Its Super Wednesday! every bit of me is excited and my creative mind is willing to share this. Love isn't all words but actions. The actions will bring out all you want to say. Someone showed me love about seventeen years ago and I just can't forget it; its so engraved in my heart, I don't think I ever will.
It was in Creator Schools,preparatory one Rose, but I can still remember vividly what happened. She was in my class, she was my sitting mate. Her name is Beatrice, for her other names, I can't remember. She was my first friend in class because we happened to be sitting mates.
We are normally given homework to be done at home and brought back the next day for marking. I had two teachers in preparatory one; Celestine and Teacher Tina as we fondly called them. Teacher Celestine was always had smiles on her face, was approachable and very sweet to us whiles Teacher Tina hardly smiled and you dared not break any of her rules.
Every morning, we were to put our homework books on our tables for inspection. Our teachers would then go round to inspect everyone's. I clearly remember one day, my homework books weren't in my school bag. I had left them at home. I checked my school bag several times just in case I was mistaken but the fact didn't change, they were just not there. I was scared to hell, I began to shiver because I knew painful lashes awaited me. Beatrice on the contrary,had brought hers and she had them on the table.
Unfortunately, it was Teacher Tina who was inspecting on that day, my fear increased. As she approached our table, Beatrice hid her homework books under our table. I looked at her confused; why would she do that when she had hers? Why would she hide her homework books when she knew that meant trouble? As I was just about to ask her about it she said to me " I don't want you to be beaten alone, I have hidden mine so we would all be beaten together." I was shell-shocked! I thought I hadn't heard her right. True to her words,she was also punished when Teacher Tina got to our table! It was so abnormal that someone would want to be beaten because of a friend. That touched my heart a whole lot! Never heard anyone did that for a friend in our class or any other class.
Another day in school, I wasn't feeling well. I had caught cold and was coughing real bad. It had rained earlier that morning and was very cold. Beatrice took off her pullover and offered it to me though she was feeling very cold too. Our teachers were even amazed! That was love! We became closer and were the best of friends. Unfortunately she left the school the next academic year, In preparatory two, my best friend was had left. She never returned to Creator Schools and never saw her again. Though she wasn't close to me anymore, her actions of love were engraved in my heart; I have never forgotten about her. I tried searching for her on various social media but to no avail.
A true friend she was!, she had a heart of gold. Today, I remember and write about this as though it happened just days ago. I hope and pray we meet once again. Please if you are a brother or sister to Beatrice, kindly tell her I miss her and haven't forgotten about the love she showed me.!
HAPPY SUPER WEDNESDAY!
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Super Wednesday!
Thursday, 13 February 2014
A Legend of Inspiration: Ato Ulzen Appiah
You meet
him and you see nothing but inspiration. He has got great brainchildren which
are fruits of bold initiatives he took. He dared to be different; he chose not
to be an ordinary youth but used his brains and abilities to make a difference.
Around
2005 and at the age of 21, he co-founded the Ghana Think Foundation and through
this, he started the Ghanaian music lyrics database. At that time, there was no
place to find lyrics to Ghanaian songs and many people wanted to know about
Ghanaian music and its messages it contained. It grew in popularity and in
demand because correct lyrics and spelling was used, it was also a medium
through which people learnt Ghanaian languages. After it had been incubated in
Ghana Think for two years and had become a popular service that could be a
business, the project was graduated out of the Ghana Think Foundation and
became Museke.
Museke
was born as an African music website with two main golden goals; firstly, to be
the source of African music lyrics and secondly to unite African music lovers.
Museke was an African music lyrics website at the start, where people could
listen to music, watch videos, find news and blogs, listen to playlists, have
discussions and learn about African music in general. It became the biggest contemporary
African music site which was nicknamed “the African music Bible”. It had over
4000 lyrics to songs and content from over 45African countries. At that level,
he had over 350,000 people visiting the Museke.com site in one month.
He also organized two online African music awards, each awarding the best African
musicians in 2010 and 2011 irrespective of country, genre and style. The second
awards was held in New York City and streamed live on Television in the US and
online as well. It was the first African music awards ceremony organized in
North America.
Barcamp
Ghana is another brainchild of his. Via the Ghana Think Foundation, he
organised the very first barcamp in Ghana and in West Africa on December23,
2008. It was done to bring together Ghanaians in Ghana and in the Diaspora. Its
aim was to showcase young Ghanaian ingenuity, excellence, connect and network
Ghanaian youth.
First event was held at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre and had over 150 attendees, awesome feedback was gotten. It connected
many together, drove and inspired many to take action. Dorothy Gordon, the Director
General at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre loved the event so much. She encouraged
his team to have it in all the regions in Ghana. It’s really been hard to do said
the young legend of inspiration. He led the organization of the next event in
December 2009, this time with a mostly Ghanaian based Team. The event had 350
attendees. That team has been the core of Barcamp and the Ghana Think
Foundation ever since.
