you were to ask me that question, the answer I would give you
would be heavily dependent on who you are, what you do and what your dreams
are. Having gone through a master’s program under a scholarship and started my
doctoral studies with full funding, I can clearly say that it is worth it. I
would say this with full confidence because I am a career academic whose
long-term goals are firmly attached to academic achievements. If you are the
sort of guy who thinks working for someone is a scam and would like to retire
from working for someone at 38, perhaps this is not the thing for you.
Having had
this conversation with my friend’s life and aspirations in mind, I was reminded
of how our own lives, goals and aspirations affect the way we interact with
others. When I got a scholarship to study for my master’s degree in London, I
could not help but succumb to the cultural shock that I found. Interestingly, I
found life to be way better on this side of the Mediterranean than back home to
the extent that I was determined to find something to do here to extend my
stay. The worsening socioeconomic conditions back home just cemented my
decision and somewhat, somehow I have ended up back in the UK after a short
stint at home. I hope to stay here for a bit longer while pushing things on the
academic end. When I think about the life I have enjoyed over the past 12
months because of the scholarship I had, I cannot wish anyone anything than to
enjoy the same privilege I have enjoyed. If I see a friend who has the
potential of getting a scholarship, something within me will push me to preach
the gospel of scholarships until they are submitting. It all comes from a place
of love although it may sound as pestering to others.
If you
think about the way feel about scholarships and how vocally I speak about them,
you will not be surprised to see that there are others who also loudly advocate
for business. People will tell you that a salary is not sustainable and you
need to have multiple streams of income. The toxic ones will go on to mock
salary earners by calling the salary a bribe that people give their employees
to yoke them into making more money for the employer. While some of these
messages may sometimes come with negative intonations, I would like to believe
that they also come from a place of love. Someone must have had multiple
sources of income and enjoyed the financial independence such a status brought.
They were not going to keep that to themselves so they shared. The sharing came
because they felt compelled to do so, and it was all for a good reason.
The thought
about my noise with scholarships and business triggered memories from early on
in life. Several times I have had to sit down with people who were going door
to door preaching the message of Jesus Christ. They would start with the
general stuff but in the end you would clearly see that the end goal would be
to convert you to their church despite the fact that you tell them you are
devoted to your own denomination. I have encountered these evangelists from a
young age through college to the recent years. Looking at the conviction of
these people, you can tell that they actually believe that as a Catholic I am
destined for hell… and that the only way to heaven is their church which is
somewhere in Chilobwe. Again, it is their belief which somewhat comes from a
place of love although there would be others who would be annoyed by continual
visits and invitations.
Perhaps we
should take a turn you didn’t think this article would take and talk about the fresh
elections. In the thick of the campaign, the country was divided into two. The
other camp was for the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party and the other for
the challenging Tonse Alliance. The latter were so convinced that the incumbent
were so evil and leading Malawi to its deathbed. Supporters of the then ruling
party had little to say in the way of convincing us why the electorate needed
to give them another mandate. With the social media all over, we used to have
“us vs them” debates in which people would easily label each other as people
who did not wish the country well for supporting the other party. We labelled
each other with the silliest tags at the time, but I guess all that also came
from a place of love for Mother Malawi albeit with a bit of toxicity. I will
park this right there and not push the narrative any further, but I guess you get
my point.
I would
like to share a story that I copied from some page on the internet. You
probably have read it before but here it goes.
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her
neighbor hanging the wash outside. “That laundry is not very clean,” she said.
“She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry
soap.”
Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every
time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the
same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean
wash on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she has learned how to wash
correctly. I wonder who taught her this?” The husband said, “I got up early
this morning and cleaned our windows.”
The
Facebook conversation triggered a lot of memories about how we lack objectivity
when looking at the lives. Time and again we unnecessarily measure the success
and trajectory of others using our personal standards that may or may not apply
to them. Like the woman in the short story above, we tend to look at other
people’s lives through the clouded and tinted lenses of our upbringing, beliefs
and aspirations. This may in turn affect the way we treat others and interact
with them, but should it?
I will let
you decide what lessons you will pick from this piece because I am not in the
position to prescribe anything as it may just be a product of the way I was
raised. Enjoy the weekend. And yes. I am alive and well.
