I wholeheartedly accept the motto, “Life is what you make of it” and would preach it to the wide-eyed super sensitive eight-year-old me over and over again if I had to.

“Find the good then rule out the bad,” Mama would say to me every time I would sulk over a tragic article I had seen in our local newspaper.

What good could possibly come from a mother of three losing her shack in a wild shack fire? Why did bad things always happen to good people? Oh, what about the young man who had to watch his car burn to tiny pieces on the side of the road? These questions set me alight. It was only the next day where I learnt that the woman and her kids would’ve succumbed to their deaths in the very same shack. A health inspector confirmed that the shack would’ve most likely collapsed in a few months to come, and the young man? Rumour had it the car was meant to end his life. He’d gotten a brand new car from insurance and an RDP house was built for Mrs Mkangisa. Little did I know I was yet to be an example to this theory.

My life changed forever on 31 January 2018 when I’d been offered a scholarship to play soccer at one of the best soccer academies in Johannesburg. This was right after I’d been kicked out of my club for not “performing well”. I remember crying my heart out, ignoring every single person and hating myself for being ‘Inkomo’, ‘a cow’ as they’d say. Playing soccer was the only thing I knew how to do and if I could not play soccer, I could not do anything. Receiving the scholarship meant Mama would never have to worry about my soccer fees anymore.

Then it hit me, everything happens for a reason! This is the mere magic of this wild ride called life. If it didn’t happen the way you’d planned it most probably wasn’t supposed to happen that way. Don’t sulk and pull faces. Instead thank life for a second chance to do it bigger and better again.

I never used to understand why mama would say the things she did, why she would click her tongue, shake her head and say, “They thought they were destroying him but they’re only taking him higher.” I learned to never question why things happened the way they did that day. I knew the universe was always listening and words can be spoken into existence. If I had not been kicked out of my club, I’d have never gone for trials for a scout-club.

I realised then that everything would have explained itself if I had only stopped interrupting. Forgive yourself for not being where you thought you’d be and trust yourself enough to know that life always has a back-up plan. Out of every bad situation, there will always be a good outcome. Trust the process and always remember to give it your all.

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