Exit 2014, Enter 2015

The year comes to an end. It is an undeniable fact that there is some sort of euphoria around with regard to the New year’s day. To me, it raises the question as to why people celebrate the New Year’s Day. Much as I cannot say I grew up in the village, I can comfortably say I spent a big chunk of my time there and in my home village every new Year’s day means a good afternoon’s dance of manganje at some place popularly known as kudambo. It is celebration time, and
I have nothing against that. We just have to celebrate; I mean, it is the festive season. On the other hand, I feel like there has to be more to this than just celebrating.

Some might ask why entering a new year should be a bit more of a big deal than just the gin and pork we take. In chapter 90 and verse 12 of the book of Psalms the author prayed to the LORD that He should teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. We therefore need to move from the thinking that years are just numbers and need to think of them as markers; markers to the ends of eras and the beginning of brand new ones.

This reality brings us to the fact that we need to evaluate the year 2014 and of course make plans for the year 2015. The sad reality we have is that most of us do not sit down to draft what we are looking for in a year so evaluating the year becomes a bit less meaningful, but that can change starting with the next year.

But is it necessary to be thinking about goals and plans for the next year as a whole? Someone might ask. Again we go back to the Bible which clearly says on Proverbs 29:18 that where there is no vision, people perish. The word of God is clear there so if you cannot write a plan for the year, you at least need to have a vision of what you want to achieve in the year and to write it down so that you can find something as a standard for evaluating the year when you get to the end of it. Main point is that you need to have a direction as you are going into the new year, setting goals in your academics, career, finances, marriage and relationships and above that your spirituality. Think about where you are and where you want to take yourself and above that where you want to be when 2015 ends; and then figure out ways of getting there.

When we start a New Year there is whole lot of talk about New Year’s resolutions and things in those lines. They are not a bad idea, but in view of what I have just said to do with vision, these things have to be as realistic as possible. We have to understand that problems will not just disappear just because the 4 on the number of the year has been replaced by a 5. I also don’t think they would change because of some prophecy. Conditions change when people work to change them and you are responsible for your own life, so right from the start think about your own life and what you can do to improve it in the coming year. In other words, don’t make empty resolutions but have a vision and to that vision add a plan of how you will bring your vision to realization but most importantly add ACTION to your plan because without it the plan becomes useless.

I read one Facebook post which reminded people to be SMART when setting their goals for 2015; meaning that the goals have to be Specific, Manageable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. No additions to that.

Lastly, as I wish you all God’s best in the New Year, I would like to echo what every reasonable being who likes to play dad on everyone has been saying.

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY.

Back to my Writing Ways

I happen to be on a couple of social networks, but Facebook is, for some reason the one that I use the most. That is where I can freely express my mind on the many issues that cloud my mind without fear. I don’t post offensive posts anyway.

I personally like Facebook. It has connected me with some important people who have left a mark on my life. It is also one of those things that keeps me connected to friends who are outside the country, being allergic to things like Skype and all.

There is one bad side of using Facebook, though. However small the number of friends you have may be, they are always too many. Surprised? Maybe you should wait for the explanation. Like any other typical account, mine has friends which range from family members, schoolmates, atsogoleri, role models and those people who just throw random requests (and are accepted when I am half awake  on my Facebook account). Well, that becomes the audience for whatever you post and for some reason that becomes a bit of  a problem. People see things they are not supposed to see and you might get into hot soup. Let’s not go to the point where people misinterpret what you say.

One of the things I find irritating, however, is the tendency to provide offline responses to Facebook posts. Much as I have done that to some people, and I am not proud of that, I feel like people over-do that with my posts. Each and every time I open for a new semester I have people around who come just to respond to something I posted on Facebook, which to me doesn't sound logical.

Mark Zuckerberg is a genius. He made sure that as long as I have space to post my stuff, every single one of my friends should have a space to give their view on my view. For some reason, some people do not just know how to use that but rather prefer to come to you personally to give their ‘response’. Obviously something I do not like. Tip? If I say something online, and I hope many are with me on this, respond to it right online. If you do not like going public, then just respond using some private message. Koma zisafike ku phone yanga.

Anyway, the whole point of all this writing is that I do not like people commenting on what I write online unnecessarily when we meet.

There was, however, an exception this weekend. I was walking around Kabila Tavern when I met one cyber friend of mine. Don’t get distracted with the name of the place we met. That’s just where we met and there is no other way of describing the place. Where we were coming from or going is also not relevant to this so we may ignore that on purpose.

This gentleman had a very good message to me. Actually it was from one of the church leaders. It was meant for me, but for one reason or the other he did not know that it was meant for me, so he was giving it to me as some sort of conveyor.

Again, I got distracted. What was so interesting about our chat was that he gave some positive feedback on my Facebook feeds. Now, here is someone who has does not comment on the stuff. That tells me one thing. The lack of comments on a Facebook post does not mean people do not see it. Lesson to us all.

Well. The gentleman went on to ask as to why I do not write. I did not answer that, because the reason I do not write is pure laziness. It is probably because I don’t have the feeling that people would be reading what I write.

I created my own blog years back, posted some few things, and when I saw that it did not have that much of an audience(it has two followers and has registered 425 views, half of which I think are my own), I abandoned it. It probably is time for me to resuscitate it and write some things, for the sake of those who can read the stuff.

What will I be writing on?

Well. Whatever comes to mind will be written. But it will obviously be good.