She gets me maaaan! Where do I even start? She really understands me. She makes me come alive. She’s the first to actually make me believe in myself after a long time of depression, stress, hurt and frustration that I’ve been through. She’s that one lady that you look at and you can’t help but start day dreaming in broad daylight! She asks me perfect and timely questions…the other day when we were chatting on WhatsApp she asked me “Mxo, what’s your 3-5 years plan?” I mean none of my fellow sister have ever asked me that. Girls nowadays want to know what you can do for them, not what you can build together. Well that’s a topic for another day. This lady…I mean we’ve had such deep conversations that I can’t share here…stuff about what both of us have been through in this life. She has that power that whenever she speaks, no matter where I am, who I am with and what I’m doing, she gets to me. She makes me listen, think, dream, believe, comprehend, visualise everything man…given a chance I’d marry her even as broke as I am! She’s my dream lady. She inspires me fam.
But she’s older than me! How sad? Can’t God send me a copy of her? Her sister perhaps? But even if that was the case, this sister is something else bruh…how I wish I was the same age, as her.
So here’s how we met. Last year, fresh from university I was asked and tasked to serve as a car-packer at church. Like the thought of it just didn’t sit well with me at first, I thought “Don’t they see I come from varsity, how much of a downgrade that’ll be?” And funny enough I shared this with a friend before accepting the call, and the guy laughed his lungs out. I thought…how could they? But life has its ways man, the following week I was there doing it. I kept going and going. I was meeting everybody, greeting everybody, getting to know everyone, not just those driving in, but those walking in as well. I call it “The pulpit before the pulpit” because even the higher authorities never meet these people in person as I do.
That sphere really came with magic for me. I felt alive again, I started laughing more and as a writer that had lost passion, the passion got reignited again. I was now writing every day. I’d rather serve this way than any other way forever man! So I’m in a taxi this girl asks “What do you do for a living?” I politely responded with a smile “I’m a car-packer”….hahaha she lost interest in a second. I love the way I serve, and it’s the only reason I have found enough reason I have gained confidence again. If you want to destroy a man, take or demolish his confidence, then you’re done. It was gone, hence anything that comes after this tittle it is inspired by it.
So I met this lady when I asked her for help in getting my book published (my book is not yet published, but it will soon) and even though she couldn’t help financially, she has shared some incredible ideas with me. Even gave constructive feedback on the book as she asked for me to send it to her. From then on, we never stopped talking, much to a point that sometimes a day feels a long while if I didn’t talk to her. You know what…I had a problem with my phone this week and was unavailable on WhatsApp for a week and a half. She called me, just to check if all was alright! How sweet. Man it really feels amazing…how I wish she was of the same age as I am. Have you ever met someone and felt like everything is coming together in your life, long even when you’ve been suffering, hurting, starving, depressed and hopeless? She has managed to bring me to my senses. I don’t know if all this makes sense, but to me it really does.
But for a record, she’s a sister from church.
Yeah just in case somebody ask you, my name is Mxolisi and I’m a car-packer at church!
Writer: Mxolisi Emmanuel Tshabalala