“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
__Viktor E. Frankl
The word ‘Serutwe’ in my local language means “Of a big head”. I was a dark little boy with a big head, so from that I was nicknamed Serutwe as a way of mocking me, Imagine a dark big-headed boy in tattered village cloth; Total disaster, right?. More to that I was clever in class so pupils could make statements in class like “Serutwe is clever. Serutwe is poor, join sentences using ‘both’ ”, all in form of mocking me.
There were reminders of grief but i was too much optimistic to be pulled down. As a little boy after my primary education level, I happened to be one of the best pupils in performance, what came as luck but hurting was that I turned out to be one of the best pupils in the sub-county yet I was from a poor village public school whose education standards you could doubt compared to other good schools, but there was no school fees little as 15dollars for a school term to push me ahead. There was a sponsorship from the white fathers but as I was selected, the deal was cut amidst by a middle man.
My mother who earned less than two dollars per week advised me to take leave from studies for a year so that a year after she may sell her crops after harvesting but to me as a little boy, I knew the family needed the food too since my mother never grew crops on a large scale. A week after all my former primary seven class mates had gone to their newly promoted secondary schools, I, the best performer was still home with no school fees and nothing to do but rather than waking up early, yawn, stretch, look at the brighter rising sun and start writing my dreams on the stony sand of my home compound. With a giant voice inside I clearly recall telling myself several times that “There is a way”.
I had the desire to keep going forward with impact, it seemed like being stagnant in mind and growth to sit home for a year. I had always had this driving force to never stop moving for a day since my early age. I had the urge for progressive learning and growth.
I had the highest level of anger (constructive one not the negative one) against knowledge-poverty and life limitations since I had seen my elder sister taste the thickest soup of grief due to less knowledge exposure. I created a mantra of promising myself every morning to be the best and change such a status.
I chose to take responsibility for my life since I had proof that no one else could make it for me, I felt I had the master key to unlock closed doors of growth opportunities. Yes, I believed everything is possible so long as one gets involved in the making. See the things we yearn for in life are not already made but available for the making. Sometimes all one needs to break the nutshell is just the decision, the self-belief and courage. I made up my mind the next day, i became curious and i acted. I chose to keep going and defy the odds at my front.
I called mummy in a tiny voice of 13 years and reminded her what she used to tell me. I said “Mother, remember what you always tell me, “It’s just how life is but we have the responsibility to change this, and today I take the first step to take responsibility in making the life of my vision, this is the price I have to pay” . Trembling in black fitting shorts, with past year unfinished books (we had no money to buy new books so I used the past since I had some fresh pages) I was seen in the village school compound ready to take off for another level…..
An extract from my soon coming book #WINNINGBYCHOICE
Nicholas Quest - Uganda. 