My Story: How did I end up here? (Part 2)

In the previous post, My Story: How did I end up here? (Part 1), I explained my early childhood years from primary school, up to mid high school. I used the analogy of a roller coaster ride to explain how my life felt like then. Time for part 2, yay! Yipeeee! Okay, need to calm down.

The year is 1999, in December. I am in a new country, South Africa, after emigrating from Malawi. When I left Malawi I had just started grade 10 (A.K.A standard 8), but had to start over with grade 10 in South Africa as the school terms are different. In Malawi a new term starts in September, while in South Africa a new term starts in January. I did not understand why my family had to move to a new country. I was angry with my parents.

I recall while living in Malawi, I used to get excited when my uncles visited during the Christmas holidays, from South Africa. They always brought presents and money. Presents included toys, and music CDs from artists like Rebecca Malope and Lundi. I loved listening to these artists even though I did not understand the language they were singing in (Zulu, Xhosa). A part of me admired the seemingly glamorous life my uncles had in South Africa, considering they always brought us wonderful gifts whenever they came from there. However, I never wanted to leave my home country and move there like my uncles did. Fate had other plans though.

In January 2000, my younger brother and I were shipped to a boarding school in Hammanskraal, Pretoria. As if being in a new country was not hard enough, I had to be left alone (with my brother) at a boarding school in a remote town. We went home once a month for a weekend. My anger towards my parents just grew stronger.

I consider myself an introvert. I am an introvert. Starting at a new school, in a new country, learning a new language, making new friends was way out of my comfort zone. I noticed a change started within me due to this new environment: I started reading books more than before; felt like my introvert-ism increased; didn’t want to date anymore; and started praying more. Amazing what changes in circumstances can do to a person’s character.

I mentioned previously that Reggae, Hip Hop and Kwasa Kwasa were popular genres in Malawi. While doing grade 10 in South Africa, the popular music genres were Kwaito, House music and Hip Hop. Kwaito and House were more prevalent, especially Kwaito. I remember listening to a lot of DJ Fresh’s compilations, Mdu, Trompies and TKZee in those days. Suddenly my love for this new-found music started developing. I hardly understood the lyrics, but nonetheless, enjoyed the music. In those days I was into “beats” – any song that had a nice beat/drums was an instant hit for me. Back to my analogy, the roller coaster ride of my life felt like it was going fast, up and down.

I was doing well academically (except in Accounting), started making some good friends, was getting to grips of the reality of living outside my home country, and let me not forget a couple of new crushes I was having at the time. This is when I started liking working with computers (until today, my occupation is in Information Technology). I was starting to enjoy life in the new environment. Even my anger towards my parents was starting to decrease.

Fast forward a few years later, I graduated from high school (Prestige College) in 2002. I was looking forward to starting the next stage of my life – tertiary education.

To be continued…again.