Personal Activities

Commended Entry: "Personal Activities" by Benedict Okoroafor from Nigeria

This article was submitted in the Kids World Travel Guide Essay Competition 2022 in the Senior Category 12 - 15 years.

Personal Activities

Joseph Atser, a motivational speaker and a coach, once said, "The only dreams that come true are the ones you chase, if you do nothing you get nothing."

Different children all over the world wake up every day to a new goal or dream they will like to pursue. Some of these goals include saving lives by becoming a doctor, building different structures by becoming an engineer, praying for people by becoming a reverend, teaching kids who would grow to become the leaders of the nation, etc. As for me that occurred repeatedly. Every day, when I was younger, I woke up to a new goal which I wanted to pursue. Some goals I had were to be a banker and make so much money, being a doctor and saving lives, being a reverend to lead a holy life and help people, etc.

As I grew up, I dropped some of these goals which I knew that deep down I didn’t really want to pursue and picked up new ones which I felt were better. One day during my Grade 3, we learnt the coding language, Scratch.

That day I felt like I was on top of the world, as if I had accomplished something. But the main reason of my happiness that day was the introduction to coding I had gotten. Yes, a lot of people felt like coding was so lame that I should pursue other dreams like medicine. But I actually didn’t care. My parents, my siblings, my friends, all said the same thing, that, "coding was so lame" but I still didn’t care. Till date, I have been exploring different coding languages so as to find which fits me the most.

Due to my steadfastness, most of my family members have started to feel like it is not that bad.” This brightened my light some more. Since then, I have always tried to gain more experience on anything that concerned programming, participate in coding challenges and gain coding certificates. I also believe that coding can change my society to become better. It can do this through the usage of programs to do different activities like teaching, transactions, etc. Although many prefer to use coding to hack websites due to the corruption that has settled in them for years, it is left out for people to make good use of their opportunities and time.

Finally, every child is entitled to his/her own dream. No dream is useless. Most times you don’t have to listen to what the society says.

Earl Nightingale once said, "Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." Therefore, no matter the amount of time it will take, dream, explore on your dreams, discover and create.

Congratulations on your inspirational essay "Personal Activities", Benedict. Never give up on your dreams! Well done! Thank you!

Benedict Okoroafor attends Dority International Early Learning School in Aba/ Nigeria. Igbo is his first language, English the second language.