Simple or complicated?


Hello there....

Some weeks ago I had to make the decision to write an exam that could potentially transform the way the rest of my year looks. If I'm being perfectly honest with myself, I always kinda knew I would end up writing the exam, but the more vocal and dominant part of me held on to the hope that somehow my family and I would decide that writing this extra exam would not necessarily benefit me. But seeing as it is me.. things didn't happen that way. Last year, I wrote an exam called IGCSE just because my sister had written it. I didn't have any serious plans to use it and it really didn't factor into the way I had planned my university journey to play out. But I wrote it anyway, and it ended up being what got me into school last year. Granted, it wasn't the school I thought I'd be going to at the beginning of the year, but I'm definitely not upset about it. And so now, even though the prospect of preparing for an exam that isn't necessarily school related during school is daunting, I know that I might always wonder what doors not doing it has closed.

I think there are a lot of things from my experience that you can relate to even if you aren't writing an exam. For one, sometimes we've made decisions subconsciously but won't pphysically acknowledge that we've made them. Maybe it's because these decisions tend to be scary or major or they require us to do inconvenient, unfamiliar things or have uncomfortable conversations. I guess the truth is that you can tell a lot about what decision you should make based on your gut feeling. These feelings like most other feelings aren't always correct, but they really can come through for you.

Second, it's really easy to pick the easy option. But I guess that's common knowledge. It's easy to choose to take the most simple, most uncomplicated road. And I've chosen to do that in quite a few areas of my life. I don't think it's inherently bad. Choosing to not get involved in every fight or all the drama that may be surrounding some of your other friends is an easy option (for the most part anyway) and your life might actually end up being a lot simpler when you're not attaching yourself to all those unnecessary complications. But at the same time, taking the easy route isn't always the best option. Choosing to do an assignment halfheartedly instead of diligently might be very easy at the time, but it won't pay off. Choosing to skip classes to do something more fun might be exciting at the time, but it won't pay off. And for me, choosing not to write this exam might make my life so much easier right now, but would it really pay off in the long run? I know we can't always afford to pick what seems to be the better road. Sometimes it's just not an option for us for one reason or the other. But if you can, I want to encourage you to make your decisions with as much information as you can. And don't let comfort and convenience always be the deciding factors because ultimately, the most progress and growth aren't always made in places of comfort.

God bless you.

Dera

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