Burdens is something everyone has at one point in time in their life gone through, whether Old or Young, we all have been burdened by something at some point in time. But allowing the burden to define us is something we have an option on.
Whether we allow it or not, that's our choice.
Expectations, some worthy of consideration, some certainly not. As a young teen in his early teenage years, all he wants to do is have fun, have dreams he wants to acheive and just be himself but that's the expectations that start to set in.
He begins to hear different expectations based on his performance at school, in debating competitions, in church, extracurricular activities, even at home from his parents. Parents are most likely to have expectations for their kids.
All these expectations set on the kid which leads to Burdens, for the kid because he's expected to fulfill all their expectations. In a way they end up living the lives the society wants them to live or the lives their parents wanted to live.
A man that wasn't able to fulfill his dreams of becoming a medical doctor, and got married and gave birth, then he places this expectation on his kids, that because he couldn't fulfill his dreams of becoming a medical doctor, he expects his ward to do so. And the man's kids start to live up to the expectations of their father.
We've seen and heard of stories like that, let's take for example the story of popular musician Folarin Falana (FALZ), the son of the renowned (SAN) Femi Falana. It was said that he wanted to venture into music right from time, but his father being a lawyer couldn't allow that as he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer just like him. “Expectations". He eventually got his son to study and live his dream, only after for his son, (FALZ) to finish schooling and pursue his lifelong dreams of becoming a musician.
The expectations society sets for the younger ones is actually a result of why so many of them are scared to fail in life and won't want to risk anything in their life. They won't want to risk chasing their goals and failing, they stick to the expectations the society has put on them and they live with the burden of fulfilling society expectations and also the burden of not being able to go after their dreams.
There are quite a lot of expectations the society places on the younger aspiring ones of these generations,and sadly many fall prey to this and end up living a life that's not theirs. Many youths are in the university going after their parents' dream, not theirs. Many people are getting into
Fixed marriages because society expects them to be married by a certain age. A lot of youths have been caught in this web, and a lot of them have to bear the burdens of not chasing their dreams rather following their parents' expectations.
Some ways by which we overcome society expectations are
Reflecting on our life values. We should know what we stand for and what pushes us to move forward in life .
Question and challenge societal expectations, and not just assume, question if it aligns with our goals and plans for our life.
Create a definition of success for yourself. Personally, what does success mean to you??.This is very essential, so that we Don't get overwhelmed by the definition of success the society cooked up for us.
Parents also shouldn't get into the habit of forcing their wards into fulfilling their dreams because they weren't able to, or create a certain expectation that turns into a burden on their kids.
Thanks for reading