This week, I had the chance to discuss the value of education and mentoring with a friend teaching underprivileged kids in poor neighborhoods of New York City. Through that discussion, I was reminded of the fact that as much as I would like to believe that I am self-made, my life has been a series of opportunities which without the right people around me, I wouldn't have seized and made the most of. Growing up, I was far from being the model intelligent child whose pedigree had written successful stories with blank spaces just waiting to be filled with his name. In fact, only the most desperate of writers would have found something interesting to write about the most uncaring, antisocial and downright listless child one could have ever met. Then it begs the question, how did I make it here, taking upon myself to complete a graduate research degree, one which requires an immense amount of self-motivation and commitment. The answer is quite simple actually. I had the right entourage, something not all of us have the privilege to have.
I grew up surrounded by people who as far as my uninterested eyes could see were always striving for more. The uncle I met twice every year, at Christmas and New year's eves, was always going on and on about the next project he had gotten his hands on. Sitting across from him, I always asked myself why would he spent a whole year failing at one thing only to once again become excited about it during the least festive holiday my family was allowed to celebrate. Even the cousin whom I had the terrible luck of living with for a semester when I started high school and who spent seven years finishing medical school while most did in four years, was ready to dive into earning a medical teaching license, one with a placement exam written to fail anyone stupid enough to take it. It was as if the years he spent suffering in school weren't enough to dissuade his baseless optimism, I thought.
Watching these people around me fail, times and times again and yet none of them capitulating, I started to wonder if there was something their eyes could see that I couldn't. My ignorant young self could only see what was in front of him, the suffering and frustration generated by their failures, the pessimistic attitude of anyone who knew them, and in my eyes the precious time which they had wasted. Nonetheless, seeing them try again, I could only wonder what they could so clearly see to try so hard so many times. Thus, one evening I asked my dad. To my surprise, he told me that what they were looking for wasn't a reward or happiness but the opportunity to prove their worth. That moment was the first opportunity I was given to be where I am today.
From that moment, I kept working and seizing any opportunity to do more work. Like Thomas Edison said. these opportunities came dressed in overalls and looking like work. So I worked, worked until I had enough experience to do more work. The importance of the work mattered less than its completion because I was taught that one only finds value in completing a task at hand than in assessing the importance of a task yet to assigned. Those words which the community I was part of growing up taught me became the biggest drive the listless child I once was, needed to overcome his own pessimism. And so taking the chance to work across West Africa in a construction business for two years after high school, I came across the African Leadership Academy a pan-African school in South Africa. Seizing the opportunity, I headed to Johannesburg without knowing a word of English. Putting more efforts than most, I ended in the US two years later to complete an undergraduate degree and the rest leading me to today.
The entourage which taught me that it was okay to fail but never enough to only try once, gave me the courage to step out of my comfort zone and seize any opportunities coming my way. This entourage is something not a lot us have growing up and even more so for most of the kids in underprivileged homes. While education may give them the skills they need, a supportive and ambitious entourage is what will motivate them to achieve more and fulfill the enormous potential they have.
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