Game Changer (noun): An event, idea, or procedure that effects a significant
shift in the current way of doing or thinking about something.*
An old African proverb says that it takes a village to raise
a child. I have long maintained that my case is no different. Reflecting on the
person that I have become today, I am fully aware of those whose input has,
outside the indispensable contributions of my immediate family, has been highly
influential for me. You might call some of those contributors/contributions
‘game changers’.
Game changers are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers,
cousins, friends, teachers, even kind strangers.
Here is the story of one such individual, who helped changed
the game for me.
The year was 2004. The place: an annual, Christian family
conference in Wales, during the August Bank Holiday weekend in Wales. The
setting: the 8-10 year old age group. I, as a confident, 10 year old girl,
often encouraged by my parents to put myself forward for opportunities, had
self-nominated in the elections for the 8-10 year old girl rep. I pitched with
the boldness and passion required for Sir Alan Sugar’s ‘The Apprentice’ Boardroom.
And I won. The victory issued a boost of confidence for sure. And inspiration
and motivation to do right and well by the young girls who had elected me as
their representative.
During my responsibility over the weekend she quietly
affirmed and encouraged me. At the end of the weekend, she gave me the gift of a
crossword puzzle book, to thank and congratulate me for my work. She looked me
in my eyes and made a heartfelt request, that I recognise the leadership
qualities that I possessed, that I keep going. A very profound thing for a girl
of ten to hear.
I never forgot that message, nor did I forget that day. That
was the day that my Aunty Grace changed the game for me. And to this day she is
one of the loveliest, sweetest, most encouraging women that I’ve known. And is
continually dear to me because of it. But on that day, over 12 years ago, she helped
change my life.
I always thought that she would never know the impact that
she had and still has on me to this day. But perhaps she knew that it would, or
at least that it could. And maybe, just maybe, that was why she did it.
At the age of 10 my personality was developing, my soul, burgeoning
and, not that I realised it so much at the time, but I was, naturally, highly
impressionable. And though I have been blessed to have had a foundation, in
large part built by parents who taught me to believe that I could do absolutely
anything that I set my mind to- I realised that it is so important to have
people outside the immediate family, who recognise and affirm the value and
potential in you.
I have also seen too many people who have been on course to
languish on paths so far below their potential, simply because they were not
affirmed to believe that they could aspire for, be and do more. Words are never
just words.
But Aunty Grace recognised something that I was only
beginning to truly recognise in myself.
Her words gave a gentle push down that path and added a crucial ingredient to
the process that was the development of my being and my character, while I was
yet a child.
And that changed the game for me.
*Source: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com
Feature Image Credit: (https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/care-amaryllis-aka-hippeastrum-plants)
The Narrator's Pen 