I want to be...

Every child around here has a dream to be a doctor, a lawyer, and engineer, a pilot. They have been told that that is what success is. Many parents tell their children that success is going to school, getting a degree, get a job sitting in an office. Most of these children don’t really know what a lawyer does, but they want to do these things because they want to be what their parents want them to be. Some of the children take their time to study hard. To go beyond what they can do just to impress their parents. It might not be what they really want to be. They have just been told that that is what they need to do to achieve success. I feel every child should have the right to choose what is good for him or her. In my own life, I always thought to be successful I had to get a degree and sit in an office where people come in and say “Oga” (boss). But it was never what I wanted. And I wasn’t cut out for it. I wasn’t good with words or numbers, but I was good with my hands. I loved to draw. Even if had gone to school to be a doctor, I might have just hid my results somewhere and did something else. I want to be an artist. I feel like every child has what they want to be – you don’t have to impose careers on children’s lives. All you need to do is make sure that you support them in whatever they choose. If it’s not what you want, just try to see the positivity in it. Try to shed some light on what they have decided they want to be. Just the power of your positivity can turn what they want to be into something actually great.