Your ability might be unknown to you There comes a time in every young person’s life where they are supposed to grow up and face the world as someone with their own thoughts, values and principles, instead of being someone that can be defended by their parents, or whoever’s ideas they relied upon as a child. The time to think and live for yourself doesn’t really come naturally, so as to say that one day you will think like a child and when it is time to transition, you will be able to make a swift changeover to think and be like an adult.
That really isn’t what happens in the real world; here it feels like a bomb keeps going off in your brain every time that you think about ‘adulting.’ I often find groups of young people that exclusively come together to discuss the pitfalls of growing up and coming into one’s own.
The frustrations are so real that people don’t know what to do with the plethora of emotions so they end up laughing at the struggles of growing up, because any further added stress, anxiety or overthinking is bound to send one to the loony bin faster than expected, or not.
I did my first long distance trip across Namibia about two weeks ago, and have been to almost every corner of northern Namibia, driving alone for long stretches, thinking to myself ”how the hell did my father do this?” I was really shocked at the amount of concentration and stealth one needed to be able to drive these long distances, especially when there is no one to talk to or keep you awake.
Driving long distance for the first time is really a lot like growing up; it’s just one of those things that you can never be ready enough for, but when it happens you have to use what it is that you know about yourself, and the talents that you didn’t have, to get to where you need to get.
On the way there, there are also others that are growing up, learning the way, driving beside you, overtaking you, driving in front of you, or behind you. Just like the Namibian roads are unforgiving, so is the process of growing up. There are going to be accidents and reckless drivers and other such atrocities that can lead you off your chosen path, injure you slightly or seriously, or even claim your life in the process.
This is not something that can be rehashed to someone by someone else, with the hope that they will truly understand what it is like to grow up and start forging a life for yourself. It’s like driving in the north; you always think people are lying to you until you are the one behind the steering wheel, thinking ‘Good Lord Jesus, what sweet hell is this?’
I remember an instance in the past two weeks where a truck almost pushed me off the road, and when I hooted at the driver, he gave me the middle finger and shouted some profanities at me and drove off into what I hope was hell.
There are trucks on the road to becoming an adult, but more and more I realise that sometimes that truck that wants to drive you off the road, are your very own thoughts. I have slowly come to accept that I don’t always know what it is that I need to do next, or who it is that I need to be next.
Sometimes you just take the challenge that is in front of you and make the best decision that you can for the present moment – and other than that, you hope for the best. Ultimately though, there are hidden talents that we all possess that we are not aware of, and some of them are linked to our natural ability for survival. We don’t see those talents coming to the fore when we need them to, because we don’t know they are there, but they are there. Trust in your ability to survive anything, even if it is the drivers in the north of Namibia. Where there is will, there surely will come a way. I am glad to be back in Windhoek, where I don’t own a car and don’t have to be somewhere 300 km’s from where I live every morning.
It’s a blessing to be growing up actually, and although we want to quit at times, I think we need to stick to it, see it thorugh. The gifts are all yours to take, take them.