At an early age, I spent most of my time going to forests to snipe shoot – knocking birds with slingshots – as the boys always used to do when we were still young. Sometimes we used to go to the forest with our knobkieries and dogs to find the wild animals. I chose to write about this event because I learnt something from it.

When we shot the birds there was a competition: everyone wanted to shoot more birds than others. We tried as we could but there was one guy who always shot more birds than us. I felt like I was not good enough and weak because I did not manage to shoot more than him. One day, when I was feeling embarrassed because of this guy, I saw him counting his birds under the trees and there was a snake aiming to bite his head. I shot it at its head and it died.

He only saw the snake by the time it fell down. He asked me what happened and I told him the story and he praised me. Since that day I felt like a hero because I saved someone’s life. After that I asked myself, how come I can shoot a small head of a snake but not a bird which is bigger than a snake’s head? The following day I shot twenty-five birds and I was the one who shot the most.

When I grew up I thought back on the event. I tried to find out what it meant. I learnt that in life if you know exactly what you want you can know how to find it, and you can get it. It affected me in a way that I now always find out how to succeed at what I am aiming for. Also, if you really know your background, you can think positively about your future.