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Nkosana Khumalo

Midlands State University

Telling a story is one of the essential skills in life.

Like it or not, you will have to tell a story someday whether to your children, friends or boss.

There is no better way of telling it than in writing. Having difficulties in expressing myself verbally I realised the importance of being a writer as most people believe things, they come across in reading more than things they are told verbally.

Expressing my views and thoughts on different aspects and topics is a challenge I have since learnt to live with and recently l just decided, why not put that into writing?

When push comes to shove things have to get done, and so the journey begins.

Where do we start?

Well, l guess one can never have everything all figured out. In this day and age almost everyone is a writer as the platforms are available to everybody. Being just an ordinary journalist, tv personality ,radio presenter, disc jockey and maybe singer  doesn’t seem to be breaking bread  hence most people have resorted to practising more than one profession, especially in Zimbabwe where everyone is a hustler and a dealer of some sort.

Moving on, when you set your mind on something, ideas may come together slowly. Breaking up, life of a teenager – wild parties, bar fights and relationships are just but a few things you can build a solid story on. These do not require much research as they are topics almost everyone can identify with.

A dream backed by a burning desire is a powerful force which may yield positive results. The first step towards gaining anything in life is dreaming. Martin Luther King had a dream, even though it seemed impossible. His burning desire led him to victory.

The first step towards being a writer is writing itself. Writing a book might seem difficult or rather challenging but writing a sentence is easy hence books are just made up of a lot of sentences making it easy for one to begin his/her journey towards being a book writer.

More so, one may come to realize that in order to be a writer – a good one rather – one should read a lot, be it novels, newspapers, magazines, academic books may or may not be career related) and even comments on YouTube, Facebook and any other site.

Reading expands one’s knowledge and diction, hence it may be considered one of the most important elements of being a writer.

Furthermore, to embark on this interesting journey one may also write about his/her day because this is also a step towards becoming a writer, if it makes any sense just write that sentence, add another one, make it a paragraph or maybe a page and so forth.

When one has managed to write down one or two sentences, it is of paramount importance to check for errors, rewrite and maybe give someone else to read your piece of work and accept any criticism. Negative criticism shouldn’t be taken negatively but rather constructively taking note that everyone has opinions of their own.

The last step is to write again. Winners never quit and quitters never win, hence one should rewrite until they get it right.

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Idaishe Mutasa

Midlands State University

We might not all share the same religious beliefs but we all can agree that death is our nemesis.

There are more than a million ways to meet the ‘grim ripper’ but the saddest perhaps is suicide.

They say pressure makes diamonds, it is a different story all together when it comes to humans. Too much pressure may result in devastating consequences but perhaps the worst of them all is suicide.

The English dictionary defines suicide as the intentional killing of oneself.

Reasons for ending one’s life among the youth vary but in most cases where one survives a suicide attempt, they highlight too much pressure or body-shaming among girls, failure to communicate challenges met in one’s day-to-day life may actually result in suicide.

Mental instability in most cases leads the youth into suicide. Pressures emanating from social media these days is the most common. Failure to get the desired comments may result in immense pressure.

Social problems lead to suicidal thoughts. There is a surge in domestic violence issues nowadays. That has a direct impact on youths.

A laughing emoji has the power to tilt the balance or stability of a person’s mental state. Suicidal thoughts can be injected into a person’s brain as result of a mere emotion. This goes to show not only the power of social media but also perhaps how easily a person can meet the grim ripper.

There is growing need to scrutinise the content our peers are exposed to in order to encourage each other to work towards a better tomorrow, a tomorrow that is free of suicides.

Breaking up among the youth has become common and quite dangerous also because the youth indulge in activities such as experimentation.

Mental health is one area that needs a lot of awareness, it could help now more than ever since there are many forces at play.

There are many pressures hitting us day in day out. It would be a game changer if mental health is discussed widely and openly because it could save a soul.

*****

Byron Manyika,

Midlands State University

The wait is finally over. Midlands State University (MSU) students are back on campus.

This marked the beginning of an end to more than six months of disruption to their education, caused by the Covid-19 deadly pandemic.

Cellphones ringing, WhatsApp full of messages, students asking each other the same message, “When are you going to school?”

After the university announced on its official website that students were being allowed to come back on campus, it had been a long wait for the students, eager to go back to the physical lecture theatres.

Students did not hide their excitement after the announcement on the MSU WhatsApp platforms. They celebrated, with some of them sending voice messages screaming with joy.

The final week was just something else – students busy roaming around their respective towns looking for best clothes for their return to the campus.

Talking about the new normal caused by the COVID-19, many students were looking for the best possible fancy masks to wear when back on campus.

After all the waiting, finally all roads are leading to various MSU campuses around the nation.

*****

Nobuhle C Nleya

Midlands State University

Although the national lockdown has been taken as a restriction, for others, however, it has paved the way for learning or perfecting new skills.

The rise of home chefs, bakers and musicians have resulted in the perfection of such professions as well as creating new revenue streams.

During conversations, most students expressed their commitment to learning and developing their skills as a way of keeping active and being multi-talented.

The responses suggest a positive outcome in terms of how students made use of the lockdown period.

Due to the easy accessibility of online courses as well as tutorials, students have developed the perspective of how different the education they are receiving from universities is.

Insights from developed countries, set one thinking about whether it is really necessary to carry a textbook, physically write notes as compared to simply watching a video tutorial or one explaining a particular subject.

With the increase on so many skills and crafts to be learnt, the youth and students are continually encouraged to start thinking outside the box, perfect existing skills so that they may emerge from the lockdown with new innovative ideas.

 

John Chamboko

Midlands State University

Life after university for many is not as glorious as they think and for many it’s the beginning of real life, not imaginations.

Universities are for academia, which calls for critical thinking. There is no university that teaches practical life lessons.

The mind-set of many students at university is of compensatory behaviour where as one think that when I complete my degree I will buy a car and start living a good life. It is in the spirit of seeming to be rich that many people amassed too many liabilities but today they are nothing but ideal examples of failures in life. We need to think of investing and this calls for innovation.

In today’s economic world, business innovation is the key factor towards economic development. As university students there is need to learn the art of foresight, which allows all undergraduate students to start to plan and devise a strategic plan by exploring business opportunities whilst at college and having creative sound focused minds by taking audit of those students who completed their degrees in previous years. This alone is an eye opener for us to focus more on our future and have the ability to take risks.

Entrepreneurship is the escape route for youth in the current economy. Creative thinking is a must- have skill for students and creating new ideas. These are the elements of an entrepreneur.

For instance, if Tinashe Mutarisi of Nash paints did not create new ideas will he be the person he is today? The answer will be no but he went an extra mile, researched on painting and came up with an effective way to grow his brand, Nash paints, by taking risks.

Painting on credit is risk on its own but he saw risk in a positive way.  It was a bold move characterized by high risk but any entrepreneur creates and sees opportunities in the risk involved thus innovation.

Youths need to put ideas into being because business start by starting not by listing ideas. We need to start small but with a vision to grow. Listing of ideas without execution is equal to stagnation.

Youths let us be innovative and sound focused. Innovation is not necessarily about creating something new. Let us take something that is in existence, improve it, and change it to make it better and convenient for everyone

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JOHN CHAMBOKO

0774622943

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