What would you like to be in the future?
As I sat across my desk and took a glance at my shelf and saw my name splattered across these books, it finally dawned on me that I have written and published 8 children's fiction books (many are yet to be published). Most of which sold out and have been reprinted. My best selling book (31 mornings) not in the picture because it's almost always sold out has been to 5 continents of the world.
Yet, as an SS3 student, when I was asked the question as to what I would want to be in the future, I had no answer.
In my school, all SS1 students were made to take Arts and Science subjects and the school did the placement themselves. I passed both in equal measure and I was sent to Science class. I declined and opted for Art class. While I wasn't sure of what I wanted to become, I was sure of what I didn't want to become.
I was lucky to have been offered two spots in the University- Linguistics and Theatre Arts. I definitely didn't want to be an actress and I so I stepped into the uncertain waters of the former.
During all of these phases of my life, I have always written stories. It took me travelling to London and interning with an NGO called "Children of the Mekong" to realise my true passion was a consolidation of Telling stories and Education. About 7 years later.
I was writing stories for the NGO to showcase the out-of-school.children in Asia and get funding for them and it worked. I thought to myself; I can do this to for my people.
The problem with asking children what they want to becomenis that:
1) You limit them to their current exposure and experience. They cannot think fatther than what they know at the time.
2) You unknowingly make them think what they must become is a particular stop, a final destination. The path to their future is a culmination of all the paths they go through.
3) You force them to limit their options. It is their right to be offered enough choices to choose from. You can only show them many options by showing them the world through different mediums. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that the poorer you are, the more disadvantage your children are because the less opportunities you will have to give them. What can you do? Invest in school clubs, buy books on different subjects for them
4) They inherently are unconsciously compelled to follow in their parent's path. This is not altogether a bad thing. The problem comes when they lack passion and it begins to feel like coercion. There is no fulfillment.
So what questions should Educators and Parents be asking?
"What do you enjoy doing?"
"What are your interests?"
"What problems would you like to solve?"
Your favourite writer girl,
Love
