Shopping is part of life, you just cannot survive without buying stuff. Nobody, no matter how much they own or how much they produce can be absolutely self-reliant. There is always something that you will have to go out to buy.

I grew up in a huge farm and one could say that we had everything that we needed. In the farm, we grew all kinds of food from wheat to all kinds of groceries. We had an orchard that had plentiful fruits all year round thanks to the technology that we used. We also had all kinds of farm animals that provided for us all kinds of animal products. We had pigs, cows, sheep, ducks, chicken, and turkeys.

We seemed to have all we needed in terms of food. However, we still needed other kinds of food stuffs. For example, we could not make our own coffee, we could not make our own sugar, and we could not produce the assorted snacks that I loved so much. Apart from the food, we still needed other stuff that was vital for our day to day lives. We needed house appliances, we needed supplies such as soap, polish, clothes, cooking ingredients, and other assorted items.

In getting these assorted items from the market, I learnt about shopping. Unlike getting stuff from the farm where you only have to look for the readiness and freshness of the food product, while shopping for stuff in the market, there are many other things to consider.

My first major challenge in shopping came when I was faced with buying a musical instrument for my younger brother.

In the farm, we were always busy and we could not always look out for my brother who was very playful especially after he started walking. My mother had to find a way to make him occupied so that we could be able to tend to other chores around the house.

Since my brother had already shown some interest in music, it was decided that a musical instrument would be ideal to keep him occupied.

The responsibility of getting the ideal musical instrument for my brother was given to me after I had requested to be given the task. I had developed a passion for shopping from the few times I had gone shopping with my mother and I argued that I would have the best idea of what to buy since I was a close to my younger brother and knew him better.

When I got to the shopping mall, I was directed to the music store – a place that I had never been to before. I was amazed to discover that there were numerous types of musical instruments. After making a few rounds, I was clearly lost for choice. I requested for assistance from one of the attendants who advised that  a beginner’s digital piano would be ideal for my brother. This was an ideal instrument since it was easy to play and it was durable and could not be easily damaged by rough handling.