We can’t choose what to do until we become adults. Many professional people inspire me, that is the significance of education in our lives. Education gives us a better, new perspective. It changes the environment that we grew up in.
Environmental selection is a process where the environment chooses the kind of human being it wants for the world in future. This process has good and bad impact on us.
Let’s take it to Ekasi (informal settlements) where everyone is introduced in a different environment because of our elders. I’ve seen many people drinking alcohol and joining gangs. Some of them ask me, “Litha, your peers are gangsters and doing drugs but you’re not doing any of those negative stuff.”
“Yes, that’s me,” I answer.
It all takes place by knowing who you are and what you want to achieve in life. The environment introduces us to negative or positive lifestyles and I believed that, because I have evidence of it.
Yesterday I saw a guy standing and kissing a girl outside and I assumed it’s his girlfriend. Then today at school I went to Nonkululeko who lives in Dunoon, not far from Maitland, I just told her that I liked her. She didn’t reply but before she left, she gave me a hug and a kiss. I felt cool and happy and I told my friend Siseko Jonase that Nonkululeko kissed me. My friend didn’t believe me and he said I must do it again the next day. He would take a picture or video of us kissing and post it on Facebook for people to like so we can be famous, like Lil Wayne.
When I went home I thought about it and I realized that what I did with Nonkululeko was not planned but because I saw that guy kissing his girlfriend I was pulled. Then I realized why my fellow youth mates are doing negative things, some are smoking, others are drinking and some are involved in gangs. It’s the environment that causes it. We need to acknowledge it so that we can change the environment for the next generation to live better and in peace.
My mom and I went to Muizenberg, it’s quiet because it’s not Kasi but suburbs. Yes, my grandfather lives there.
When I’m there I don’t feel comfortable because it’s quiet and I’m not used to that kind of environment. There are no tshisa nyamas (braai) like Mzolis where there is music. Everyone is inside their homes, and I’m also inside. I asked myself why I’m not outside playing dancing as I do in Khayelitsha.
Oh, I forgot I’m in the suburbs, there are no such places here. But if I can take a place like Mzoli in Gugulethu and bring it here, I’m sure people here can come and dance with me. In the suburbs I never saw someone standing on a street corner as Thanbani and his friends do in Khayelistha.
I think it’s because here, in the suburbs, there are no people standing on street corners, but I’m sure if kids were going to stand around and it was gonna pass down to the generations to come.
Yes, the environment plays an important role in our lives and careers.
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