The team
has organized 28 Barcamps in Ghana now in the following locations; Accra,
Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale, Cape Coast, Ho, Sunyani, Tema, Kasoa and Koforidua.
Over 3500 have attended these events and a strong network of young change
makers, doers and entrepreneurs has been built.
Barcamp events have created many internship
and job opportunities for attendees as well as professional ones. It has led to
the formation of many Google groups in Ghana; the Junior Camp Ghana program, Blog
camp Ghana and even movie projects. Many people have created companies based on
Barcamp Ghana events.
Two
Barcamps have been organised by his team in the United States, both in
Washington DC. These led to the formation of REACH Ghana and other initiatives.
Many connections have been formed that continues to shape our Ghanaian
landscape and our entrepreneurial community.
Must be
wondering whom this legend of inspiration is I guess?
Ato Ulzen Appiah is his
name. He is a Ghanaian born on 31st December, 1983. He had his
primary and junior high school education at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology primary and Jhs school. He further had his Bachelor degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master’s degree at
Stanford.
In
primary school, he found his interest in arts and math. Throughout primary, he
usually had the 4th, 5th or 6th position in class. In
stage five, he took a major interest in trivia and general knowledge. He .used
to read the newspapers and magazines all the time, fished for information and
recorded all of that in a book at that tender age. From class six to junior
high, he was 1st in class 90% of the time.
When the
time was due to choose courses for Senior High School, he almost chose General
Arts, where his interest lied but he resorted to General Science due to peer
pressure. He attended Presbyterian Boys Senior High School for his senior high
school education. There, he topped his class academically. “I started writing
poems, stories and articles. I got more interested in debating and literature.
It was hard to balance these interests and activities with academics, so my
academics got hurt a bit" he said.
Meanwhile,
he kept on winning competitions for his school and excelled in debates, writing
and quizzes. In SHS 3, he unfortunately couldn’t make the school’s brilliant
science and maths team. “I was sad because it was a goal of mine. I understood
I wasn’t good enough but wanted to prove I was still great academically” he
recounted. He worked and learned very hard for his senior secondary school
certificate examination and had one of the best seven results out of over 300 science students
in his school. He believes that when one is focused on something and is
motivated, he or she can perform.
“In
university, I didn’t care about my GPA; I cared much about the whole package;
being smart, versatile, experienced, able to solve problems and being able to
handle many things at the same time. I learnt to do so by practising proper
time management, making smart choices, being skilled at things and leveraging
others to learn and study he said”. No wonder he came out to be successful. He
has traveled to Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and
Switzerland for work purposes while working at Google and Rancard in Ghana. He
has had personal trips to Togo, United Kingdom and Dominican Republic on his
own. He was in the United States for ten years for school and work.
This is my legend of inspiration. I met him met him at a barcamp, one of his initiatives. Young but so inspiring. I am often fascinated about his initiatives and how he manages them. How he handles so many things at a time is so amazing.Knowing what he has been able to achieve through his efforts and determination so far, I thought he was worth celebrating; others had to hear about him, get inspired and take action. I took action when I got to know about his hard work and brilliant initiatives, hope you do too!
Saturday, 16 November 2013
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 13th
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.)Thursday, 26 September 2013
JOY
From the crow of the cock which transported me from slumberland to reality, I felt deep within me it was going to be a great day. I think its written beneath the clouds ''its gonna be a great day''.
I am happy beyond measure. Joy is now the blood flowing in my veins and its also the air through my lungs and nostrils. I haven't won a multi million dollar lottery, neither have my wildest dream come to pass. Let us not even think about the ladder; All of my plans failed today, which should have compelled me to wear moodiness as a cloak,yet JOY is all I know!!
29/7/11
I am happy beyond measure. Joy is now the blood flowing in my veins and its also the air through my lungs and nostrils. I haven't won a multi million dollar lottery, neither have my wildest dream come to pass. Let us not even think about the ladder; All of my plans failed today, which should have compelled me to wear moodiness as a cloak,yet JOY is all I know!!
29/7/11
ON THE LADDER'S VERGE
As I looked down the ladder from the verge,I knew it would take a miracle to get down there. Everything looked shaky, my sight was unbalanced. The ladder was unstable as it perched against the wall with me on it verge. ''All hope is gone'' sounded several times in my mind.My hair stood on its end, I was gripped with fear. The only logic idea I had was to take the boldest step to descend. How could that be successful if the ladder was so shaky? I soliloquized.
My fate depended on the immediate golden step I would have to take that very moment. Just then, something caught my attention. There were birds flying in the sky. They flew in a certain pattern. I stared harder and saw the formation of the birds in the pattern of a certain letter of the alphabet.
What could they want to communicate to me? Was that going to help me spring out from my situation? As I was brooding over that, the first batch flew away and suddenly I saw a new set forming another letter... TO BE CONTND...
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!
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