As if we could run away forever,  

As if we could forget who we are,

As if we could escape this tragedy;

We kept dreaming despite all the misery…

LATE NIGHTER ( THE SLEEPING GENERATION)

Being a late night-er is common specially these days. Final exam studies and projects are loaded for every student you can sight on campus. I am no different, I only have two weeks left till my exam. So I probably need to finalize my project a week early if I want to have time to review and recap for exam. Besides it won’t be bad to have time to breath even for a little while. 

Well, that was the plan.

sadly, I have too much on my plate just like everyone else. So I practically have been living inside the library these past few days trying to fit a semester worth knowledge inside my overly crowded head. But today... Today it feels like I am fighting the battle of the century. Unlike yesterday and the nights before, I just feel very very... very sleepy. Even the letters I’ve been staring at for hours are starting to get blurry.

“Ahh! I need to get this part done by tonight, what is wrong with me?”

It is so unlike me to get this sleepy by just 10 O’clock before midnight. The worse part, my bag is empty!  Not a single snack that I can feed on to silence the not-so-ever stopping requests I keep getting from my empty stomach all the time.

“Now my tummy is also turning against me… this is so exhausting.”

Before my stomach starts making weird sound in a dead quite library, I decided to go to the nearest store to buy some thing to eat. The cold breeze would be good to chase off the sleep that has been bothering me too. So I gathered my notebooks , put them in my bag , then head to the shelf to return the books I took. 

Strangely enough ,there were no students on my way to the shelf and on my way to the exit. Not even one!

That is impossible! let alone on exam preparation times, this places should always be stacked with campus students. But why don’t I see anybody tonight? It is Friday night, exam is near, and what is everybody doing? Sleeping? Clubbing? Or watching some new release box office movie?

“I can’t believe us kids these days! Where is our generation headed?!”

I said that out loud without realizing it.

“Uuaaahhh!” Yawn… “maybe I’ve over worked myself… two weeks, just two more weeks. Then I’ll have time to regain my energy.”

Just one step out of the library and the cold breeze hit me.

“ughghgh… so cold.”

Now crossing the road, I rubbed my hands against each other ,cross them and rub them against my shoulder down to my elbow. As I was busy using the laws of physics to warm myself up, I thought I heard something fall from behind. I thought,

“my bracelet?”

but then even if I dropped it, it won’t make this sound. Its way too tiny to make this sound. So maybe the zipper on my bag wasn’t working and my bag was open.

“one of my books?”

I was amazed by my self having the ability to think all of this in just a few seconds. If I could think this fast and remember what I have been studying, I might actually ace the final exams. I turned around to check if I dropped something. But it was to dark for me too see. So using my flashlight I started to look backwards searching for any of my belongings just in case I dropped them. 

But the thing is, my zipper was not open. I was just curious.

You know the feeling when you know that you just have to go and mind your own business but you just can’t help it and stick your nose into what you aren’t suppose to do? Don’t judge me, we all have that urge sniff into forbidden things. If we are told not to do something, touch something, or not to go somewhere ; we get the

urge to do exactly what we are told not to. So I knew I didn’t drop anything but I kept looking for the fallen thing curiously. If my stomach didn’t interrupt my quest for the fallen “anything” I would have definitely forgotten that I have to get back to my studies.

“ But first midnight snack, off to the nearest store…”

I raced to the store right before they close. If the store had been closed when I reached there, I would have gone straight to bed. Excuse: I can’t handle studying and starving at the same time. Fast forward I went back to the library and I studied, Of coarse. But couldn’t finish what I planned to cover that night; even after I spent the whole night there.

NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR FULL ATTENTION…

What I wanted to say after writing all of these things that you probably didn’t care about and probably were not interested in, is this.

Most of y’all made plans just like I did that night. We plan, we prepare, we go through with the plan and half way trough something will distract us. We forget what we have to finish doing and steal from our time. Have you noticed that the precious time we steal would end up being pointless most of the time?

I remember reading a book where one of the characters is walking around Addis Ababa , wondering why there is no activity during night. It is like when it’s night both the people and the city sleep. And He is right. The routine of our city and our country is limited to a specific time. Most of us are in bed after 4 O’clock. Even if we are not really

asleep, maybe using the internet, texting, or watching movies or some sort of video. Am I wrong? If we don’t have something urgent, and by that I mean things that are mostly due to the next morning, who stays up after that time on a daily bases? 

We need to start breaking these “good-for-nothing” traditions and start to make changes to our daily routine. We have to use all of our time accordingly if we want to see our lives change and make our futures better. We need to make a new habit and change the current trend of working habit. Of coarse these are not things that can be changed over night but things done step by step.

For starters lets change the way we spend time with others. Did you know that the percentage of a fruitful time with a friend when you meet casually is low? Why? because we talk about this and that, one thing will lead to another. And we will end up talking about something that is absolutely out of the topic. Before we realized it time will fly. Am not saying meeting friends and enjoying time with them is bad. But friendship also means growing together not just having fun and spending time together. So lets just keep them fruitful. Why do we meet if we are not going to spend the time we have in something that will be worthy?

Restrain from pointless meetings and doing pointless things when you meet. 

This should be a good start to youth in our country today.

Then proceed to using the free times we’ve got to do something that will build our personality, our spirituality and our mentality. Something that I have come to notice lately is that whenever we get a break or when ever we are free, we tend to spend it having fun, relaxing or doing absolutely and literally nothing.

