I think after this second piece, you will realise I am not here to tell anyone what their next step should be or what it should look like. Because that looks different for everyone. The most important thing is your well-being, regardless of what path you take. 

So let's dive into it.

I think one thing about being a student is that it is very easy to track your progress. And every day you have a milestone that you are achieving. When you graduate and you are unemployed, waiting to further your education or you have a monotonous job (which is a lot of jobs to be honest), it might not be as easy for you to feel accomplished.

My life has consisted of a lot of accomplishments, to the point where I actually got so used to it. The only problem was that the majority of my life, just like most people’s lives, consists of ordinary days where not much to be excited about is experienced; I tend to struggle to survive such days.

A lot of the time I actually find this life thing boring. And I want an escape. Like to travel to a new place or whatever. Anything that I find wrong with the new place I want to find another place to go to or to go back to where I was before.

This boredom makes me feel like I am as good as dead. Like there is no life in me. And I am more than glad I realised that I couldn’t keep living like that without trying to do something about it. 

It is good that I take pride in whatever achievement I experience, but at the same time, it's unsustainable for my day to depend on whether something big happens or not.

I had this physics teacher when I was in high school. He once told us the story about his late dad who was a judge. I don’t entirely remember the story, but he said something similar to this, “When my dad passed away, he was not buried with his career, it was just his body.” That’s the most relatable statement he ever made. Let me explain to you why.

My dad passed away when I was 7. He was working at ZRA, the Zambia Revenue Authority. As much as he had worked at his job and achieved so much, the Commission did not stop operating when he died. It continued moving forward after his death and no matter what it will keep moving forward- people still need to pay their taxes. They probably replaced him a few weeks later. 

But you know who didn’t replace him? His family. He wasn’t just a chequebook. As his child, I did not care what he achieved at work. I was so young that I didn’t even understand what he did at work. I just cared that he would always make time for me and take an interest in the stuff I liked. I cared that every weekend, he would play PlayStation games with us. I remember how cool he was - I just thought everything he did was cool. 

If I am being honest. Most of the stuff we would do from day to day wasn’t anything extravagant. But I was grateful for him and appreciated him every day.

Ironically, it is not as easy for me to celebrate myself every day the way I celebrated him and my other loved ones.  I guess that's where it starts. The reason I had been feeling as good as dead on the days of no major accomplishments is that on those days I felt like I was not worth being appreciated.

I mean…you can’t really say you are an awesome person if it takes a big moment to feel that way. 

I was having a conversation about some of these thoughts a few days ago and my friend gave me really good advice. She told me to make every moment be a “moment”. 

She gave me an example of how her first cup of tea every morning is a major event for her. She mixes different flavour teas, adds honey and lemon and yeah, a moment. Might not sound huge to you but to her it was everything. But that means you and I should also find things that make every day a moment. Those little moments go a long way in helping get past the slow days as well as the seemingly hard ones. And they give you a better appreciation of yourself and your environment.

Your achievements are replaceable, you are not. And it is your job to find ways of seeing value in yourself and the little things you do daily.

Who you are does not change when things are not going your way or if the day was slow and not much happens. Please write that down if you have to.

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