HALF A LIFE

 HALF A LIFE

Half bread from the local shop would still do the magic. So it was for kids when mother had not enough money. Half kilo of sugar and half KG meat were a joy anytime extra coins were available. That was before college days when quarter bread became buyable. Those were days when many youngsters were half students because the other half required them to be involved to provide for their parents and younger siblings. The half-life was reflected in school results and also earlier in teachers’ comments like the famous, ‘Average Student’ (Read, Half Student). Then pap into the job market and the reality of Halfhearted government visited a come-on slap on the faces of high school/college graduates. On one half, the government cared only for the leadership class while on the other, for the people. Some jobs would come and most of the time half jobs for some time before what fitted best came up in the future. Some jobs were unrelated to what the graduates studied. They took the jobs anyway and lasted more than one minute man, so opposed to what they had thought. Better half a loaf than no bread, so said the English man. But the problem was the memory of wasted time in college days especially with half friends and half lovers. Many girls still hung over the boys that left. Three or four years in college with someone, then they go mute after graduation!!! It was a sad reality. Some boys, however, came clear from the half-truths and told their then lovers the whole truth. ‘There was nothing serious there. I was just enjoying college life. Of course I can’t marry a graduate’. And the girls’ hearts would be broken into two or more halves. But that is then the full truth about life. Childhood, youth, school, college and adulthood. All through must we beware of half-friends. They disappear as quickly as they come, especially when heavy problems befall you. The reality of halves never actually leaves us and as humans with the many limitations that bedevil us, we have a tendency of accepting half the bargain out of life or to give half of ourselves to life. The sad result then becomes living sometimes through to old age, but half a life. So speaks the voice of reason from the other half side of the universe. Do not accept half love. Why is he or she loving another person while with you? Why accept it when you know that half his love would belong to another person? Do not begin a journey and leave halfway through. The journey of goals, of plans, of studies, of contracts, of dreams and of hopes. Half a journey will not get you to the desired destination. Do not attach or give it half effort because your partner, colleague or friend is giving it half effort. Give every project you sign into your full effort then wait for the result. If your person is not willing to go the full length of the project, then do not silence yourself in convincing them why going the full journey has prospects of full benefits. If they won’t go further, let them go so you can begin another full attempt. That means that the tasks for today be completed today. The people you interact with today should enjoy every moment with you because no day is to be lived half. Why would someone leave something for tomorrow? Tomorrow doesn’t belong to us and so must we live full lives today. And when you die, please die fully. Half death where half your body refuses to function is a sad painful state of the body that we should make every effort to avoid. And so shall we try, please help us God.Won’t we avoid half-life and live fully from today?

@ Stephen Mungai