As I embarked on the journey called life, challenges and hindrances have been at my feet. The world was no longer my oyster, but rather my disaster. Nevertheless, I thrived against all odds. This is my story, a story of a book judged too quickly.

Growing up different was very hard. As an only child of a single mother, a lot was expected of me because of my gender. What broke my mother’s heart was that I wasn’t the daughter she wanted me to be. The truth of the matter was that I am homosexual and that was truly an abomination in my mother’s eyes.

Coming out of the closet was the most difficult decision ever, but hiding in the closet was pure torture. When I first told my mother, she thought I was possessed and bewitched. According to her, there’s no such thing, unless of course, the Devil has taken control of your senses. What made matters worse was that my mother invited her church ladies to pray for the evil spirits to leave my tormented soul.

Eventually, I put my foot down and refused to attend any of the prayer meetings. That’s when things changed forever. Drastic changes to be precise. I ended up homeless and disowned by my own. I was all alone in this cruel, judgemental world. What happened to ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’? or ‘Only God can judge you’? That’s when my life began.

Living in the streets was a nightmare I thought I couldn’t wake up from. Everybody knew my story. My story of how I defied my mother and became the Devil incarnate. My story of how my homosexual self was the Devil’s handiwork. Truthfully speaking, this wasn’t my story, but a story written and encrypted by many, based on my sexual orientation.

What I learned is that your weaknesses should not define your destiny. I saw myself as a waste of breath but someone saw the potential in me of being someone great. My big break was when I ended up in the orphanage called The Safe Haven. I went back to school and pursued my eleventh grade.

To make matters worse, I proved my mother right that I could not amount to anything. My grades were very bad and I failed rapidly. They say there’s always light at the end of the tunnel, but I felt that my light was getting dimmer by the minute. I started to believe that I had an intellectual disability.

Regardless of how I thought I could not attain anything, he still believed that I had potential and that the world was at my feet. The man recognised my true calling of being a singer. He told me how he’d been observing my life from afar and was waiting for the right time to strike and to give me the opportunity and the platform to realise my true potential and talent. In that very instant, I started to believe that there was a God and that He had sent me a person who would look beyond my flaws and unravel the story that was unseen by many.

As I am writing this essay, I’m in the comfort of my luxurious Porsche, with the love of my life by my side. Let your aspiration be to inspire others and always remember, don’t judge a book by its cover, because you never know what a book is about until you get to page thirty.