Don't Follow Orders All Your Life

My favourite part of the movie Antz is where Barbatus said to Z, "Listen Z. Don't make my mistake; don't follow orders all your life. Think for yourself."

image: learnstreaming.com

We live in a society that tries to control our lives. As soon as we are born we are given names we are expected to bear till we die. Which, fortunately, is a good thing for us in Nigeria. Our parents don't call us Stone or Sand or East or West or Blue or some meaningless name. But we still don't get the choice of picking our names. Then we get sent off to school as soon as we can talk. Some even before they can talk. (This is also a good thing). We spend the next 20 years of our lives in school. Or trying to stay/get into a school. It's what the society expects of us. Then we move into the job market and live like robots. Doing the same thing week in week out. Even waking up the same hour of the day. Fortunately, all these are good. We become responsible people and create value and make wonderful friends along the way. 

It's just that the society tries to pass us through a mold and determine, on a macro level, who/what we become. Every day we get orders, from the alarm very early in the morning, from LASTMA, from our boss at work, and from clueless politicians. And once again it's a good thing. We don't want people showing up late at work, or commotion on the highways or everyone taking up arms against the politicians. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Most of us only live to meet expectations. Expectations of others. We let them set the goals. We, invariably, follow orders all our life.