Introduction

Imagine your life in thirty years from now on.

Visualize it, year by year on how your life is transpiring. What life are you having and what kind of person are you becoming?

That is a reality that most school learners and students fail to answer about their lives in the future.

This book is a toolkit for school learners and students who are going through life, having being taught all school subjects but still don’t know how to provide real solutions to their everyday challenges and stand-up to the push backs of life.

As one young Namibia poet narrates is his poem:

FEAR OF FAILURE

Let’s face reality, I’m afraid many have become successful publicly
But secret failures,
We’ve allowed society to determine our being, so afraid that we might hurt our family,
Yet they seek for what’s best for us, Look, they’ve suggested all possible career options for us,
Blindly we look at all the benefits shown forgetting the inner desire, is it really what I want?
How about we look at the interests of the little children, expose them to possible career opportunities,
Rather than forcing them to study history with the fear of failure!
Look at that boy; he could be a great actor or filmmaker yet he struggles with all the subjects while he can excel in many areas.
How about doing what I love and if I fail I’ll learn from it.

-Poem by JOY IN THE POETIC REVIVAL ELWIN V. MANGUNDU

This book provides practical solutions that any school learner, student or any individual can apply to their lives now! And start living the life they want without being scared of judgement, and start seeing a positive change.

As a student of life myself and a former volunteer at PAY Namibia, an educator and social entrepreneur who has spent most of her time with school learners, I have come to realize that there are many misconceptions that we were taught by society and our cultures which I both truly respect, but some of the ideas too need to be unlearned. Most of these ideas have become a limiting factor to our daily lives in society as learners, students and individuals. On the other hand, guidance presented in this book is also missing from schools and homes.

Therefore, this book is a must have, as a classroom textbook and a personal self-help book for both learners and students. This book is divided into ten lessons or chapters. Let us begin with the first lesson which focuses on how to discover yourself.