What Happened To The Dream?

I have a dream; I have a dream that all talented people will fulfill their talents before their last breath. In my quest to find out what exactly happens to our childhood dreams I came across heartbreaking stories. And I became aware of the ubiquitous stench of broken dreams lingering all corners of the beloved country.

My research took me to many places, in Durban I came across a 24 year old mother begging on the streets with her beautiful 5year old son. Thembi’s story reads like a horrible storyline in a soapy, not long ago she made the elite academic top 20 list of the highest scoring matriculants in the country; she got a scholarship to study medicine in a university in London. But two years later she was back in SA, scholarship cancelled due to her pregnancy, now Thembi is a street-beggar, once she was destined to be a top doctor.   

I went to Kwa-Mashu, the notorious township just outside Durban, I met Bongani, he was doing his final year at UKZN studying LLB, he found out he was infected with HIV and subsequently dropped out, his reasoning, ‘What’s the point? I’m going to die anyway!’. Now Bongani is a fearsome car hijacker who’s developed a drug addiction.

Earlier I’d met a young man from Thembisa, a township east of Jozi. S’busiso passed matric in 2004 getting six distinctions, today he works at a car wash, washing cars for a living.

Themba is a talented vocalist, but he now works as a car parking attendant in Braamfontein, he even looks like a hobo now.

I could go on, I came across many stories, all with one common denominator – a dream betrayed. Sometimes life could devastate you so hard you forget how much you have to offer, you forget just how talented and gifted you are. Most of the young people I came across seemed like they’d forgotten just how preciously-gifted they are, they seem to have made peace with their mediocre lives, they are not even 30 yet they are singing ‘’In my time’’.

What went so horribly wrong?

Witchcraft, some claimed. I just listened objectively, I couldn’t judge, I didn’t know the whole story. Speaking to friends and relatives didn’t help either, well maybe it did, they say it was the love of booze, it was the love of a ‘good-time’.

Ultimately though, I didn’t have to be a psychologist to notice that most of the people I spoke to are like many other young people in Mzansi, they have so much talent (be it academically, artistically or athletically) BUT not enough determination and perseverance.

At the fall of the first hurdle they gave up, and when the universe was seemingly conspiring against their dreams coming true they just gave up, sometimes they tried to put up a fight, but it was never good enough.

It’s a story all too common for us in South Africa, Jabu Pule-Mahlangu had the skill and the talent to be counted as one of the finest in the world, that was before his internal demons took over.

It does not just happen to our sports stars, it happens to your brother, to your neighbor, to your cousin, to your sister, to your friend, to your uncle.

What happens to our childhood dreams?  

They get betrayed by our lack of self discipline, they get betrayed by our lack of determination and perseverance, they get betrayed by our lack of a strong will to get up after we’ve fallen.

SA’s got talent, amazingly mind-blowing talent, but like a blooming flower not taken care of, it soon withers and sometimes and sadly, some are now beyond redemption.

 But as long as there’s life, there’s hope.

A few weeks ago a certain Kenneth Kunene made the headlines for his now famous R700 000 sushi party. Six years ago he was in prison, as a matter of fact I interviewed his friend and senior partner Gayton McKenzie who’s also a former convict. We became friends, sort of. I tried help him sell the book on his life-story (the book is titled ‘’The Choice’’, you should actually get yourself a copy). A few years ago they were just ex-convicts struggling to make ends meet, now they are shopping for Lamborghinis. They worked hard, and of course they were very lucky along the way, but then fortune favours the prepared mind.

They chased their dreams after a diabolically-horrible start. What happened to your childhood dream?

Today I’m chasing mine, are you going to chase yours too, or you’ll just let it rot and make peace with mediocrity?

I’m too scared of common fate, you should be too.

Just imagine if we all kept the promise we showed as youngsters, just imagine if we all reached our potential.

Revive that childhood dream of yours.

And part of my dream includes telling you all these stories audio-visually, just keep watching your television, and reading this blog.