I  have been in the process of writing letters to my children. It helps to articulate our emotions and thoughts along life’s journey. Two, we never know what tomorrow holds for us and therefore, my intention is for these words to stick to them in case I can’t be around.

For as long as I can remember, my mother told us how important it is to be honest. Sadly we didn’t take it to heart and did as we pleased. Said the truth sometimes and mostly lied. Well, as I grew up I realised how important it was to be honest and forthcoming about everything. It saves you so much of a heartache by simply being honest. There is absolutely nothing to loose by owning up to that mistake you committed or by honestly voicing your opinions even if everyone else think differently. You do yourself a great favour in the long run by being honest.

Be Grateful, in today’s materialistic world it is so hard to express gratitude for what you have and what you get to enjoy. Don’t let the availability of resources or opportunities that come your way skip your attention without you being grateful for it. There are so thousands out there who long for some kind of chance at this funny thing called life. Life is not easy, you may not want to go on certain days ; but always remember to breathe and remind yourself that you are grateful for being alive and able to wake up without any issues. Gratitude comes with practice and you have to learn to do it with purpose.

Be useful, this is a funny one. How do I be useful asks my 7 year old ? I am only a kid. Every one of us have a purpose. We were put on earth for a reason. We all can be useful in some form or the other. As a 7 year old you can be useful by putting your clothes and stuff away and not create additional work for your mum returning home after a long day of work to more work. As a teenager, you can be useful by mowing the lawn, cleaning up after yourself and helping out your younger or older siblings. As a youth navigating into adulthood, be useful to your community and your parents! There are so many ways of being useful. You just need to discover how to do it.

Be Kind, this is very important. You don’t know what someone’s life is like and being kind helps you along the way. Learn to empathise with those around you. Cry when they cry and smile when they smile. It is imperative that you make a conscious effort to being kind especially to those who are having it worse at life than you. Some of them are there cause they were born into it and some are there cause of choice. Whatever the case maybe, be kind!