First and foremost in order to “RELAX” and have time to “GO AND HAVE FUN” there should be some sort of “ACCOMPLISHMENT" there should be “ HARD WORK” to take “BREAK” from. Instead we made it look like the exact opposite. “ ACCOMPLISHMENT AND GOAL IS HAVING FUN. IN ORDER TO DO SO FINISH WORK (STUDY OR ANYTHING RELATED) IN THE SHORTEST TIME POSSIBLE. QUALITY AND STANDARD SHOULD NOT BE CONCERNED WHEN IT COMES TO MINIMIZING TIME.”

During my time at university (before CORONA) I have witnessed how lazy we can be.Most of my classes take a semester project to sum up their total grade. These semester projects always have minimum requirements. To be honest, only a few students work to exceed the minimum requirements and do something great. The rest only work

to meet the minimum requirements and not more than that. We want to finish fast to spare some time. We don’t care as long as our work is qualified to be submitted. “finish this, and finish that. Then sleep!” that is the thought that we all have the whole time while working on the projects. Thinking on how to finish quick and not how to make the work great.

I mentioned this as an example but it goes the same through ourdaily lives. Funny thing is we can never have enough fun and rest that will give us the sensation of satisfaction like accomplishment will. Even king Solomon the one who is said to be wiser than all humans in history said this ;

“ there is nothing better for a man than he should eat and drink and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This I saw, that it is from the hand of GOD”

- Ecclesiastes 2:24

Then comes the next step : Say that you spent long time while traveling. While on taxi, bus or the train, read something. Have a book with you, that you will read when you are using transport.(of coarse beware of thieves, if you are using your mobile phone) If not a book you can even read the news, so you can spare some time to do your

work more attentively when you get off the bus or what so ever transport you were using. Read books. You can learn a lot from them. It was around the ending of last year that I started to hear rumors about an average Ethiopian youths’ IQ level being less than almost all the youth around the world.

“ The lowest recorded IQ scores are found in sub-Saharan African countries such as Somali(68), Sudan(71), Ethiopian(69),Cameroon(64),Saint Lucia(62), Equatorial Guinea(59).”

-world population review

On the other hand Ethiopia stands on the top five of the countries that downloads Pornography. Wow! what a difference! Maybe that is one of the reasons why the IQ level is so below others. People that once lived in one of the greatest civilization of the world is now one of the lowest intelligent and poorest country. Why is that? Is it because we don’t have enough resource and material to do so? Is it because we don’t have the means to access our potential? Why are we far beyond the rest of humanity while we have the greatest past history, and sill have the chance to do so? Why is that?

Our country is asleep. Our generation is asleep. WE are asleep. People who were suppose to be active and intellects are asleep, leaving our nation on a stagnant state. We are asleep. And while on that sleep, we are also having nightmares. Millions of people hungry, having nothing to eat. Ignorant people who doesn’t care about anything and everything that is happening around them. Self-centered superiors everywhere, thinking only about how they will pile up their riches and not the people who are trying to hold up, and happen to be under them. Ruthless tugs tearing apart people and society just to get what they want. Streets filled with elderly beggars, spots filled with drunken youth, and homes filled with hopeless children.

A nightmare we kept having while we are asleep. This can’t be reality compared to the history we tell and the potential we hold. It must be a nightmare!

“ As if we could run away forever,  

As if we could forget who we are,

As if we could escape this tragedy;

We kept dreaming despite of all the misery…”

The rest who aren’t asleep have fallen in love with themselves. These type of people most of the times happen to have a little more brain cells than the rest. And again most of the time think very little of others. They got so ahead of themselves that they will start losing contact with the rest. The only ones they can hangout with are those who are just like them. Because of their doubtfulness behavior and their worry of being used and stabbed in the back they are unable to involve in a normal and casual friendship with others. These people, because of their over high self-esteem they won’t be able to humble themselves to socialize with the rest who they think are below their standard.

This generation is stuck between people who are having nightmares while they are asleep and between those who are awake but think only about themselves and not anything else. We need to wake up. Wake up and take a look around. Then realize how much we can change. Our simple smile and warmth could give strength to a person going through a rough time. Our late nights could bring us lots and lots of accomplishments, and our hard works could change lives.

This is our time. Our time to work hard, our time to saw seeds for our future. It is our time to lay foundations of how we will change our selves , our environment, our country and our world. It is not time to sleep, nor is it a time to be wasted by things that are pointless. We have a generation to wake and a country to change. You can’t reap what you didn’t saw when it was time for planting, 

So wake up ETHIOPIA! Wake up! It is time to work hard to shine. Because there is no success and accomplishment without late nights of hard work. but don’t forget that Your late nights will bring you a beautiful harvest later on.

A LETTER TO ALL THE LATE NIGHTERS.

I WANT TO THANK AND APPRECIATE YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND FOR BEING PERSISTENT, NOT BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO BUT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO HAVE A BETTER FUTURE. YOU MIGHT NOT SEE IT COMING BUT I BELIEVE YOUR HARD WORK WILL EVENTUALLY CHANGE OUR SOCIETY AND OUR COUNTRY.

KEEP IT UP! DON’T GIVE UP! IT MIGHT BE TIRING TODAY, BUT IT WILL BEAR A SWEET FIRUT THE NEXT DAY!