LIVING YOUR DREAMS
Painting the Right Picture
Segun, a young lad of seventeen sat thoughtfully under a mango tree, very close to his house. He was ruminating over the events that had just taken place in his house. His father had come in drunk as usual, abusing and cursing everybody in sight, while his mother was sitting in a corner of their one-room apartment, cuddling a young baby, the last of her seven children, cringing in fear of a possible assault on her person by her husband. His other siblings looking hungry and badly malnourished were lying down asleep on the floor. Segun had quietly walked out of the room to take a breath of fresh air and also to avoid an impending confrontation with his father. This paints the picture of a regular occurrence in Segun’s family.
One day, as Segun was sitting under the mango tree, he made a very deep promise that he was not going to end up in life like his father. He promised himself that he was going make something meaningful out of his life, regardless of his current predicament. There and then, Segun started a long journey into the future, in his mind.
Like a skillful artist, he started painting in his mind a picture of what he wants his future to look like. He painted the picture of a successful professional, with a beautiful apartment, married to an amiable, God fearing, young, beautiful and vivacious lady. He painted the picture of love and encouragement.
Thirteen years later, Segun, a Chartered accountant working for an international consultancy firm, is married to Ngozi, a beautiful and God fearing lady who teach mathematics in a bungalow private secondary school. They have a healthy looking and cute two-year old daughter. They live in a tastefully furnished two-bedroom apartment in a quiet part of the city. What looked like wishful thinking and dreaming has suddenly turned out to reality in Segun’s life? Vision is perhaps one of he most greatly used words today. It is a compelling force that determines where you go and end up in life. This emphasis a common statement that “If you can have it or what you see, is what you get (WYSIWYG)
Nations have been birthed in visions of men. Great fortunes have been built on what the mind could perceive. Great inventions that have