Chewing the gum

So people who got kids can't relate to this feeling. Or at least you aren't expected either. (Please don't, because it is kind of late.) But those of you who aren't married and have kids or are planning to have one, how are you coping with this life? I need enlightenment. Karl Mark once said, or maybe he repeated many times, 'Relgion is the opium of man.' I could have paraphrased it, yet he believed religion actually taught you to accept any suffering this world offers you. It is like a drug that sedates your misery. I am not ready to talk about that, or I can't say much about it as I am a religious person. Yet I believe religion is not the opium, at least not the only one; responsibilities are.  

Here is the thing: so your parents agreed to have a baby. Let us hope you are the 'wanted' baby, not the accidental one. And you are born on some random Thursday night. Everyone would congratulate your parents and buy gifts for your appearance in this silly world. Then you eat, cry, and sleep, then celebrate your first birthday. Thum thum, you would be old enough to join school. You get excited about it; at least my little brother was. You would make new friends, learn new habits, and see the world outside your home glasses. So if you are a good student or if the system breaks into your skull, school would keep being fun. But here is the trick: it is also the beginning of responsibilities. You are expected to learn, answer questions correctly, behave, and make your parents happy (that would make sense for habesha households; by the way, habesha means Ethiopian parents don't come at me saying habesha doesn't include this and that). And if you are a kid into other stuff but not school, you would be categorized under the irresponsible kid who loves playing around. And you grow up, take class exams, national exams, and get labeled. Is he responsible enough to walk on the path paved by the system or not? So this path only focused on school, right? No, you would have the responsibility to keep your friendships intact, your family happy, your little siblings in check, your growth in balance, and if possible, the world in peace too. 

Then you would join the university; this might not work for the recent grade 12 students, but I can't relate to their problem, so... After you joined that institution, everyone tells you, including your inner voice, that now you are responsible for yourself, as if you didn't have enough. You need to keep yourself sane; you need to learn about the real world; you need another new glass called grown-up mentality. You need to see how you dress, look, and talk, and in many cases, how you drink and dance too. Whatever you believed was true could at anytime turn out to be false, including your identity. Sooooo, cheers to many more tiring responsibilities. Since you are at that age of dating and loving someone, you will add a new burden to your list. Did he look at me? Did I look nice? Did I sound lovely? Does he love me? Is he mad at me? What should I do for him? Emotionally occupying responsibility in the room. 

Back to normal life: you graduate, look for a job, get one; if you are lucky enough, you will land a job that is enough for more than survival; then you would look for a new responsibility other than the one you get paid for. If you are dedicated enough, you will get your lifelong responsibility marriage and kids. Bear in mind that many of us get stuck in the middle of this long road. Yet all of us try to walk away and find a new responsibility that would keep us busy.

All this being said, have you ever imagined how life would look if all these responsibilities didn't exist? As the child of this system, I can't imagine how life could be without all these steps. I got high in that opium, you know. And when ever the drug fades off, I get the chance to see the other color of life, and all I can see is emptiness and nothingness. Well, I can't survive with all that void, can I? So back to the track of being a junkie of responsibilities. Until I sign up for the lifetime dose, I need to remind myself that life means tackling responsibilities and learning how to manage many of them in the right way. 

All these being said, have you ever imagined how life would look like if all these responsibilities didn't exist? As the child of this system I can't imagine how life could be with 

I never signed up for continuous tasks that would never end in my entire life. I signed up for something natural, quiet, and mindful. I came here to be a human being with the talent of being just a woman. I can't say what the other life, life without responsibilities, looks like. But I know; I just know that is where I belong. Where do you belong? Especially those of you who aren't family owners, where do you want to be in this silly journey?

I never signed up for continuous tasks that would never end in my entire life. I signed up for something natural, quite and mindful journey. I came here to be a human being with the talent of being just a woman. I can't say how the other life, life with out responsibilities,