"Meeting the legends", a dream coming true!

I have never done anything like this, it's a dream coming true and every fibre of me is expectant and filled with joy in await of this event. Few months ago the idea of organising this great event popped into my mind, I told myself I must do this before the year ends. The idea initially came out of this blog; why don't I organise an event to bring together the people I featured on the "Young Legends of Inspiration" segment of this blog, to talk about the wonderful initiatives the they have taken to inspire others to do more? I made my intentions known to "that man, that inspiration" and he thought it would be a wonderful initiative to carry out and offered to sponsor it! (I'm looking foward to more people and organisations sponsoring this in the subsequent editions.)  

Next step? I approached my first legend Ato Ulzen-Appiah and fortunately, he urged me on and agreed to be on the program. That encouragement injected a lot of #vim into me. Some I approached weren't positive but at the end of the day, I managed to get Naa Oyoo Quartey and Gabriel Obodai Torgbor-Ashong on the bill as well, they were really positive about this! With the help of an awesome team, everything has been put in place. This isn't going to be a one time event but will grow stronger into a yearly one. 

Still wondering who these legends are? Let me shortly introduce them.

Ato Ulzen-Appiah is an entrepreneur, manager and blogger. He hails from Elmina, grew up in Kumasi and lives in Accra. A notable alumni of Presec, he studied at MIT for his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and had his Master's degree at Stanford in construction and engineering management. 

He currently works at Rancard as product manager building new revenue services off its platform, in charge of payments and content hosting.notable alumni of Presec

He's the director at the GhanaThink Foundation which mobilizes and organizes talent for the primary benefit of Ghana. GhanaThink, since its inception, has given birth to Kasahorow and Museke. It currently runs the Barcamp Ghanaprogram (37 events since 2008) from which the Junior Camp Ghana program was created (7 events since 2013). Through GhanaThink, he also initiated National Volunteer Day, which is now part of the Ghana Volunteer Program. More of him can be found here.

Naa Oyoo Quartey is a Ghanaian lifestyle blogger with an authentic and refreshing style of creative writing on lifestyle topics ranging from; movie reviews, events in Ghana, relationship topics, health topics, reviews of restaurants in Ghana, short stories, fashion events and tips, social media, wedding planning tips, social issues, etc. She won two awards at the Ghana Social Media awards for Best Lifestyle Blogger and Best Short Story, Creative Writing Blogger at the BloggingGhana awards in 2013. Her love for all things people, food, travel, health and innovation ensures the blog is relevant for every reader. Her hobby includes creating handmade accessories which is under the label Roots by Naa, writing and dashes of style photography. More about her can be found here.

Gabriel Obodai Torgbor-Ashong is a broadcast journalist at Metro Television and was the former SRC General secretary of the Ghana Institute of Journalism. His zeal and hardwork helped the SRC chalk notable successes during his administration. He loves working with and for children, hence volunteers at Curious Mind, a group which advocates the rights of young people. More about him can be found here.

More other awesome legends like Edward Amartey Tagoe of Nandi Mobile Ltd will be featured in the next edition of this.

This great event will he held at the lecture hall I of the Ghana Institute of Journalism on 14th November, 2014 at 3:30pm. This would have the legends come share on their various initiatives to inspire us to take action and do more!

You just can't miss this,come let's get inspired to take action!

You have a suggestion or want to sponsor? Kindly send a mail to yibelllajournal@gmail.com.

I Know a Ghanaian Star Prize giving Lunch

Winning Konnect Africa's "I know a Ghanaian Star" writing competition is a  big achievement for me and a great step in my writing journey.  It feels awesome when your effort pays, trust me.  It is not completely about the prize but about the experience and fulfilment.  I have blogged about it already but this is to bring life and evidence to complete the whole story.

August 9,2014 was the day scheduled for the Prize giving Lunch which was to take place at Buka Restaurant located in Osu, Accra. This long awaited Saturday finally arrived and it was so awesome. It was a colourful,  fun filled and wonderful.  It's one of those days which you don,t need to mark in your best days column in your diary but you simply and naturally remember it for the rest of your life.

The organisers safely arrived by 7 am in Accra from Nigeria for the event. By12:30 noon, the organisers,  winners and a special guest were all gathered at Buka Restaurant in Osu. Buka is a beautiful African restaurant.  Their building,  interior,exterior and everything portrays Africa. Only African dishes are available and served, so in case you are craving for Ampesi, fufu, akpl3 and fetri detsi,  Buka is the right place to head to.
 
We had an awesome time connecting with  each other,  learning, eating and receiving our prices!

