Face your Fears, then your Feelings

Many times we seek motivation for the activities we are meant to do. We seek for a sign; we desire to know if it would be worth it at all. We want to know how much profit we would make of we embarked on a trade. But honestly, these are answers we can only get along the way. Though we may make estimations and very close predictions, no prediction has been totally accurate so far. Stick with me as I share an interesting lesson learnt by observing fellow corps members participating in the NYSC Scheme, especially those we are done and have now become a reservoir of experience.

Shortly, after the orientation camp, which may probably be the most exciting part of the service year, people are posted to different nooks and cranny of each state. More often than not, we meet with disappointments. The tales we heard missed a lot of details. The pictures we see had nothing in correlation with reality. Most people who didn't cry when traveling far away from home will do so when they arrive at places far from civilisation. And I guess everyone who cried will cry again. In the must of all this, corpers who have been through this phase begin to offer words of consolation. They tell tales of how they cried more than we are doing and how they were even more afraid and yet, here they are.

Here is my point, they started the same way we did - afraid, perplexed and worried. But they felt much better after getting both feet in. We seek consolation now, but those from whom we seek it got theirs when they got in. All your plans may have been rubbished because the variable of environment has changed. But nonetheless, you can still make a great a service year. Put the equations back on the sheet and substitute for new variables. Most of the answers you seek lie within the hallway. All the encouragement you seek and all the possible profit lies along the pathYou just have to get in first. You could make a great piece with your feelings before and after the experience.

As much as we have to learn from other's experiences, our custom made lessons can only be found within our own experience. Only the naive will think that he can get all he needs before the first step. That would be a great delusion. Our fine details and furnishing materials can only come when we have resolved to deep both feet in.

Get in first, then make a book out of your experience.