Perseverance Pays A Great Deal Nonhlanhla Annah Thusi   © Copyright 2022 by Nonhlanhla Annah Thusi

The author's two self published books.

Life is the survival of the fittest, you’ve got to learn to give a fist and take one, to fall and stand up while keeping hope. I am Nonhlanhla Annah Thusi, based in South Africa, from a small township called Refengkgotso at Deneysville city. From birth the dice of life didn’t roll in my favour, I felt the harsh treatment of life yet didn’t give up. My mother and father’s relationship was not one of those a person could write home about. As a daughter in law, my mom had to deal with a cruel mother in law, jealous sisters in law and this impacted badly on their marriage, because my father couldn’t stand against his family to support her, though she was there because of him. My father gave himself to alcohol because now and then when they had a quarrel my mother would run to her parental home. Which didn’t help because my grandfather would always send her back to her in laws in belief that she must be patient. To his drunkard habit my father added a new behaviour of being a womanizer and died soon, when I was seven years old. I grew up seeing my mother struggling to make end meets for her three children including I and this affected me more than I thought, I felt sorry for her, and listening to her constantly talking about my father brought me nothing but grieve. All these consumed my dreams of getting married, I couldn’t hope for the best of it, and I thought that I must always have a room for disappointment in relationships. I have never had a relationship that lasted for more than six months, I some how can’t put up with people’s faults especially as far as lies and cheating are concerned. Though I never wish for a marriage life or fond of the idea of living with another person like a normal couple, but I do have a dream of having two beautiful twins, a bit and a girl which sounds weird should I mention it to friends.

Life after matric has never been easy, as they say life begins after matric. I didn’t earn good marks that could secure me a bursary. It pierced me to see my peers preparing for varsity while I was stuck with the same dream. Without education I was not going to be able to fulfil my dream of building a huge house for my mom and make her rest from her domestic work. However it was just a bend not an end, my journey was about to begin in a little bit different direction from the rest. I went to schools to motivate students to search for their God given purpose because I knew from experience that not all of us were going to make it to the universities. I soon gave up because there was nothing to show for success in “my God given purpose”, though it was motivation I had to lead buy example, so if my motivation didn’t produce positive results for me how could I expect it to help others! Once again I was without a plan, my family and I were still living at my uncle’s place along with aunts taking a blame for anything that went wrong in the house and constantly reminded that we should seek out our own place. I couldn’t believe what was happening with me, from the ages I was aware of God I began praying for a bright future and the situation I found myself in was far from the bright future. I did some more prayer and I was caught up in the idea of writing an inspiration book. My first title is called you are God’s masterpiece, after preparing my manuscript, there was yet another mountain to cross over, I had to publish it so that it could be sold in the market place and I still had no money for that. My dream to build my mom a house was still too far to be reached and this frustrated me a lot, if I wasn’t a Christian it could have been better, but at this stage I was starting to question my faith and the existence of God, that where is the God whom the ancient trusted on. I knocked on few doors for funds and I was turned down, another dead end. I searched for free publishing, I don’t how I came to think about it; but since it seems that it was God who put me in this journey and he was surely not going to leave me in the middle of the road, the idea was from him. There were many self publishing companies on the internet, I chose Create space and from Create space I was directed to Amazon. At this stage it seemed that my dream was no longer out of reach, I sold few copies but realised too soon that the shipping price was quite expensive for a person with zero budget like me and my customers didn’t pay on time, some didn’t pay at all yet kept the book. I was shuttered again, online the books are not selling at all, true, there are ways to market the book but I have to deposit few coins for effective marketing. From the beginning of my journey up until now money is the resurfacing issue, why is this so? Because I didn’t defeat it from the beginning, I found ways to walk around it and it found ways to always show up. Until I have completely defeated it, that’s when I would live free from it hindering my plans. As they say never leave an enemy behind for it would rise against you, in this case money is my biggest enemy and it refuses to give me a break.

In the 2017 the 5^th of January my mom passed on, she was drained of working as a domestic worker, drained of carrying her three children who were not working on her shoulders, drained of life itself and she missed her late husband a lot. After her burial I found a job at the nearest driving school and I sustained it for a year. I was in great agony because of the departure of my mom, from there I went to stay with my aunt from my father’s side while am still searching for a job. On my arrival she was a nice person but as time went by she showed me what she was made off. I got a learnership of “supervision of construction process” and requested to stay with my grandmother who was nearby until I am financial stable and able to rent a room, only to find out that she was worse than my aunt. In my career as an author there was still no sign of progress. I stayed with grandmother for a month, in tears and sometimes a hungry stomach, not knowing how to please her if she was to be pleased. Strangers from church and students from the learnership were my anchors against my very own family. I left my grandmother place because I was afraid that I’ll get depression for being constantly reprimanded for no reason at all, I stayed with a lady whom my friend from the learnership introduced me to. She understood my situation and I stayed with her, though she was sick and I was taking care of her and her two year old son she was never grateful only because I was desperate and had no were else to go. At this stage I had forgotten about my book and was trying so hard to focus on the current situation with the hope that I will soon be standing on my two feet without having to depend on anyone. The theory part of a learnership ended and I came to seek placement from home. One thing I can always witness is that there is no place better than home, even if it is not built and furnished like other homes, but it would always offer peace and security. I managed to find placement in one of the construction that was commencing near home and was hired after my learnership duration was through. Another incident occurred, the owner of the company I was hired at did not pay us in time and when she did it was half of what we worked for. I resigned and was back to pursuing my dreams again. I self published a second book, and now am writing articles to magazines online. It’s not much but I believe that soon I’ll be able to enrol my books for marketing and who knows? Maybe I am the next best selling author.

Imagine if birds were to sing we were given wings but never told to fly, this world would be flocking with birds and without enough space to allow human movement. You have a brain use it, even if it means following an idea that doesn’t bring immediate results do so, a journey of hundred miles begins with a single step, and success begins with a fellow ‘s will. God will never give you a challenge without guiding you through. I haven’t built a house yet, I still live in a shack, yet I look back with a smile because I now see the light and compared to where I have began there’s a great difference. True hero’s and heroines lies within each and everyone of us, so find your purpose and excel on it.

My name is Nonhlanhla Annah Thusi based in South Africa in Free state province at the city by the name of Deneysville. I started writing from since I was at high school, but to me back then it was just a way of sharing the thoughts I could never share with anyone. My father passed on when I was seven years old and his absence began to be real to me when I was at high school. In my poems I poured out the love that never had a chance to be cherished and the wishes that were denied time to take their turn. In 2012 I wrote my first inspiration book named "you are God's masterpiece" and I self published it in 2015. In 2021 I self published my second title by the name of "Before we organise we must agonize". My vision is to reach people through my writings and make a difference  in their lives.