An Open Letter to my Cousin at his 12th Birthday Dear Paddy Happy Birthday to you! I was delighted when I got a text from your mum inviting me to a birthday party organized in your honour. What a great day it would be for you again! I can see you making wonderful dancing steps. I can see Chioma, Chima, Emeka and Jane around you! I must tell you, I will miss this special day. Nevertheless, make sure you keep my own cake for me! Though I would not be with you physically on this great day, my spirit is there with you. It is still in the same spirit that I write this letter to you: First, to appreciate God’s favour in your life and second, to respond to the discussions I had with you when you visited home for Christmas. My dear, I must confess; I saw in you a man who is going to change the world. I saw the burning desire, the determination, the enthusiasm, the hopes and the promises in you. With these, I am convinced you would make a difference. I’m also sending you a pocket Bible as your birthday gift following your request. I hope you would love it. Junior, you have always informed me of your desire to become a great scientist. All you need to achieve is within you. There are boys like you in the persons of Albert Einstein, Pele, Thomas Edison, Bruce Lee, King Tut, Elvis Presley, Bill Gates, Galileo and Dalai Lama who achieved great feats and changed the world history before they were 20. How did they do it? They have one thing in common. They held their dreams and with this, went ahead to make a difference! The life of Albert Einstein, a scientist, who is known today for his theory of relativity changed at 12 when a family friend gave him a geometry book to read. In a short time, he read the entire book and finished all of its equations. After this, he read all scientific books he could lay his hands on. At 13, he read “A Critique of Pure Reason”, by Immanuel Kant, a book I, myself, found difficult to understand when I was doing my first degree. When Albert was asked to tell people the secret of his success, he said, “I have no special gift… I am only passionately curious”. Junior, did you hear him say curious? Yes! His curiosity made him slip at a mountain while contemplating on how possible human beings could travel as fast as light. At 16, he wrote his first scientific paper, “On the Investigation of the State of Ether in Magnetic Field”, a book that paved way for his future as one of the notable scientists in human history. However, Albert didn’t find it easy always. Because of his contemplative nature and devotion to researches, he didn’t pay attention to class work and his teachers felt he was useless and called him Herr Langweil meaning, “Mister Stupid”. Imagine! Pele had the dream of becoming a great footballer. But his family was so poor as not to be able to buy him a football. Thus, his father stuffed an old sock full of rags and began teaching him how to play. By age 5, Pele ran wild in the streets kicking his sock into make shift goals. While in school, he earned extra money shining shoes and selling peanuts outside movie theatre. At age 16, he was already the greatest soccer player in the world. And at 17, he represented his country, Brazil, in the national team at 1958 World Cup, and became the best footballer in the tournament. He led his team to win three World Cups making him the only person ever to win three World Cups. Before Pele, people thought it was impossible for someone to score up to 1,000 goals. But in his football career, Pele scored 1,220 goals. When he was asked to tell people the secret of his success, he pointed out that it was a result of Hard Work. Yes! Hard Work was his own. If he felt he hadn’t played his best, he would stay after a game and practice alone for hours. These thousands of hours of solitary practices helped him perfect his deadly accurate kicks, increased his speed and master countless tricks. Bruce Lee, your favourite actor and inventor of Kung Fu movies achieved the feat by practicing six hours every day. At 17, he was already a master in Martial Arts and performed his first major role in the movie, The Orphan. Bill Gates grew up in a strict family that never allowed him watch TV except on weekends. Without the opportunities to watch TV, he devoured countless books especially scientific fictions and devoted time to researches. At 15, he earned $20, 000 (About three million Naira) from his inventions on computer. Chico Mendes, at tender age of fifteen, protected workers and the environment by protesting against the rubber barons in the Amazon Jungle in Brazil. Elvis Presley, at age 19, revolutionized American Music through his dancing and his lyrics. Thomas Edison, the inventor of phonograph and electric bulb was a newspaper vendor at 15 but had his first invention on telegraph at 19. He is known for the saying, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Thus, he strived hard to change the world. The list is endless. I wish you also ask questions about people like King Tut who became Egyptian Pharaoh at age 9, Galilee Galilei, who became the world’s first physicist; Mozart, who before he was 20, had travelled round the whole of Europe composing and performing music and is celebrated till today by musicians; Pablo Picasso, who at 10 completed his first major painting… Dear Junior, you can see that the secret of the success of these people is hard work. Yes! Hard work! Hard work!! Hard work!!! They held their dreams and went ahead to make a difference. You too can make a difference! Dare to be different and you will! Yes, you can! Start now! Do not think you are still too young. Einstein devoured the books that would change his life at your age. You too can! Start lighting the candle and let your light shine. Extraordinary people like Edison, Pele, Einstein, Bruce Lee, Chico … were ordinary people who let their inner light shine. Let your inner light shine! But you cannot do this unless you get involved. And to get involved, you must not do tomorrow what you can do today. Thus, let your watchword be: First thing, First! Yes! Let your studies be First! Your mum has complained to me that you usually get stuck to TV programs, video games, internet and 2go. Desist from this. Bill Gates was able to become the youngest millionaire because the parents never allowed him to watch televisions except on weekends. He used his times to study. Please, let the difficulties you encounter on your life not deter you. Even when you fail, continue to strive. Temporal defeat is never a permanent failure. Besides, do not wait until tomorrow before you start. Start today! You are not too young to make a mark. No time is the “Right Time”. Start here and now, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools would be found as you go along. If you succeed tomorrow, you owe no person any explanation. If you fail, you are not permitted to give excuses. My warm regards to Uche, Nkechi, Chioma, Mum and Dad. I miss you so much! Your cousin culled
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 15:09:50 +0000
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