Off the cuff – Lady Million

As the matrics of 2014 officially put their pens down, a whole new world opens.
They leave teachers, rules and homework and acquire tax, bills and irate politicians. Growing up and entering the big bad world is a feat they have to overcome.
We all have big dreams during our earlier years. Some want to be lawyers, others doctor who can cure HIV/AIDS, but when life sets in they become the patients battling with influenza (as seeing a doctor is just too expensive these days) and the backyard doctors don’t cure things that are not related to a sexual organ.
They cure under-endowment, under-performance, and unwanted babies, not white blood cells under attack. Life changes drastically from wearing what’s in, to wearing what we can afford, from eating chippies and choppies to eating garden chops simply because our waistline will never be the same.
Priorities change, relationship statuses change. Our list of to-do’s grow enormously from battling with zits to battling with pregnancy. From menstruation woes to baby drama. Then of course our day-to-day activities also change. When we are young we go to school to eat our lunch (well I did) but as we grow older we develop our true calling and realise life isn’t only about eating.
Even though Ghandi once said, “you are what you eat”, so no I’m not Dolly’s curry, I am a Journalist. I deal with irate JZ-looking people who think they are doing me a favour by making me wait two and a half hours to hear them ramble from a speech poorly written.
Yes ‘JZ lookalikes’, I don’t get paid to hear you speak about the maanejmint of South Africa, but hey that’s life. Sad thing about growing up is despite how tough it may get it doesn’t end. Maybe journalists need to start a campaign 365 days of activism against journalists abuse then maybe, just maybe, our job would not seem so hard and nor would growing up be so daunting. But, yes, change we do.
“Change may come externally but should never occur internally.” How much of this is true? Do we forever remain as pure as a child and as carefree as a teen or do bills make you grumpy, Eskom make you whiny and speed bumps makes you have tantrums? Life shapes you.
It is said when life throws lemons at you, make lemonade but how many of us have the time or the patience to forebear all the bad and turn it into a sweet concoction. I personally am not like the infamous backyard doctors who make miracles for a minimal price. Sadly not many of us are.