I realized that most of my articles have a ‘when I was growing up’ line. Thinking about it, I realized that I really thought about a lot of things while I was growing up and I am lucky I can recall most of them. On this line of thought, children more often than not have an idea as to who they want to be, the profession they would like to be a part of and whatever impact on society they would like to have. Whether we like it or not, that is some sense of hope of what our lives in the future will be.

I remember I changed professions very often. My mom said that I was (still thinks I am. She’s not wrong though) so much into cartoons that I really wanted to be one ‘when I grew up’. She found this funny and she asked me why. I told her that cartoons do not die. I find a lot of humour in cartoons not just because they are funny but because they are funny. I never really understood how I laughed at Tom and Jerry and they never really talked. When you think about it deeply, maybe we do not need to talk to communicate. If this was a theory put to test, I often wondered why they thought about testing the children and not the adults.

You know when people watch movies or read books and are inspired by the characters that play those roles? Well, this is exactly what happened when I read Ben Carson’s ‘Think Big’. I wasn’t the only one who was inspired and by standard seven, I knew I was born to be a cardiologist. My father must have seen this drive I had that he started grooming me by making me read books like ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’. I am in stitches right now. Haha! 

High School, well… I was still a doctor and insisted on taking all sciences even though I failed terribly at them. The beauty of this failure was that I always kept trying, not sure why. I particularly loved Chemistry and I sucked at it. I started playing lawn tennis, not that it helped with my grades and again, I thought I would be the next Serena Williams. However, I had to balance my school work with ‘my little hobby’ as most teachers called extra-curricular activities, so I ended up giving that up too. So much for priorities.

I must admit, I wasn’t sure what I would do after completing high school and I was a little scared because I had given so much up that I wasn’t sure what I could be anymore. I often wondered why I labelled my books ‘lawyer’ when I was just 8, so I figured that I was right when I was that young. I wasn’t inspired, I just thought I could do it. Why specifically law, I am not sure.

However, this is where it gets interesting…  

Immediately after completing high school I was very interested in joining the National Youth Service. Let’s just say that I always had it in me to ‘serve God and Country’. I very much attribute this inherent need to being a scout. I deliberately left out the fact that I joined the movement in standard three (when my lawyer instincts kicked in). All the way until I completed my primary school education I always thought that the scout movement meant that I served a cause greater than myself. My, what a motivation that can be. The feeling never really ceased but my parents were astonished when I declared that I will be filling out the necessary forms to join the Youth Service. However, during that year the famous ‘NYS Scandal’ erupted and sadly speaking, there was no recruiting.

I joined campus and majored in Law, but still, I am not sure whether I will fully practice litigation or that I will branch out into corporate merging and acquisitions. Regardless, my folks made sure that I got to do what it is I wanted to because of the many hours they took to show me the diverse professions I could be a part of. However, looking back I must say that I might have been an annoying but interesting, very interesting child. I am opined that my watching of cartoons must have rubbed off on my mother because I catch her watching the funny fellows quite often.

Bringing a child up must be one of the toughest tasks yet for parents the world over but having them invest to ensure that one pursues what they yearn for is a privilege I do not take lightly. Because of this, I endeavour to be a pain in their arse a couple of times, but make them proud in everything I do. Therefore, even though this article has been about my journey in figuring out who I wanted to be, it also vitiates that my parents went out of their way to making my dreams come true. It is more about them than it is about me. Cheers to them!