Things are said to be of two faces but I didn't understand that well enough until I became an adult because my knowledge and understanding of life were limited. I thought things were predictable in life, l was a great dreamer like every other child that had millions of dreams and thought somehow everything will be fulfilled in a twinkle of an eye.
I remembered when I was younger during my primary school days, my class teacher would ask us what we wanted to be in the future. We all had specs and you start hearing from the pupils, I want to be a banker, a lawyer, a doctor, a journalist, and so on.
In my case, my dream was flying in the air as a pilot or working as an aeronautical engineer.
Fantastic dream right?
We were taught that all we needed was to study hard to achieve everything we wanted in life, little did we know that achieving our dreams was more than that. It worked for some, at least about few of my mates were able to become doctors, lawyers while many of us had no choice than sleep and dream again (laughing).
It remains very funny to me because we were always very confident with those dreams and if life didn't show it other face, I guess many of us would have become what we all dreamt of while growing up.
My dream of flying in the air started as a kid, I always stood to catch the sight of any object making a sound in the air.
Airplane and Helicopter were my favorite drawing even though I wasn't good at them, I was always happy doing them because I saw myself in every picture I drew, and at the bottom of the drawing, I do write the name Capt. Tom.
My dream became an obsession and my friends started calling me Capt. tom because my drawing follows me around. I always thought that nothing was impossible until the dream remained a dream.
Why??
Aviation courses were quite expensive here in the country and it was a course mostly taken by the rich kids in the country and I wasn't from a rich family. Even if someone gave me money for aviation at that time, I would have given it to my mom to start a business to sustain the family because I knew she was struggling to take care of her kids.
I got opportunities for scholarships and couldn't process them because I was not financially fit for them, it required traveling out and that was the last thing my family finance could afford.
My closest shot to my dream was joining the military in 2011, the Nigerian Airforce was my target but I didn't have the right connection because getting a space into top military schools requires you to knowing influential people like governors and others.
But where do I come across such a person when I don't even know the local government chairman of my area?
I tried the exam thrice but couldn't make it into the Academy, it could have been a perfect chance to fulfill every dream I had which becoming a pilot was number one. After I missed every shot, I felt down and decided to dream again but I saw nothing coming because the future was entirely cloudy.
Several questions crossed my mind and what if that wasn't my dream? What if God had a different plan for not just me but for many of us who couldn't become what we wanted in life.
Not everyone believes in destiny but there are times when we walk on a different path from what we are destined to be, let forget about destiny, and focus more on our purpose in life.
As an individual, we all have different purposes in life. That thing we are trying to be, that position we are trying to reach, the height we are trying to reach might not be our purpose that's why it looks like we have failed to try to achieve it.
We are not a failure, we maybe weren't doing what's right. Probably we walked on a different path from what we were made for and it doesn't mean that it is the end of the world for us. We can always dream again and this time ask for God's guide while dreaming again. That was the case for me, I had to dream again and after praying, I was lead and guided by God, and to crown it well for me, he made the dream come through for me in a way I wasn't expecting.
It happened quickly and short because it was God's plan all along and even if I can't fly a plane today, I have been able to touch lives and still hope to help lots of people fulfill their dreams.
After looking back at the past year of my life, I concluded and wished that I have known my purpose which would help me make my dream rightly earlier but it wasn't late because it is better late than never.
I agree, it is better late than never that's why I'm starting to do the things that I want. I believe this is my life's purpose. So help me God.