Last year, I authored and released a book titled NOW THAT YOU ARE YOUNG.
In that book, I addressed many issues that perturb young people and how they can soar above the challenges of being young to chart a new course for themselves.
Do you know that youthfulness can be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how it is used? The same youthfulness that you can leverage to build an enviable future for yourself, can also become the very thing that plunges you into the abyss of nothingness and meaninglessness. In simple terms, youthfulness, as beautiful as it is can either make or mar you.
The excitement of the youthful years can kill if not properly managed. Many destinies have been slaughtered on the altar of youthfulness due to recklessness and mismanagement of the youthful years. Many, in a bid to have fun and exercise the liberty of movement that being young offers them have ended up hurting themselves and their destinies.
This is why, as a young person one of the first things you must learn to do is how to term your liberty and maximise your youthfulness by eschewing every form of debauchery and lascivious lifestyle.
Your youthful years are your sowing years, and the Bible already made it clear that as long as the heavens remain that seed time and harvest time shall never cease. So, whatever you are doing today, be it good or bad is a seed that you are sowing which you must harvest someday whether you like it or not.
This is why you see many old folks today lonely and living in regret because they failed to make the most of their youthful years while they still could.
On this note, I want to ask, dear young champ, what are you doing with your life, what are you investing your life on? Your answer to the above question will determine your harvest in the years to come.
So, now that you know that your youthful years are your sowing years, what would you rather sow?
Before you alter that word, remember that your words are seeds that when sown will germinate and bear fruits.
Before you take that action, don’t forget that your actions are seeds too that have the potential to grow into a tree and bear as many fruits as possible.
Before you allow that thought to control you, always have in mind that your thoughts are also seeds that are full of potential to reproduce after its kind. And thoughts wrongly sown can destroy.
Do you also know that your association can also be a seed that can make or mar you? This is why you need to be careful of the kind of people you let into your space.
What if I tell you that the things you feed your mind with are also seeds, the movies you watch, the books you read, your choice of music, and so on are all seeds that can produce fruits that will later form into a solid foundation for your future or become the devil that will eat you up in the future.
This is why you must as a matter of urgency, learn to be more responsible for the outcome of your life by choosing to maximise your youthfulness. Don’t allow yourself to be tossed about by the wave of youthful excitement and adventure.
Always remember that what you sow is what you reap, you cannot sow corn and reap a mango. Again, you know that the harvest is always bigger than the seed sown. You can’t sow a seed of mango and reap a seed of mango, you reap many baskets full of mangoes. This is why you must be even more careful of the seeds you are sowing in your prime.
Youthfulness is beautiful but don’t let it become your undoing.
- Ugoma Johnson is a journalist, published author of 3 books, a social worker, and founder, Teens Empowerment And Rehabilitation Centre (TercHub), a foundation that is saddled with the mandate to curb teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and period poverty, through transformational teachings, provision of school materials and sanitary pads for teenagers in ruler communities.
