STS Weekend Reflection - Different Journeys. Shared Aspirations.
Different Journeys. Shared Aspirations.
Our circumstances may differ. The hopes that move us forward often do not.
One young person wakes up and checks an admission portal again.
Another wakes up hundreds of kilometres from home in an NYSC Orientation Camp, adjusting to unfamiliar people, routines and possibilities.
Another is learning a skill while wondering whether it will eventually open the door to meaningful work.
Another already has a job but is asking whether it is taking them anywhere.
One has a laptop, reliable internet and several choices before them. Another shares a phone, manages expensive data and tries to make the most of considerably fewer options.
One has parents, teachers, mentors and networks helping to interpret the road ahead. Another is largely figuring things out alone.
Their circumstances are different. Their journeys are different.
But listen closely enough, and many of their aspirations begin to sound remarkably similar.
They want a meaningful future. They want the opportunity to learn and become capable. They want work that provides dignity and possibility. They want to be heard, to participate, to belong, to contribute and to build lives that amount to something.
This week, the world commemorated International Youth Day under the theme “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.”
It is a simple idea, but one worth carrying beyond the commemoration.
Different Starting Points Are Real
It can be tempting to speak about young people as though they constitute one uniform group.
They do not.
Even two students sitting beside each other in the same classroom may be navigating very different realities. One may return home to books, internet access, encouragement and quiet space to study. The other may return to significant family responsibilities, limited resources and little guidance about what comes after school.
Two graduates with the same qualification may leave school with very different networks, exposure, confidence, digital access and financial capacity.
Two corps members wearing the same uniform may be carrying entirely different histories, responsibilities and expectations into their service year.
And two young entrepreneurs with equally promising ideas may discover that one can afford to experiment and fail while the other cannot survive a single significant mistake.
Recognising these differences is not an invitation to fatalism.
It is an invitation to understanding.
Because when we pretend that everybody starts from the same place, we can easily mistake unequal opportunity for unequal ambition.
Shared Aspirations Still Matter
Different circumstances do not mean that aspiration belongs only to those with advantages.
A young person without a laptop can still aspire to become technologically capable. A student from a poorly resourced school can still imagine a world-class future. A graduate without influential connections can still desire meaningful work. A young person growing up far from centres of opportunity can still possess ideas capable of travelling much further than they have.
Aspiration is powerful because it allows us to see beyond present circumstances.
But aspiration alone is not enough.
It needs opportunity. It needs capability. It needs information. It needs responsible choices. It often needs someone who believes enough in a young person to guide, challenge, encourage or open a door.
And increasingly, it needs systems designed with enough flexibility to recognise that people may be travelling towards similar destinations from very different starting points.
What Does This Ask of the Young Person?
Your circumstances matter, but they need not become the complete definition of your possibilities.
You may not control every advantage available to someone else. You can, however, continue asking what is possible with what is presently within your reach.
What can you learn?
What capability can you build?
Who can you ask?
What opportunity can you investigate?
What responsibility can you take?
What can you begin with the resources already available?
And what help do you genuinely need to move forward?
This is not pretending that structural barriers do not exist. It is refusing to surrender all agency to them.
Sometimes progress begins with recognising the difference between what I cannot presently control and what I can still do next.
What Does This Ask of Those Who Guide?
For facilitators, teachers, parents, counsellors, mentors, alumni and others who work with young people, perhaps the harder question belongs to us.
Do we see the young person - or merely the category?
“Student.”
“Graduate.”
“Corps member.”
“Jobseeker.”
“School leaver.”
“Youth.”
Behind every label is a particular person travelling from a particular starting point.
Good guidance therefore cannot always mean giving everybody exactly the same thing.
Sometimes one young person needs information. Another needs encouragement. Another needs exposure. Another needs accountability. Another needs a device. Another needs someone to explain an opportunity they did not know existed. Another may simply need an adult who listens long enough to understand what the real problem is.
Equality of aspiration does not automatically produce equality of opportunity.
That is where thoughtful support matters.
And What Does This Ask of All of Us?
Perhaps International Youth Day should leave us with something more enduring than another annual commemoration.
If young people across very different contexts continue to aspire towards dignity, education, meaningful work, participation and better futures, then those aspirations create responsibilities beyond the young people themselves.
Families have a role. Schools have a role. Employers have a role. Governments and institutions have a role. Communities have a role.
And young people themselves must increasingly be participants in shaping the solutions intended for them - not merely recipients waiting at the end of a policy or programme.
The question is therefore not simply whether young people have aspirations. They clearly do.
The deeper question is whether we are building the capabilities, relationships, opportunities and support systems that allow more of those aspirations to become credible journeys.
Before Monday Comes
This weekend, think of one young person.
Not “young people.” One person.
Perhaps a student you teach, a corps member you know, a younger relative, someone looking for admission or work, a young entrepreneur, a mentee - or perhaps yourself.
Ask:
What are they hoping for?
What is their present context?
What stands between where they are and where they hope to go?
Then ask one final question:
Is there one thing within my reach that could make that journey a little more possible?
It may be information. A conversation. An introduction. Encouragement. A resource. Accountability. An opportunity. Or simply the decision to listen before assuming you already understand their journey.
Different journeys need not produce diminished aspirations.
And different starting points should not automatically become different ceilings.
Our contexts may differ. Our routes certainly will.
But across those differences, something profoundly human remains: the desire for a meaningful opportunity to become, to contribute and to build a worthwhile future.
This weekend, may we recognise those aspirations - and wherever we reasonably can, help make room for them.
Have a reflective, refreshing and purposeful weekend.
WhatNext Africa
Raising a Worthy Successor Generation.
Comments
Post a Comment