At 16 years old, I had a lengthy talk with myself one Saturday morning. I took a critical look at my life that day. I had just barely passed my "Brevet de fin D'études Moyennes (BFEM). BFEM is equivalent to the Basic Education Certificate Examination in Ghana. In a different narrative, I'll discuss how I just about managed to pass the examination (which had to be written in three days, and the results were made public in a week). Technically, there is no such thing as a failure in the BECE in Ghana; even the lowest outcomes can guarantee a school, and one does not need to retake the exam. With Senegal, however, there is a definite cutoff for Pass and Fail. If you fail, you must retake the exam. That tale will have to wait for another day, though.

    I had a lot of questions about my life that Saturday morning. The turning point in my life occurred that Saturday morning. Now, when I say there was a turnaround, I don't mean to imply that I was a boy who had poor academic performance, smoked marijuana, or engaged in illicit sexual activity. No, nothing like that. Looking at my life, I realized I was putting the bare minimum of effort into everything I did. I didn't give a lot of things much thought. Before that faithful morning, I felt I was comfortable with failing.

     I acknowledged that I had to change. Even if your life is going well, you still need to have reflective discussions about it. My uncle, with whom I currently reside, travels frequently, leaving me primarily alone at home. I've recently realized that I spend quality time with myself. To be honest, most of us are simply living; without necessarily having a strategy or plan, just living!!!

  Anyone reading this should think of the last time they asked themselves, "What is my life's plan?" and "Where do I see myself in the next ten years?" If you haven't asked yourself this question yet, don't be too hard on yourself. We live in a world where someway, somehow, we are always busy. Really, time passes by so quickly. You should be aware that turning over a new leaf doesn't always entail changing from bad to good; it might also entail improving from good to excellent or adopting a new perspective in life.

On that Saturday morning, I developed a certain amount of hunger for success. I wrote down some principles I had to follow, and I committed myself to following those rules with the assistance of God. Gabriel, where would you have been without those principles? I wondered, as I was writing this? I don't know, and I'm glad I didn't have to.

We all need to have these profound dialogues. These discussions will assist in analyzing our relationship with God and people and identifying who and what we should surround ourselves with. That in-depth discussion needs to happen now.