Nokwanda takes top honours
The young winner wrote a very powerful essay which showed how motivated and far sighted she is.
Recently Hirsch’s KZN, in conjunction with the Caxton Group, ran an essay competition where students were asked to write a story entitled “looking back”.
They had to envisage themselves as a ninety year old, and look back over the years at all their achievements and successes. Top Honours went to Nokwanda Mthembu, a Grade 11 Pupil from the Ballito Academy PLG, who wrote a powerful essay which showed how motivated and far sighted she is.
This is what Margaret Hirsch, COE of the Hirsch Group whose brainchild the competition was, had to say: “Not only was her essay inspirational but also showed just how she finds ways to embrace all her passions and does not let anything hold her back from achieving her goals in life.”
Second place went to Grade 10 pupil (also Ballito Academy) Koussar Ebrahim for her uniqueness and daring to be different. In third place was 13 year old Tyra Ellers from Curro School on the Berea who showed great determination and maturity in her writing.
Nokwanda Mthembu: PLG Schools Ballito Academy
Blessed to still have breath in my old air bags, I’m 90 years old and I have the opportunity to relive my amazing life one last time in the peace and calm of my front porch in the Seychelles.
Soaking up the afternoon sun with all my wrinkles on my golden sun kissed skin, my scars of experience glisten to the reflection of my stigmatism. I swear, when I was younger I never thought I would appreciate the art of growing old. While my husband rests his chin on my shiny silver locks looking over into the ocean, he says: “This is why they call it our golden Years.” Grateful to have had the best decades ever I must say 80 was by far one of my proudest moments I’ll treasure forever.
After a lengthy holiday in Europe with my best friends who I have known from high school, I arrive home to an over the moon husband. “What is it?” I nervously ask. “You’ve been invited to recite a speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Awards 200th anniversary to inspire young women in the economics field.” Economics had always been a passion. Being the youngest and first black women to have won the award, it was an absolute honor that I got to share my gift. The speech went beautifully. I got to see old friends and I got to share my theories and ideas. The thrill I felt as an 80 year old black women to have accomplished such greatness was beyond any emotion I had felt before.
Thank you to each and every person who came, in spirit and in flesh.
The years went by fast, achievement after achievement, I got to explore all corners of the world with people I love, I continued my work with the United Nations Development Programme, empowering women and eradicating poverty worldwide was always my life long calling.
I will never forget my 50th birthday celebration, this was a big one, I was half a century old and I was so proud of all that I had done in 5 decades. I decided that was the year I would step back and sell my company. I reached a point where my main focus was family, friends and uplifting those who needed it. I let go of what was the biggest part of me, my child that I had nurtured into a colossal empire that had changed the field of economics globally. Although the workaholic in me hadn’t died, I kept Bassline.
Many people said 40 is when life begins, I beg to differ. It’s when I solidified and had accomplished all that I wanted; it was like something out of a movie. This was my takeover. This is when I was ranked 1st on the Forbes top 100 most influential people, made onto Times magazines front cover of the most influential women of the year, I owned properties in all my favorite countries and my career was at its peak. Bassline went global; I achieved my dream of owning a Michelin Star restaurant in New York. I was settled, having had a support system of friends and family, I cherished all I had.
Growing up was not the best experience but I was thankful for all I had and I am who I am because my mother was the strong women she was. Buying her a house in my 30s was my most valued achievement. This was also an exciting time for my family as there was a wedding. I remember everyone was flabbergasted at the fact that Nokwanda was getting married, but I had found ‘the one’. He was my person, our wedding was gorgeous, I was surrounded by people I love, and those were the people I intended sharing my life with.
I stumbled upon an idea while pulling a late night at the office. An idea I didn’t then realize was about to spin the world in the opposite direction, I reevaluated the method of calculating the mortality rate. My company presented this to the world Economic Forum. We all realized the magnitude of this new theory and how much it would put the company on the map. South Africa was suddenly the hot topic globally. It was a proudly South African company heading up a new successful idea that gave me the label, Mother of Economics. My theory was on the same level as the great, brilliant mind of the deceased Father of economics Adam Smith.
I joined the United Nations to help eradicate poverty in third world countries and joined the fight to help establish religious peace amongst countries. This was also the decade when I opened Bassline. My restaurant, I have always had a passion for food and entertainment so I had raised enough capital to open what changed the scene and image of tourism and cuisine in South Africa. Bassline was where you should be. Profits from all of these ventures got me a list of all my dream cars, a Bentley, Rolls Royce Phantom and Ferrari.
As success grew and hard work prevailed, opportunity built its door. Shortly after I obtained my degree for Economics and Politics, I was offered a job at a prestigious Finance company in South Africa, a couple months later I bought a Range Rover which was followed by my pride and joy. My G63 Mercedes Brabus. I would say I lived my life to the fullest and enjoyed being young and stupid so I would, like today, sit and reflect on my life with a smile.
All thanks to Mrs. Margaret Hirsch who came to my high school when I was 16 years old. I will always be thankful to her for sparking the fire within.
Kousar Ebrahim: Ballito Academy
My ashes would have been immersed in the Ganges River by now but my memories will still live on for many generations to come. My passing should not bring sorrow to my children, but rather a remembrance of the love that I gave the world and the desire for them to aspire to the greatness within them. 90 years on this beautiful planet was a testimony of the legacy that I had left behind.
