Five things Mandela taught me

During my first year in school, I wanted to be heard, make impact, and with the speaking gifts I had, I thought it would be an easy task. My first public speaking competition opened my eyes to many weaknesses. I was not only ridiculously shy; I began to stammer once I was asked to speak in front of a large crowd.

My dream of making an impact in my school slowly but persistently began to shatter. But another opportunity came during a speaking competition again and I decided to test myself once more – with the help of my teachers who motivated me and I began to speak. I remember a time when one of my teachers gave a speech, he adopted a quote from Nelson Mandela and Marianne Williamson, “Our deepest fear” – I loved the quote so much that I went ahead to search it out. I found many other wonderful quotes from Mandela which opened me up to a world of new found bravery and victory over my fear for the competition.

Mandela taught me with the wonderful quotes from his book, “Long Walk to Freedom”. Below are some of these quotes:

• He taught me to fight my fears

He said, “I’ve learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not the man who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

I would not say after reading this quote I stopped being afraid, I just learned to fight it. Fear is natural, what makes me brave is that I learned to fight it.

• He taught me never to give up

“There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

I learned not to give up. There’s always light at the end of every tunnel; yes I may feel different sometime, even many times, I just learnt never to act different or defeated. I am not quitter.

• He taught me that leading often does not involve being seen

“A leader… is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”

I’ve always wanted to lead, to be seen, to be heard; but I chased this wrong away. Seeing this quote made me realize that leading doesn’t often involve being seen. It most times involves action. I learnt to let my actions speak for me.

• He taught  me never to expect the same results from my past

“I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind”

Mandela made me realize that to get to the future I dream of, I have to let go of the present I currently live in and walk towards my future making it my present and my past. He also made me understand that the future is the future when I start getting different and better results

• Above all, he taught  me to love

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than it’s opposite.”

He thought me to love, and with that love I can fight for what I want and believe. He thought me that if I loved something so much I would fight for it.

He said,“I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me anger, rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.”