Do you remember your first day of school ? How were you feeling? I remember mine, I was so nervous and this was even made worse when I was bullied on my first day of school. The next day my year one teacher encouraged all my class mates to sing a song with a following word “ Saliki Chama is a fool, Saliki Chama is Mr Bean” with those words going around school no one was ever going to be my friend. I was laughed at wherever I went around the school. I am sure you all had that kid in your school who was always on his own, I was that kid, segregated from his peers by a teacher who was supposed to help him on his journey. It took me a long time for to start making friends, for me to discover who I was and to be honest I really did not know who I was until I was about 24 years of age. However you might be asking why I think my difficult past is a reason of my success?

Well, from the first day of school I was in a fight, every day was a challenge for me, waking up in the morning and putting the uniform was a challenge because no one made fun of me when I was home or at church but people made fun of me when I was wearing that green uniform. In all my time at school I only missed a day of school because of bullying, the rest of the times I turned up and faced my fears. Today I am able to use this attitude that served me so well in difficult times in my young life to build a brighter and better future for myself. Most people start to fight big battles late in life but I am so grateful that I started mine when I was 6 years old because today I am reaping the success. It is true what they say, it is the ashes of defeat that produces the roses of of success.