A week ago I went out with two male friends of mine, and as per the norm of being young and going out when the natural light is off, we were indulging in alcoholic beverages. The rather spontaneous side of me wanted to experience what was so nice in a particular beer I had seen Cape Town girls drink. The emphasis is on Cape Town girls because it was something strange for me as a Johannesburg drinking female to see girls drink beer. I tried this brand of beer out, already light headed at the time and took some pictures to share with close friends on BBM. I expected some kind of reaction, and boy did I get one. The remarks were sugar-coated remarks of disgust, which made me realise how much of society pleasing behaviour we have become accustomed to, resulting in my thoughts being swayed away from the actual beer comments.
Most of us left high school with an idea of what we wanted to achieve from our various tertiary institutions and with the mind-set that without further education we wouldn’t amount to much, and that is accurate to a certain extent. We knew exactly which materialistic things we wanted to gain from these fun yet torturous few years of our lives. From time to time I would see display pictures and ‘tweetpics’ of fancy cars and houses which my fellow friends and acquaintances want to one day have, but how do we get to a point where our dreams become our own enemies?, the starting point is maybe living beyond our means to impress society and convince it that we have actually made it.
Yes, we are the generation that will swim in debt because someone out there, whom we have never met placed the standard that you cannot belong to a certain profession and not drive a German car, wear mass produced suites or eat in fast food joints. We will swim in debt because that very same invisible person believes a first date should take place in a fancy restaurant and it is okay to splurge in a club with a credit card (i.e. money which is not yours and will need to be paid with interest) all in the name of living up to what is socially expected of us.
My observation seems rather subjective, and I am aware a lot of us are in denial about being in a quest to please society before pleasing our own selves. As a female who has come to accept thyself as a feminist, I believe it is inhumane to expect other people to not exercise their right to choose how they want to live their lives by expecting them to adhere to our own way of living. How does this connect with the beer story? Well in a perfect society I should not have to worry about what might be thought of me drinking beer or choosing to drive an Uno as a Chartered Accountant.
And oh, Hi. I’m Aya and I believe in sustaining the bits of happiness we obtain daily regardless of their source, pending they do not infringe on others’ basic human rights.
Article by: Ayabonga Mguzulwa, editing by Kagiso maloma
Okay first all, I’d like to just commend the writer on such a well written peace. A lot of us, as I’ve noticed amongst my own peer group are pressured to live this “glamurous” lifestyle that we don’t take the time to do research on how much it actually costs. We define success in a one dimensional manner. My thoughts have always been that we the black youth of today have a much bigger role to play in the upliftment of the black race then just obtaining higher education degree’s and becoming co-operate slaves.
Well said:-)keep it up you guys(“,)
🙂 Thanks for the love Mologadie, appreciate it!!