The Golden Effort (Part1)

Did I hear him right? I qualified to the next stage? My joy knew no bounds. I was so elated that I thought my heart would explode out of happiness any moment soon! What joy is it to know that your efforts paid off! I couldn't help but to take a trip down memory lane when I first saw the advertisement in the Daily Graphic. I fell within all the necessary criteria needed to be passed in order to enter the essay competition…but the topic of the essay; so complex! The prize? 10000 Ghana Cedis scholarship! Wow… how badly I needed this! I had applied to a University and I was waiting for my admission letter to get to me. How to finance my tertiary education was my biggest headache. The thought of it always lingered in my cerebrum. The first thing I thought of when I woke up from bed in the morning and the last thing on my mind before I retired to bed. “From whence cometh my help?”; this I never stopped asking myself. If money could be derived from worrying, I guess Bill Gates would be nowhere near me in terms of money. As I read through the advertisement, I knew this platform held my golden ticket. There was just two days left for the period of submission to be due. The complex nature of the topic nearly discouraged me; but my determination was so great that it drowned the discouragement trying to take roots in me. Within two days, I worked tirelessly to produce my essay. Man, it was such a herculean task! The prize kept my zeal aflame. It urged me on whenever I felt like giving up on the task. Finally, I completed it and sent it to the nearest submission point. “Whoa!” I thought I could never complete it. I had done my humanly part, I left the rest in the hands of my God, and there I was qualified to the next stage. That phone call was the best I had ever received in my life. The date, venue and other necessary information were given to me. In anxiety, I waited for that green-light day to arrive. I was asked to prepare to write another essay on that day, but no topic or area was given. Slowly, the days moved; seconds grudgingly gave in to be minutes. Minutes unwillingly grew to be hours and hours reluctantly handed over to days. I had never in my life seen days move that slow. All my brain could do was to imagine how the green-light day was going to be like and which possible topic we could be asked to write on. Who could my competitors be? Did I stand a chance of winning? These were the elements of my thoughts during my “waiting period”. Inevitably, the green-light day arrived. I couldn't afford to be late. This was almost my life. I woke up very early and set off. In the car, I was so full anxiety and the butterflies in my tummy were uncountable. Silent prayers, I didn't stop offering to my God. Finally, I reached my destination. I stood before an extremely exquisite huge and tall building which looked like a pyramid. I walked towards it and entered. At the reception were three young gentlemen and two young ladies seated with their eyes fixed on their phone screens. They looked engulfed in whatever they were reading. It instantly hit me that they were part of my competitors. My heart started to beat faster. I greeted and took my seat as I got to them. They looked up to the stranger who just joined them; some kept staring like I just dropped from heaven and two others quickly focused back to their screens. What was it they were seriously reading? Had they heard about any topic? I couldn't help miss out on any information so I quickly asked the gentleman sitting by me. “No extra information has been given, just thought it wise to go through some stuff which might help” replied the gentleman. “Some stuff which might help?” My eyes grew wider, whatever that was, I hoped it wasn't something I had no knowledge about” Wisdom was knocking at my door and I needed to open “her”; I quickly took my phone and goggled stuff I also thought could help. A while after, more people joined us and we were ushered into a conference room on the 13^th floor. The lift that transported us to there….hmm, I’d share that experience another day. We were too many for just one conference room, so we were divided for three different rooms. The conference room I was sent to was so beautiful and well furnished. We took our seats around a big round table. The room was clouded with great tension. I had never experienced that kind of tension in my life; not even when I entered the examination hall for my first WASSCE paper. I could really feel the throbbing of my heart as I looked round at my competitors. No one had even said a word to another. Just then, a gentleman entered the room…all eyes was on him .He was slim and tall and fi…ne. He stood before us and introduced himself, and told us a little more about him. He opened his fountain of knowledge and shared some things concerning his field which we found quite interesting. One major bread of advice he broke and shared with us was that we should avoid getting into a relationship as we enter our various chosen universities. His premise for this was the fact that university guys aren't “serious”; they don’t know what they really want until they are done with school and face the missile life may dart at them. That piece of advice triggered discussions among ourselves, he urged us to make friends among ourselves and by the time we could say jack, we were all happily interacting. He really inspired us. This gentleman was the heat that melted the ice of tension that surrounded us. About an hour after that, some men entered the room with cameras, set them and there we were, being covered. “Were the press supposed to be here?” I wondered. Tension started growing again but the “fine gentleman” had already surrounded us with his anti-tension membrane. Just then, we were alerted that we would be writing our essays in the next ten minutes, but before then, a list was passed round for us to cross check our details and sign. When the list got to me, I realized that every other name were in capital letters except mine. Worry engulfed me, a lot of thoughts made way into my head. Just then an official of the company came by and I quickly drew his attention to it. “Oops! Sorry about this dear, it is not intentional at all. It’s just a printing error. Don’t worry, it’s not going to affect you at all” he assured. He had a soft soothing voice which evaporated my worry, he was good looking too. Still looking on the list, he exclaimed “Oh, you are going to this University? Am an old boy of it!”  What a coincidence! I thought, he was actually an old boy of my dream university? I shot him a smile and with that, he left. I felt relieved. Few minutes later, our essay question papers were distributed to us and we were asked to start work. Cameras were everywhere. Only 30 minutes was allocated for that essay, gradually, we were done. The fine gentleman announced we had to get ready for a one-on-one interview with a panel of judges. OMG! My heart instantly sank in. An interview? We weren't informed on that part of the deal! Who was I not go accordingly?After all, I was chasing a prize and so whatever mountain it came with it, I had to move. As I still sat there, I took a quick trip down memory lane back to my senior high school days. A classmate, Sheila asked me to help her write a letter to a friend in another school. The reason why she asked me in particular, I didn't know. In the process of helping her, a dorm mate of hers joined us and started dictating to her what she should write rather, I realized that Sheila’s attention had totally shifted from me to her dorm mate instead. Right in the middle of the abandonment, I didn't force her to listen to me, I didn't complain or go away instead I started making use of the pen and paper to before me and started writing. I absolutely didn't have any pre-idea of what I was going to write about; I just began to write whatever came into mind. I didn't allow the “your- writing- idea- is – not – good – enough” feeling discourage me. In about 30 minutes, I was done with an amazing short story I couldn't believe I wrote myself. Just as I finished with the story, I gave it to Sheila and her friend to read. Though this incident is five years now, I am still looking for a perfect word to describe the expression on their faces when they were done reading. I wasn't aware of my writing ability then; that was my first brainchild which was published in the Mirror. In the midst of discouragement, I kept believing myself and achieved something great; my reward of still believing in myself in that discouraging situation. This competition is another bright instance where I had to believe in myself in despite what and how the mountain was. If the magic worked before, I strongly believed it would again. I was poked back to reality by the fine gentleman’s voice telling us to move to another conference room to meet the other candidates we were separated from in the beginning.(TO BE CONTD.)

