While I set this lady free, doing what she wanted and not affecting me with her problems, that could kill me. People do that sometimes. Like using you when you have money and once it’s gone you become nothing to them. I pray for God to save me if I fall into one of those traps again. I have one life to live and I’m not somebody’s toy to play with.

How on earth did I lose my job? There are a lot of reasons… Did I change and become a bad odour to my managers? Somehow I know that everyone liked them more than I did. Everything got me into trouble with the office staff. One guy tried to give me a chance to learn more about the restaurant business, but then he told me to go to hospital because he could not help me. I never thought what his next words would be. All I could think about was that I was going to lose my job. I should thank Junior for giving me the time to save my job.

I had nothing since I spent all my mom’s savings on studying at college. I lacked planing and managing my spending, investing wasn’t a trick that I had learned. All I knew was how to play with words, as an artist, so financial skills? These were absent. They never existed.

But, I think that my dream has been inside me all this time. This means I’ve got it. I’ve succeeded. But my hopes are in the start while my face is buried in the ground. As to why it’s hard to find a job in the restaurant industry, I don’t know. I can’t just forget my four years of experience. If it were a degree I was just awarded, I would say ‘okay’, I understand I’m a naïve novice who has only filled my head with text from books. I wouldn’t be able to hold a tray properly. I’d spill a customer’s meal on the floor. But, no. Even before those consecutive years of experience, I had two three-month terms in the fast food industry.

The first three months as a runner, another three months as a griller. Then came that opportunity I held on to for four long years.

Now I’m back home. I’m in my ready mode – ready to start this all over again. But this time when mistakes happen I won’t throw in the towel, nor will I turn my back. I’ll learn and grow. Most of all I’ll be a man because now is my time. I’m not a child anymore, I’ll soon be a father.

So, what am I meaning to say? In art, you can never achieve your goal unless you practice first. Technically.

Bear with me, since that day they told me that my mom’s not coming back from hospital it has worried me a lot. That had happened to my older sister’s daughter and her older sister who passed away the year before she did. She passed away on her birthday. I didn’t know my thoughts when I went to bed after hearing the news about my mother. I had to figure out what to do with my life that same morning.

I tested my drawing skills. I took a picture of a famous guy from a magazine and drew his portrait. It was Chippa from Back Stage, a soapie that aired on e-TV, that’s when he started his music career with Mzambia. I drew it with a pen using ink. Today I can do whatever I wish to do while I was still young, and when Ma was still alive. Though I haven’t got a diploma or a degree.

So this is a gift from me. If you hear a voice inside saying that you have no talent, that you’re a nobody, that’s not true. There’s a lot you can do. First thing when you lose your job, make sure you can stand on your own two feet. Get advice about investing or owning something that can bring in an income and have your family behind you.

Tell us: What’s your talent?