My Story, My Life

As a young African boy growing up in the rural village of Maandagshoek I always had dreams to be someone great that everybody respected and admired. My dream was to become a medical doctor and earn as much money as possible, for me that was the only way to gain respect as it’s something I saw happening around me.

You see I was raised by a single mother, and I had three other brothers. So you can imagine the sacrifices she had to make.  Society has made it a common thing that most households lack a father figure, hence most children end up having to grow up very quickly in order to be able to help their families. It wasn’t easy for all of us to live in a shack together. Privacy was hardly there, but you know what it was home.

As I grew older my dreams and aspirations changed. It became more and more about being cool, how much money I had and how well I dressed. Fortunately that habit didn’t stop me from being one of the few teenagers in my community to make it to varsity, but it had a huge effect on my results. While many students worked hard for distinctions I worked hard to make sure I was cool.

It felt good coming home during holidays. All your childhood friends would listen to all your stories, the clubs you’ve been to, the number of girls you’ve met. For any young man in my community that that was THE life. I went from being an ordinary boy to being the cool kid on the block. Girls who ignored me while growing up were suddenly giving me more attention than ever.

All I had to do was make sure I remain cool and everything will be fine. That’s probably one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made in my life, because it would define who I was to become as a young adult. This is one of the mistakes that many young men make as they grow and don’t realize the impact it has on their lives.

That mistake is forgetting who you are and where you come from as a young African man. Forgetting your true values and what is important in life is not to focus on materialistic things.

I later realized that to gain respect and to be admired by people is not about how much money you had, but it was about what you do as an individual. It is about the value that you add to someone else’s life, the value that you add in your family as well as your community.

As a young boy or girl we all have dreams and visions and it is very important that those dreams and visions come from a caring space within you. Change in location shouldn’t change who you are as a person.

I am finally gaining that respect and those riches I wished for, the difference is that my riches don’t come in the form of money; they come in a form of passion and seeing the smile my work brings to people’s faces.