A certain day….a good day….but a busy one I hear my friends voice “hey it’s time for class are you going?” I sluggishly wake up check up my phone then trying to close my eyes again and the voice again “we are going to be late 15 minutes left” she shouts again and I answer 15?? That 2 hours to me..i will be ready in a minute we both laugh and the day begins, attend classes, change venues, greet friends saw people we haven’t seen for weeks…then passes by a certain cool guy we laugh and act stupid in the middle of that passes by a guy who was dancing ridiculously on our last night out and the laughter goes on and on…voop its lunch time we eat then back to class, in the evening it’s my favorite time, change cloths to the basketball court stuck my earphones in and the song playing is “STRONG GIRL” I feel it and I feel how strong I am for the tiny things I have done to nobody but myself and still feel proud……you can mark it as a true story, my routine went on and on like that, classes, friends, outings, balling but most of all laughter.

But then despite of “STRONG GIRL” being one of my favorite songs and knowing few girls that to me are strong and believing that am also a strong girl you won’t understand now but I still ask myself HOW DOES IT FEEL?

I FIRST IGNORED…….

A certain afternoon walking from class passed by a girl she gives me a flyer and in my mind I thought “I won’t throw it away right here she will think i ignored it” I threw it in my bag and act like am making a phone call……..Later in the middle of the night came across the flyer again and I decided to read it, it was written “MSAIDIE BERNADETHA MSIGWA AWEZE KUONA TENA” meaning “HELP BERNADETHA MSIGWA TO GAIN HER EYESIGHT AGAIN” followed by phone numbers where you can contribute any amount of money to help her see again. I didn’t know the story but then later on it was trending all over, first I heard a different story, later I got the actual story from a trusted source.

BERNADETHA’S TRUE TORTURING SITUATION…..

 Eavesdrop, Bernadetha was a student at Mzumbe University Morogoro Tanzania joining from Kilakala Girls Secondary School Morogoro Tanzania. She was a normal student had a normal life, she had friends she had a routine too may be better than mine and most of all trust me she had laughter too but one day out of the blue she started to feel a strange headache she took painkillers to treat it. Well up to that it still seemed as a normal headache she went on with her normal routine but some days headache would strike and she couldn’t do a thing and that was in her last semester almost getting a bachelor degree in human resource management in 2014 the headache went on it became serious and now she could hardly read she got the medical attention but it didn’t work and then her eyesight started fainting slowly, in the end of May 2014 was the last time that she could see with her two eyes she became blind, HOW DOES IT FEEL?

 From then Bernadetha got the university’s attention it helped her to get back to her studies with facilities that could assist her in reading and her movements by considering her situation but then this doesn’t change the fact that she had normal life and now she is blind and cannot see a thing….how does it feel, she couldn’t see the faces of her friends nor the beauty of the day. Bernadetha says she cannot remember the faces the image is gone and she asks have you ever imagined yourself without your beautiful eyes? Then ask her….maybe we are all asking ourselves now how does it feel? This is just a long torturing real life situation and not a story made.

In overcoming her everyday life situations Bernadetha can’t do anything by herself then she requested help from a friend that was a classmate to help her and be her guardian, a friend had a degree already but she applied for no job and opted to help Bernadetha, this is where I ask myself can I still be proud and sing the “STRONG GIRL” song again? How strong is this Bernadetha’s friend to leave everything she struggled for and just become a guardian….how does it feel? And how strong is Bernadetha to get back to school even after realizing that she cannot see and then she says her family depends on her and she still believes she can be dependable despite of the situation….my friend how does it feel? Well Bernadetha got help, a big fundraising was held on 28th May 2016 and large amount of money was collected and we are hoping for the best that she gets to see the beautiful day again.

LET’S GET THIS TOGETHER…….

My friend you might be very proud of what you are accomplishing in life today or the life you are living today because you are very strong and you have passed some obstacles for yourself but there are people who are being strong and passing the obstacles for themselves and others have you ever wondered how does it feel? And at the very same time there are people who can’t live even a half of what you are living, people who haven’t accomplished even a quarter of what you have accomplished….how does it feel?..It is still hard to answer this question no matter how close you are with your friend, your siblings or your parents you will never understand or bare what another person is feeling. Despite of feeling sorry over Bernadetha’s situation we will never understand how it feels like to be blind while you use to see with your very own eyes. Let’s not take things for granted, at the moment I was asking myself twice and thrice if i should attend the class or not there is a person praying hard that one day he/she gets the chance to study and there is another person saying “if I would’ve studied”. At the moment I am trying to close my eyes again and don’t want see the sunshine cursing “ooooh it’s morning already?” there is a person praying hard to see this very beautiful day again.

To appreciate everything that happens in your life should be the key, do not take things for granted….appreciate your situation now because you do not know what is about to happen in the coming two seconds, appreciate your life, your family, your friends and everything that surrounds you because what you are is what you were meant to be and what is happening was meant to. Nothing is better everybody has weaknesses everybody has the worst days, a person once told me “I just wish I was you” and I answered “be careful what you wish for” that’s a very familiar phrase but we should re-think and be careful with what we wish for…. Because we do not know how it feels like to be what we are not…..Or maybe you answer me how does it feel? “Be thankful for what you have, you will end up having more, if you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough –Oprah Winfrey” 

BUT THEN…… 

This does not stop us from setting goals and having role models…. It’s okay to envy and work on success but we should remember “Behind every exquisite that existed there was something tragic-Oscar Wilde”