My Story: How did I end up here? (Part 1)

So uhm, I am going to get very personal for the next couple of weeks. Pretty much my life story so far. Here goes…

I recall the lyrics from a song by Ronan Keating that says, “life is a roller coaster, just gotta ride it”. If you have been on a roller coaster ride before, you know the thrill of going up and down at incredible speed. And yet, despite the fear that’s also part of the experience, the ride feels amazing. One of the reasons I like that song, is because I can relate to it in the “few” years I have experienced life. Here is what my roller coaster-ride has felt like so far.

My most vivid memories only start from primary school, so I will start there. This part of my life felt like the beginning of a typical roller coaster ride – full of excitement and yet slow and calm. The only thing I remember worrying about, at this stage of my life, was nothing. My parents took care of every aspect of my life: from waking up to get ready for school; food; transport to school; school fees; and everything.

Almost everyday after school, I spent hours playing football or riding bicycles with my friends. As expected, in those early stages of schooling, most of us were still looking forward to graduating to high school.

High school was more like the exhilarating part of the roller coaster ride. This is when the pace of my life started becoming faster. Hormones were starting to rage, doing things to impress friends, having crushes on girls (felt like true love then), and thinking about what career I want to pursue. I believe a lot of long-lasting habits are formed at this stage of life – smoking, drinking, drugs, reading, singing, not giving a damn, prejudice, and other habits I choose to censor here (hehehe).

Reggae, Hip Hop, Kwasa Kwasa were the popular genres. If you didn’t listen to that music back then, you were not “cool”. Once again, I was looking forward to the next stage of my life, finishing high school and going to university. Little did I know, my life was about to change drastically.

Keep in mind, I was in Malawi at this stage of the “roller coaster”. I was 14 years old. Half way through high school, my family emigrated to South Africa. Yes, including me. Sadly. That’s how I felt then. As you can imagine, this was a big shift in my life. Starting over with new friends; new school; new language; new country; new girlfriend – not really because I got dumped just before emigrating. That was my first and last heart break – that is what happens when you think you will marry your partner while 14 years old. This felt like the part of the roller coaster ride where people usually scream to suppress the fear and to express excitement.

To be continued next week….