40+FAB Blog

I was on vacation in Jamaica in 2006 when I came across a billboard advertising Guinness. It had the caption “SOMEBODY’S GOING TO DO IT – WHY NOT YOU!” This got me thinking about a mind-set I had developed over the years. 

While growing up, my parents – especially my Mum, would tell us what to do and what not to do. “Don’t go out after 5pm.”, “don’t talk to strangers”, “don’t run across the road”, “don’t eat any more chocolates”, “go and do your homework”, “Go and take a bath”, “Go to bed now!” 

When we asked why we had all these restrictions and couldn’t do the things we wanted, the reply was, “I want you to be good children and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” Their concerns were based on some unfortunate happenings to children that we knew or heard about. Things like, a child being hit by a car, somebody’s child was kidnapped, another child got expelled from school and somebody’s child was caught stealing. My parents didn’t want that to be my siblings or me. I soon got the message that something was going to happen to somebody somewhere, and when it did, I was just glad that it wasn’t me. 

In my university years, there was anticipation of news from the rumour mills that kept the campus buzzing. It was clear that every semester somebody was going to get drunk, somebody was going to get pregnant, somebody was going to fail, somebody was going to drop out, somebody was going to get branded a troublemaker, somebody was going to get arrested. Somebody was going to do it or be it! 

I realised that my association of somebody doing something that was worth talking about was always kind of negative. But as there were those landing in trouble, there was also somebody getting a distinction, somebody winning a scholarship, somebody getting an internship, and somebody graduating. 

Somebody is going to do it, let it be you and for the right reasons too.