At the local library, there’s a white woman who works there. It’s clear she doesn’t like me. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me give you a backstory first. * I grew up spending most of my Saturdays at the one and only library in Worcester. I adored books, so much that I …
From the moment a baby is born, almost everyone is in awe of this bundle of potentiality. What will this child be like? Who will he/she grow up to be? What choices will he/she make? It is almost instantly hardwired into us that we each have a specific purpose for being on this earth. It’s …
‘Swimming is simply moving meditation.’ Cesar N. Caharian I am not a superstitious person, but I have my rituals. It is a safe thing to fall back to in an ever-changing world. One such ritual I have is when it comes to swimming. Swimming and I go a long way back. When I was nineteen …
Last year, I posted two blogs in total. The first blog was focused on the books and writers that have shaped me as a person. The second blog was based on the music and magazines that have influenced me up until today. Today, I am concluding my ‘Things I Have Loved’ series. This blog will …
Recently, my grandmother gave me a suitcase. It was brown, small and worn out leather, and it was filled with newspaper clippings, black-and-white photos, magazine articles, old passports, worn-out Bibles, cufflinks, and even an expired bank card. This suitcase had a special distinction to it because it once belonged to my grandfather, Christiaan ‘Goggie’ Johannes …
My friend recently gave birth to her first-born, a beautiful and healthy daughter. What I appreciate about our relationship is that she’s been honest with me from the very start. She has not sugar-coated the challenges of being pregnant, giving birth and finally, the major adjustments she’s had to make with taking care of a …
‘Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.’ Psalm 9:10 In every relationship, trust is vital. Without trust, a solid foundation cannot be built. The key to building long-lasting relationships is to have complete faith in one another, knowing that you can depend on each …
I give you this to take with you: Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting. Theresa Brits I believe that this will be a year of starting anew. There has been an uprooting in identity, belonging, and purpose in the last two years, …
There’s this website where you can calculate the number of days you’ve been alive on this earth. Accordingly, I have now been here on this earth for a total of 11,167 days. I’m from the Millennial Generation. If you haven’t yet heard or read of these generational calculations, read this chart – it is a …
‘It is 365 years since the first Dutch settlers arrived at the Cape but no more than 180 years since Afrikaner nationalism gained momentum and barely 100 years since Afrikaans was formally recognized as a language.’ John Battersby Yesterday I was at a restaurant, and as I was playing with my 2-year-old nephew in the …
There’s a scene in the 1964 musical film My Fair Lady where Freddie, a young man hopelessly in love with the main character, Eliza Doolittle, visits the street where she lives. She refuses to see him, so he wanders up and down her street. It’s getting dark and the streets are empty, but Freddie is …
It is 1995. Someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up. ‘A writer,’ I say without hesitation. I am six years old and I have yet to learn how to read and write. ‘What do you want to write about?’ the same person asks me. ‘A book,’ I reply. ‘A book …
The relationship between children and their parents can be a complicated thing. Our parents are complicated human beings themselves. We are an extension of them, so that already makes us complicated as soon as we come into this world. We carry their DNA, their personality traits, their physical attributes. We can also end up carrying …
Dit is die dag voordat ek en my ma Kaap toe vlieg. Ons beplan om eers Stellenbosch toe te gaan, dan Robertson, Gansbaai en uiteindelik Blouberg. Ek voel alreeds onrustig oor die padreis, maar ek kan nie my vinger daarop sit nie. Dit is vreemd, wat ek het nog nooit so gevoel oor enige iets …
I met tannie Jules around the time I became well-known in Bloemfontein as a motivational speaker. She was a friend of my grandmother’s and they both lived in a retirement village just outside of Bloemfontein. My grandmother quickly became friends with tannie Jules; conversations with her was engaging, interesting and never dull. My grandmother had …
It is a rare thing, meeting someone who leaves a considerable impression on you. Someone who carries an air of fire around them. Who has this undeniable passion within themselves in the way they carry themselves. They are well-read, well-traveled and well-equipped to handle all kinds of challenges that life throws at them. They are …
I got my first chore chart when I was six years old. On this chart was a list of things that I need to accomplish every day, some of them once a week. Because I had just started learning to read, my mom drew pictures next to every chore so that my sister and I …
A few years ago I was the leading actress in a theatre play called ‘Kinders van Stilte,’ which was adapted and translated from the Broadway play ‘Children of a Lesser God’ by Mark Medoff. In this theatre play, I had the role of Sandra, a 26-year-old deaf woman who refused to speak like a hearing …
Disclosure means to make ‘a fact, especially a secret, known.’ This is my secret: I have unintentionally lied about something for years. Eleven years, to be exact. Now I need to bring it out in the open: I had friends in high school. Five of them, to be exact. The final nail in the coffin …
We are constantly being bombarded with voices. Certain voices scream at us, taunting us with our fears. Some voices whisper at us; it is barely audible and we hardly recognize them. Other voices speak to us as daily reminders of the things that are missing in our lives. Advertisements. Social media. Family. Friends. Colleagues. They …
It is inevitable, but undeniable. We are constantly being shaped by the things around us. Music. Books. Television. Films. Magazines. It influences us and the way we view the world. It moves us, makes us come alive, changes us. We’re not always aware of it. * Lately I’ve been pondering about the things that has …
These past few weeks I’ve been having genuine ‘aha’ moments. Moments of revelation, moments of clarity and relief. For the first time in my life, I am relieved that I do not have children – yet. It is a discovery that I am very much surprised about. * I love kids. When I was in …
I haven’t felt like myself for a while now. I haven’t been fully myself in a long time. I am in an uncomfortable place in who I am as a person. No matter how much I try, I just can’t go back to who I was before. I am struggling to reclaim myself. * There’s …
I have a clear, vivid memory of the first time I saw Nelson Mandela. I was six years old and we lived in Bloemfontein at the time. The year was 1995, June the 24th. It was probably a cold day. My father was watching television in the living room with my two uncles. My mom …
This essay is a hard one for me to write. This essay means I have to think about all the people who’ve wronged me, rejected me or didn’t see me for who I really am. Especially where my career was concerned. People who said yes to me, people who promised opportunities to me but didn’t …