DESGUISED JEWEL

Landed in his full regelia,

to contribute his quota,

Seconds became minutes,

minutes grew into hours,

hours handed over to days.

Silently the bells tolled,

Fate unfolded its puzzle,

unlike poles attracted,

within a twinkle of an eye

Thoughts brewed,

Emotions deepened,

Hearts reached out,

Silence reigned.

Disguised yet a jewel,

simple but precious.

plain yet sweet

cunning but trustworthy,

Lights may go dim,

Waters may dry up,

Thunder may threaten,

Never would the web 

be blown!

 

 

My Precious Gems

They helped in my socialization process. The taught me how to write the first to the last letter of the alphabets. They taught me the power of words , they showed me etiquette, they refined me,they showed me the staircase to good and the road to evil..They disciplined me.They helped me acquire the most important tool...EDUCATION. I want to show them I know them all, I haven't forgotten about them.I have their words on the walls of my cerebrum. Thanks for helping mold me become who and what I am today...Your hard work produced good fruits. Thanks my TEACHERS!

Preparatory 1 Rose-       Teacher Celestine and Tina

Preparatory 2 Marigold- Teacher Rose

Class1 Sunflower-       Mr. Anthony Benedict Forson

Class2 Bougainvillea- Mr. Frimpong

Class3 Daffodil-          Mr. Benjamin Gibbah

Class4 Uranium-         Mr. Benjamin Gibbah

Class 5 Bronze-           Mr. Justice Ackah

Class6 Diamond-        Mr. Kumi

Junior High School 1Jasper - Mr. Godson Dogbe

Junior High School 2 Topaz - Mr. Daniel Agya Amoah

Junior High School 3 Jacinth - Mr. Daniel Agya Amoah

Pre- Technical Skills - Mr. Godson Dogbe

Agriculture     -            Mr. Asiamah

Social Studies -            Mr. Harry Kumi and Mr. Oheneba Kissi Lartey

R.M.E             -            Mr. Alison

Gen. Science  -             Mr. Daniel Agya Amoah

Mathematics  -             Mr. Stephen Mensah

English          -             Mr. Mark Bekoe Yirenkyire

Calabash Ar t-              Mr. Leslie Karley and Mrs. Mintah Jacobs

GA                 -             Mrs Ofori

French           -             Poto Poto

In achieving my goals, your targets are being reached also. God richly bless you all!!!

To be  cont...