WELL, MY LIFE JUST GOT REAL!

So here's what cut so far.It was Friday 20th of march 2020 when at my boarding school we had our assembly. Our deputy head-master announced that it was our last day at school due to COVID-19, and that our parents could pick us up after classes, from 1.pm in the afternoon to Tuesday the 24th. My parents picked me up on Saturday because we lived far away and I thought that once I got home I'd have more than enough time to study for my IGCSE exams in November. But my parents couldn't have thought more differently to me, especially my mother.

Ever since I got back from school, my mind has been set on glue to studying. Studying, as you all know, gets both stressful and tiring so reward myself for bombing my brain with extremely straining knowledge for three to four hours in our study room, I watch a few YouTube videos or go on Instagram. When my mother "catches me" doing any of these things she immediately throws a tantrum on me, well either that or try to make me feel bad about "wasting my time on movies!". As usual, I would ignore her comments about how I'm wasting my time even though time and time again I tell her, "I'm taking a break," but she neglects that statement a lot. I began not caring what anyone thought about how I handled my study time.

The following Saturday afternoon, I was lifting weights in our garage when my cousin that stays with us came and told me that my mother was calling me. "Oh God, what does she want this time?", was the first question I asked myself, because I knew this wasn't a good sign. She asked me if I had studied that day and I replied with a yes, along with the subject's that I studied. She then asked me what I was doing before she called then I exclaimed to her that I was exercising. She immediately shut down my workout schedule before I could even explain that it refreshes my mind after studying ( I mean I would be jogging in the morning also, but the virus won't even let this years Olympic games take place).

I felt so defeated when my mother was basically taking away everything that made me a regular teenager, so when she and my father were gone, I did what usually fixes me when I'm broken, I watched All American. The story-line of this amazing show motivates me to be better than what I am right now, which is why I watch the series first and foremost. After watching some episodes, I decided to get back on the workout routine and stay positive to my books. It was going pretty well until one morning, I started working out and my mother walked into the room. As I predicted, she was disappointed in me, but then I exclaimed to her that I was exercising to get the blood flowing through my brain a bit faster. She didn't believe that working out was helping me at all and continued lecturing me. She then told me that when she was about my age, while she was still living in the rural area's of Chisumbanje, Zimbabwe, that she had no windows, and no light but a candle to help read her books for studying. She also told me how she wished that she could "write the exams" for me, but that it was impossible.

After having that talk we had, I thought long and hard in the shower immediately realised why my mother was being so harsh and pushy. She was telling me that I have to use what's in front of me while its still there, because time waits for no man or woman or child and etc., like what All American teaches me every episode; DREAM BIG, STAY REAL.

Although I still exercise and watch videos for breaks, I am still infinitely grateful to my mother, who can be a pain most of the time, but still very caring and loving. I will take my books seriously, because my IGCSE's determine my destiny, not for my mother's sake, but for my success!