Don’t be caught in the trap, avoid bad company

Bad company corrupts good morals. It’s an age-old adage that reminds and defines us by the company they keep.
Chances are you will be an intellectual if you hung around one or a criminal if your company is of gang bangers and drug dealers or such.
People you call friends might have the looks, money or connections that you might need in life but beyond this, do not compromise on some things because you have to fit.
Gladys posted a photo on Facebook smoking shisha, “I love the new me” she said. “I should try out that thing; maybe you can take me with you one day”, the first comment read.
Subsequent comments pointed to a person who wanted to find her new self but didn’t know where she was headed.
I had last seen Gladys years ago when we were in Senior Three. She was a lonely child who had been adopted after she lost her parents.
A race in mind told me this wasn’t the Gladys I knew, she was a different person who could have been pushed into the arms of wrong elements outside her circle.
Gladys’ story, as I learnt, turned for the worst when she decided to visit her ‘cool’ friends instead of going to the village for Christmas as her parents hoped.
For the first few days, she stayed home helping with chores but after too much persuasion, she joined the party trail where her friends could drink and smoke anything on the menu.
She could not think of tasting anything but her friends convinced her, telling her “when your body gets familiar, it will no longer be a problem.”
This is how Gladys started on the ‘new me’ that has made her one of Kampala’s socialite wannabes.
Her clothes get shorter by the day and she smokes anything that can make her ‘high’ . This, just like many other people, is her definition of ‘cool’ and her adopted mother just can’t understand where she picked the motivation.
“Is this what you call ‘cool’?” her mother posted on one of her timeline pictures whose pattern rotate around night life, bars and night clubs.
Not everyone you meet in life deserves a seat in your friendship zone. Some are hurt and damaged people.
The moment you start compromising your principles it’s a signal that you should be cutting out that person from your life.
Therefore as the year ends, you might want to analyse the people in your life, cut out some and keep the loyal ones who don’t have to change you.