Keeping Up Appearances: It Comes At a Cost

Yes, keeping up appearances does come at a cost, just look at #visabae.

This young Zimbabwean lady living in the UK asked her viewers/subscribers on Youtube to donate some money towards her visa application.

Rutendo Tichiwangani aka RLT on Instagram and Youtube shared a 30-minute sob story on her Youtube channel, I have one month left, essentially asking people to donate GBP 2300 in order for her to apply for indefinite stay in the UK. GBP 2300 is R39 000. In naira, that is an equivalent of N 1 166 410. I’ll leave you with that thought.

The crazy thing is she asked for this donation only a month before her current visa is to expire. Talk about being ill-prepared! Surely this is something you plan in advance?

Lord knows I am not the most organised of people but unless you have a plan to fall back on, you don’t leave such decisions to the last minute. Am I right?

How does someone who wears expensive hair, carries expensive bags, use an expensive phone and camera get to the point where she is begging people for money? I guess this is the question that most people are asking. Why are you portraying a life of luxury on one end and crying about your financial disadvantages on the other?

Some may call it mixed-up priorities or keeping up appearances. I think it’s both.

I personally would not have given a dime to RLT and that’s not because I’m mean. I was more upset than touched by her sob story and here’s why:

1. If her visa status was that important to her, she wouldn’t have waited until a month before the expiration date to ask for help.
2. She was asking people for money like she deserved it. People don’t even make that kind of money in one month and she was expecting it in donations.
3. She could have sold some of the clothes she claims were sponsored or sold some of her electronic gadgets to come up with the funds.
4. Based on what she confessed, I just didn’t get the sense that she had tried everything she could to get the funds herself other than wishing and praying.

However, I guess some people are more compassionate than I am or more gullible but she did exceed her donation target and apparently made close to GBP 5, 000!

I just think there are people more deserving. People who work really hard just to make ends meet. people who don’t have the luxury of wearing fancy clothes (sponsored or not), or carry designer bags even if it was borrowed from a friend.

In my opinion, her story just teaches others to think it’s okay to sell a fake life of luxury to people and then beg for some money when you’re in a tight spot and then poof! All your problems will disappear at the expense of other people’s generosity.

She mentioned having suffered from depression on her Youtube channel but that doesn’t surprise me one bit. There are many factors that lead/contribute to depression, one of which has to do with leading a double life. Keeping up appearances and trying to impress others can be exhausting and can trigger depressive episodes.

If you haven’t seen my post on Intagram addiction and its effects, you can read it here.

To conclude this rant of mine, I would like to implore anyone reading to stay true to themselves. In a world where everyone looks the same, there is something to be said for individuality. Be the exception.

Don’t feel like you have to conform to be liked. It is better to be disliked for being yourself than it is to be liked for being someone else.

To watch #visabae’s channel 5 news interview, click here.

I definitely would like to see how she comes back from all of this. Will she go back to social media life? I don’t think I’d have the balls, not unless she rebrands herself.

If you’ve been “keeping up with #visabae” comment your thoughts down below.