I had two stories about disappointment that came to my mind so I’ll tell you one today and the other one next week.
I was a child star once upon a time. Three blissful months of flashing lights and VIP treatments and then it was over in a flash! Okay, I jest, there was no real fame. How I got there was thanks to the school drama club. In primary school, we did choral verses and all that fun stuff and the lady who wrote and directed our choral verse decided she liked me, found me the day after my last KCPE paper and called me in for a screen test. It went well and we were in to shoot the first episode the very next week. Brilliant!
The kids I could handle, we fought with my age mates all the time. But an adult, that hurt.
This was a children’s morning show type for Saturdays and it was initially designed to be live. So, we have the first show, it goes okay, there was a segment for viewers to call in live, it didn’t pick up on the first show. That’s okay. The second show though, whoah, the calls came in. We had done good publicity with promos during the week so we got viewers. And trolls. I’m live on air and some cheeky kids start prank calling the show with two of them actually telling me that I sucked. What really took the trophy for me was the adult troll. A grown woman fixed her mind to watch a children’s show and actually call in to insult someone’s child. That one made me freeze on air. The kids I could handle, we fought with my age mates all the time. But an adult, that hurt. I could see my producer’s face and she was angry, I think she had an idea exactly who it was. The real adult that she was, she talked me into breaking for commercial and gave me a good pep talk that got me through wrapping up the show for that day.
I was put down by that call, I didn’t know this person so why would they do something so cruel to me? My producer was a gem though, she took me out to lunch and explained that there had been other auditions before me and that’s probably where all this vitriol came from. The lady was most likely a mother who’s child didn’t make the cut and she was lashing out. It sounds ridiculous now, doesn’t it? Helicopter parenting before we knew what it was.
At first, it starts with psyche but then things get hard. They start to mess up in one way or another, skipping work and being rude then demand their pay at the end of the month.
I’ve been having conversations with a friend about how some people, come off as entitled to work. He has had two employees who come in, the attitude saying “Hey, you need a worker, I need a job, let’s do this.” At first, it starts with psyche but then things get hard. They start to mess up in one way or another, skipping work and being rude then demand their pay at the end of the month. He actually had a worker who, when work from home started, didn’t communicate for a whole month- no responses even on WhatsApp, didn’t dial into meetings, just went AWOL. At the end of the month, he called to ask for his salary, suddenly he had access to technology. You can guess how that ended. The other just did not know how to deal with getting stuck in his work. He would shut down and just disappear, switch off his phone for a week or two, come back when he got a little courage make a little progress, get stuck again and the cycle continued. Then he’d get mad when the work was demanded of him. It was a struggle.
We all wish life could just be smooth sailing, that it was as easy as it looks to succeed or just build a career. That resilience is as simple as digging your feet in and just moving forward.
Were these boys sheltered? Is their sense of responsibility misplaced? Are they a “spoilt generation”? There are many ways we can judge them but let’s take a moment to put some perspective on something that we all think of at some point. We all wish life could just be smooth sailing, that it was as easy as it looks to succeed or just build a career. That resilience is as simple as digging your feet in and just moving forward. The reality is like the cartoon about the path to success: there are very many hurdles that will get in the way. You will get anxious, you will doubt yourself, you will meet people who work against you, who have a different vision from yours, whose goals will clash with yours, once in a hundred years, there will be a pandemic. Your path will be derailed severally. Get used to it.
This post is a reminder that bad things happen. Bad people will cross your path. Your dreams will backfire. Work is hard. Motivation is not constant. Success is even harder to come by. It is just not and never will be that easy.
That’s how I made it through, good people came to the rescue.
So how did I hold on to my claim to fame? The next week after the mean calls, my then classmates tuned in, called in, gave shout outs, made requests and gave me a thumbs up. It was the best feeling ever to see so much support. That’s how I made it through, good people came to the rescue. Why it lasted only three months will take us to part two- I’m not sorry to disappoint you: A tale of two mothers. See you next week.