What I learned about life is that nothing comes easy; the rougher the road the more you should know you are heading in a right direction.

Everything is possible and you can achieve anything in life as long as you dedicate yourself to it and pray about it. I am a Christian and I believe in prayer. Prayer is powerful. When something is meant for you nothing can stop you from getting it, but you also need to show your dedication in achieving it.

Challenges you come across in your life, or in the process of achieving your goal, must not give you a negative outlook. If you see them as motivation going forward you will look back at them and always have a positive attitude toward anything you do. Challenges don’t make life hard but they develop you to become a better and stronger person who is capable of helping others based on their past challenges experience.

Let me reference or support my argument on challenges and goals.

There was a girl who was in her matric and had wanted so badly to go to the matric dance. She had her own plans about getting stuff for her matric dance. She wanted to go to East London and buy everything there: a dress, a weave, shoes, handbag and makeup. There were no shops in Umtata where she stayed that would have the things she wanted. She knew that her friends and classmates were importing things and being helped by their siblings in other provinces. They were going to get unique and beautiful things. She was influenced by them and she also wanted to look her best.

Her parents refused to let her go to East London. They said she must look for stuff there in Umtata and if she did not want to then she would miss out and matric comes once in a life time. She was hurt and decided not to go to the matric dance anymore. Her friends tried convincing her but it was too late to look for things.
She really wanted to go and the fact that she would never experience matric dance in her life made her want to go even more. The day of the dance came and she was still looking for a dress and everything. Her parents were not showing her any support.

She had an agreement with her uncle that she would use his car to go to the matric dance. But her parents called her uncle and cancelled him from driving her. They didn’t even give her money to do her hair. Her lovely grandmother gave her money from her grant money so that she could get a weave.

She went by her friend’s place to do her makeup because she didn’t have enough money to do it in town. When she arrived she became so emotional to see her friend’s family supportive. She was holding back her tears because she didn’t want her friend to feel sad about her situation. She left and called her mom to bring her things to town because it was already late but her mother refused.

She had to take a taxi home and it was about 15 km away from town. It was already late and taxis didn’t get full fast. When she arrived at home she asked for her dad to take her to town and he also refused, saying he was going to sleep. So she went to take a taxi back to town and from town she was going to take another taxi to school.

On the taxi to school there were three drunken guys with a girl who was the girlfriend of one of them. One of the guys tried to talk to her but she was not in the mood, she was deeply hurt but she told her self she would get there no matter what. Since this guy was drunk she ignored him but he became annoyed by her silence. His friend told him not to be rude to a girl; he said he must be patient with her.

So then he tried again talking to her.

“Hi. Sorry if I was rude, I know I might seem drunk but I’m not drunk. Where are you going so late? Do you know how dangerous Southridge is?”

“I know but I have no other option. I want to be there for my matric dance. The driver said he is going to take me straight to my school, stop by the gate and make sure I was safe,” she replied.

“Taxi drivers lie just to fill up their taxis at this time. He won’t take you straight to your school. And why are you traveling with a taxi to your matric dance? It’s 10 p.m. and you are still here,”

“Please, let’s not talk about this, it’s a long and sad story. I just want to get there and that’s all that matters right now,”

He gave her a hug and said, “I’m going to accompany you to your school. I will keep your other stuff at home and you can come collect them after the dance.”

“Really? You’re so kind, thank you,”

“Why don’t you come home with us so that we fix your makeup first?” said the girl who was with them.

She was so happy she agreed. The distance from the stop to the mansions was a bit far and it was shady and dark so people got robbed at night. But they arrived at the guy’s home safely. She did her makeup and was accompanied by the guy to school. She was so happy to finally get there regardless of the pain she went through.

When she arrived at the venue for the dance her friends were so excited. They were worried and asked what had happened, why did she arrive so late? She summarized the whole situation she went through and her friends gave her a hug.

“It doesn’t matter anymore how you got here, we’re glad you are here. Let’s be happy and enjoy this moment,” one of them said. They took pictures, chatted, danced and she forgot about her pain.

Sometime plans don’t exactly go according to how we imagined. She had organised the transport, she knew where she wanted to get her stuff from. But none of the plans went the way she wanted. But at the end she got what she wanted. So don’t give up your goal just because things are not going as you had planned.