Happiness, horror, hatred, embarrassment and feeling lost – that made me see life from a new perspective. That gave me a purpose. I realised that emotions are not weakness but responses that show humanity. Self-love is an acceptance of your true self. It’s about not being a saint but being a sinner who learns and improves.

Brenton was someone very sure about discovering the secret of life and the purpose he had in this world. Every day at home he would analyse himself. Whenever he did something wrong he would punish himself. His parents were very accepting and gave him freedom, but he would cage himself in his room and exclude himself from the world outside as he believed it was toxic. He believed emotion was weakness.

Every day he would look outside his window into his neighbour’s back yard. He would always see Lisor, the hottest girl in his school. She had a boyfriend nicknamed ‘The Slasher’ – not the brightest, but he would tease little kids at high school. Brenton would feel the need to defend them. But that would go against his beliefs about emotion and weakness. If they also got into a fight it could jeopardise his perfect record.

Lisor always showed an interest in him, but he felt like she would slow him down at school and in achieving his goals.

One day as he was walking home he saw a very fancy expensive Ferrari – it almost ran him over. In it was an old man who looked like he had it all. The man saw that Brenton was hurt and offered to help him. Brenton had a twisted ankle. The man took him to his home which was a big mansion with a big yard and plenty of expensive stuff. It was close to perfect. The only wrong thing was no one was home and the old man had loneliness in his eyes.

Brenton asked the old man why he had everything except people around. The old man explained to him by telling him his life story, of how he never took interest in his loved ones and didn’t believe in emotions, so he ended up rich but alone. Brenton quickly connected the dots and saw the similarity in their lives. That was when he decided to change his life and not be afraid to show emotion, especially to Lisor.