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Keeping It Real
Submitted by: CEDRIC.S
SOUTH AFRICAHappily married, got the job of my dreams, two beautiful kids. Friends think I am the most amazing person they have ever met.
I grew up in what we in South Africa call ‘the Cape Flats’. When I was growing up there was always violence and poverty wherever you looked. I had only my Mom to look after my siblings and myself. There was never enough. I walked to school in the rain, wearing my only shirt, pants and one pair of shoes. I even had to work after school and in my spare time. I never got to play outside, or even have friends. But I was never sad – never truly sad. I promised myself each day that I will not end up poor, uncaring for people, or violent. And I believed this for my entire life, no matter how bad it got. People always told me that I would amount to nothing, a failure. But what people did not realise is I never took that as a negative but always as a motivation. All I heard was, this is how we think you will be. So I would think everyone else is worrying about what a failure I would end up as, so while everyone is doing that I will concentrate on how successfull I CAN be.
So I have seen that you can be whatever you can be. And when people see me and comment on my success I always tell them that they can be this way too. They don’t believe me at first, but the more I talk about it, and I do that with passion, you can see the understanding dawn on them. The thing is you cannot love, care, respect anybody truthfully, if you do not do it to yourself honestly and whole heartedly. Love yourself absolutely and then love everybody the same way. No lies or deception. Keeping It Real.