After we had bought off India’s greatest mechanical engineers, my will clearly stated that my remains would be cremated and offered in India itself. Not long back, I experienced one of the most remarkable sights in the world, as I watched my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren, along with my entire team, as everyone sped through the most famous racecourse we had ever built. It all began after 35 years of hard work, dedicated faith and many failures. The yellow limousine that escorted everyone to their racing tracks flashed me back to times when I decided to follow in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus as I toured the world in my mid-70s. From full ashrams to numerous villages to the tallest skyscrapers and to the 7 wonders of the world, I saw it all.
On my 55th birthday my children gave me the biggest surprise of my life. L’ amour De Courses was opened for the first time in Canada, which was a drag racing company, it was my father’s childhood dream that soon became our reality. Most of the professional racers started as recruits from our orphanage. I remember it like it was just yesterday, when my beautiful mother would drop me off at school and I can still feel her soft-scented kisses. Time flew past me as our 25th high school reunion came up in 2045.
After 2 years of planning with my friend, our family orphanage, The Beautiful Hope, became a new home to thousands of beautiful souls. Both my sons had graduated in Shanghai as automotive engineers, not long after the orphanage was built, and with their help, I made sure that Mustang had launched my first car ever designed which was the Black Widow 14. I worked on that majestic car for years in South Africa, but because of the political issues that the country faced in 2036, my opportunities were shattered as everyone shut their door on me. Like this, there has been many failures in my life but I choose not to dwell on them. Our car was a beast, it could be heard and seen from miles away. I always said that as long as you have a good heart in today’s cruel world, you will do just fine, and this car wasn’t the best in appearance, but it sure had a vicious engine.
This reminded me of the 18 years of an amazing marriage and my time with the Noetic Scientists in the UK, when we finally found a cure to the second stage of all cancers in 2033. My children were already mature independent adults, when my husband was diagnosed with blood cancer and God summoned him too early before our discoveries. It was then when I realized the importance of medicine and this ordeal in my life encouraged me to begin one of the world’s largest support groups for troubled individuals, during my 30s. Although I had a passion for taxidermy in my adolescent years, in 2018 I became an ordinary mechanic while learning to drive and it was then when I had met the greatest gift from mankind; cars and speed. I then became an underdog drag racer at night and it was then I had realized my purpose in life, on the streets of Nelspruit.
Life has been many things to me. It has been filled with love and accomplishments. It all goes back to that winter month when I was just 15 years old and those wise words of Margaret Hirsch changed my life forever, ” You don’t have to be academically equipped to succeed, as long as you use your God-given assets like your mind and your hands, anything becomes possible.
Tyra Allers: Curro Embury
MEMORIES
Where has time gone, and how, I wonder?
I rest my back on the chipped spindle of my oak framed chair. I glance to the left, smile and realise, I have accomplished many things in life. But do not mistake me, I am a normal person, who lived a normal life… I just lived it to the fullest.
Reminiscing on almost a decade ago. I shuffled across the tiled floors to a window surrounded by a sullen grey wall, which was a stark reminder of the shade of my hair and everyone else’s here. I remember looking out the window and seeing a garden just like Chateau de Versailles covered with hectares and hectares of riddled paths. It was the place my daughter wed. Everything at this point reminds me of my past. More happy moments than sad and more love found than lost.
The chandeliers in reception evoked pleasant memories of my 70’s. The canopy held the chandelier to the ceiling in exactly the same way in which the baby mobile hung over my grandchildren’s cots.
I recall walking down the hall and admiring the pictures painted on the high ceiling of this insignificant building, just like Rome in my in my 60’s. In Rome I embraced the cultural yet chaotic legacies which were laid down by people before me. I steered the screaming scooter down medieval alleyways, sat in the largest amphitheatre of the Roman Empire and tossed a coin into the trevi fountain. É bellissimo!
I remember sitting on my bed and beginning to read and all I could hear was the beaded chain of my bedroom blinds striking the wall. This made me think back to my early 50’s late 40’s. New Orleans brought flavoursome, delectable cuisine, vibrant live music, round the clock nightlife and a graceful tour of the Garden District. I sure did let the good times roll (Laisser les bon temps rouler).
Since I was 12 all I could remember was wanting to travel, adopt new cultures, master a foreign language and live every day of my life lie it was the last. Travelling has brought that to life, that feeling of adventure. In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take.
The majority of my 30’s were spent being a medical practitioner and taking care of my family. At one stage I was travelling with a worldwide humanitarian organisation called ‘Doctors without Borders’. We helped by delivering emergency medical aid to people effected by conflict, epidemics, exclusions from health care and disaster.
Being good at what I do has always been a must. Since I was little I have been a perfectionist. That’s what pushed me to complete my degree at 1 of 3 Ivy League schools in the United States.
Straight after school I went to college to do pre-med and then I went to medical school. It occupied most of my 20’s and that why later in life I took more risks and explored the world.
In university I met my soulmate, some would say that’s kind of like a clichéd Cinderella story. We had three kids and tried to teach them all the lessons we had ever learnt in life. He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life – Muhammad Ali. And that’s why, on the 13th October 2015, I took my first risk and entered the Caxton Writing Competition.
