THE DASH

 

I was thinking this morning... Days ago, I walked into a classroom filled with fresh graduates recently employed by a multinational organisation.

They were young, vibrant and full of dreams. The excitement in their conversations was unmistakable. Standing quietly at the back, I could almost hear their ambitions speaking louder than their voices.

Interestingly, this was happening at a time the same organisation was preparing to bid farewell to employees at the twilight of their careers.

What an irony, I thought! While some careers were being born in one room, others were getting ready to take their final bow in another.

My mind travelled back several decades to when I was just like them. Young, ambitious and eager to conquer the world. Retirement was something that happened to old people. Certainly not people like us!

But here I was, watching another generation begin the journey.

As we say in Warri, "Na where one person stop, another person dey start."

Indeed, life is a relay race. Nobody holds the baton forever.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (KJV)

I wondered how many of these youngsters would become CEOs, directors or industry leaders. And how many would discover that life had other plans for them.

Then it struck me.

Every career has a date of birth and an expiry date. What matters is the dash between those dates.

The dash represents the lives we touch, the people we develop, the values we uphold and the legacies we leave behind.

One day, these youngsters will also take their final bow.

The office is temporary. The title is borrowed. But our impact can outlive our employment. There will always be beginnings and endings. What matters is what happens in between. When the curtain finally falls, the question will not be how long we occupied the stage, but whether our performance was worth the applause.

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey