Holla readers and fellow bloggers, it is another edition of weekly featured content titled "De-age" in hive learners community
“If you have the opportunity to reduce your age, that is to become younger than you are at the moment will you do it? What will you use this second chance to do?”
The title of this write up was inspired by a movie titled tick, tick boom a movie based on the autobiography musical career and lifestyle of Jonathan Larson, a musical writer who believes time is racing against him and believes if he doesn't achieve his goals before the age of 30 he might never be able to but unfortunately he died shortly after the realisation of his dream
Age is a constant reminder of the time spent and what we have left, it is mostly used by most people as a unit of measure of a person(s) success and a constant factor that pressures a lot of individual and make them despise their present circumstance.
Especially from where I'm from age is everything, There is a frequency of age in which the society believes you should have achieved some specific goals as a human, regardless of you believing it or not you find yourself working towards that particular achievement meter set by the members of the society.
Example of such achievement expected of an person at a particular age is education, education is one of the most required attribute of every young men and women in this civilised generation, at a particular age you are expected to have acquired your primary and secondary education all the way up to higher institution. from my knowledge of people in my environment it is believed that as a person you are expected to have acquired A diploma or a degree before the age of 25
As a person I was fortunate to achieve that between that stipulated age but I'm still of the perspective that the path and journey of every individual is different, the fact that a person is unable to achieve his or her academic degree or diploma before that age does that make that person any less of a human? This particular meter set in motion by the society as deprived a lot of individual of their happiness and cause them depression because of the inner conflict that goes on within them.
Another example is the most common factor popular among the female gender, which is marriage. It has become a trend in the society these day. young men and women who are yet to grab the full concept of parenthood racing into marriage because they believe they have come of age to do so or they are told it is time for them to get engaged in relationship without contemplating on whose marriage is it, the society or theirs? which has resulted to many cases of divorce
I have come in contact with a lot of individual especially the Yoruba populace who disagrees with my perspective of marriage, from my own knowledge and understanding I believe marriage is a choice not a necessity, it is the kind of journey you embark on at your own pace without societal influence. though this is easier said than done especially for the opposite gender the females who are majorly pressured by external factors such as parent into opting into marriage against their own will.
Do I feel the need to reduce my age or become younger
No, I don't. this might sound a little unusual but I believe with every age that clocks comes a responsibility, though it might be stressful but isn't that the point of life. no matter how many opportunities we are given to reduce our age and become younger we will all grow old eventually, the responsibility we are trying to avoid by becoming younger will eventually catch up to us.
many might be of the perspective that, if they had the opportunity of becoming younger they will use it to achieve a particular dream, how sure are you that the dream will be achievable even if you are given such opportunity, there are a lot of uncertainties and variables in play that you could never imagine, for instance when I was undergoing my higher national diploma at Moshood Abiola polytechnic, my school fees was sixty thousand naira {₦60,000} but now due to a particular reason the management increased the school fees to eighty thousand naira {₦80,000} for the newly admitted students. becoming younger means I have to go through the whole school process again, never😂😂😂.
Well I consider my present age to be just fine, regardless of the time meter the society is setting, I'm happy to be moving in my own pace without the societal pressure.
When you find yourself racing against this meter tick tick tick, ask yourself whose meter is it?