DOING THE BEST YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

Recently I was watching a series called Top Boy. It's basically a movie about hood life in London. The lead roles (for the better half of the series) were two young men who were trying to move up the ranks in the drugselling business. Away from the harsh realities of living the hood, the theme of the series is quite broad as it captures an array of social issues, one of which I want to talk about in this post.

One of the things that captured my mind while watching this series was how well it depicted environmental influence on one's trajectory in life. One particular case was that of a gang member who had a daughter. This said bang member got killed while his wife was in jail, so his daughter had to live in a government home.

The said young woman later ended up dating a brother to another gang member, and the said young man got affiliated with his dead brother gang. Chances are he gets to join and become an active member of the gang and the young lady gets pregnant for him and the circle of doom perpetuates itself. This is a prime example of how the environment dictates or defines one's destiny.

Bringing it back home here in Nigeria where I live. Most people live below the poverty line, mostly due to socioeconomic issues. Even those who try to rise above the statistics end up being dragged by family and friends if they are not careful.

It takes 10 times the work to make it here than everywhere else and it is not something you can wish away. For instance, today I did not have power for the better part of the day so I could not do most of my work. These little things make life a little more difficult than it should be if things were normal.

It takes the extreme to move above the poverty line and stay there, and it has little to do with effort. I am saying this because a lot of young people find themselves in difficult situations, unable to achieve their true potential and it is often tagged as the lack of will or effort which isn't the case and I want any young people where I am from to understand this reality.

You have to work ten times harder to achieve the things many people outside your sphere would achieve easily and it also takes some level of luck to even succeed if I am being very honest. So do not be too hard on yourself. You are doing the best you can and you should improve if an opportunity presents itself but know your predicament isn't due to laziness.

My advice to anyone in this predicament is that they should keep showing up everyday doing what they know how to do best. Regardless of the outcome, you want to be in the situation where you are certain that you gave your best. That's all any of us can give considering what we have. Love and light from this side of the globe.