Thank You.

Dear Mr. Jensen,*

I have never expressed how grateful I am to you for hiring me those many years ago. Your single act of giving me an occupation has brought about far more than I think you may realize and now is the time, on the eve of my working career here at WSP*, to let you know how much I appreciate your act of kindness.

I was nothing but a glorified servant, bringing people their food, with a head full of inexperienced knowledge but desperately trying to obtain an opportunity to prove myself useful in an occupation that simply wouldn’t let me in. I would see what I so sorely desired as if I were a child with my face up against the window of a wealthy homestead but with no hope of entry or invitation. Finally, and may I say extremely near the end of my tether, someone – you – opened the door and let me in.

That simple act of trust changed everything – EVERYTHING!

In retrospect I honestly believe I would never have the home I lived in, the car I drive or the same love of the family I have as I was on a very dark road leading ever further into even darker territory. You allowed me to step into a place full of light, hope and possibility and I dare say that I’ve thrived!

Because of you I was given the opportunities to improve on the knowledge I had, been afforded amazing experiences (yes, even rats the size of poodles I cherish), and gone to far and exotic destinations like Tzaneen and Roodepoort.

Mr. Jensen,* thank you for your helping hand and seeing something (I still don’t know what) in that interview that led you to hire me and allowed me to become far more than I ever thought I could be.

With all my gratitude,

Gabriel Black.

*All names have been changed to protect the innocent...and the virginity of those involved.

Child's Perceptions

A child’s perception of the world can be very skewed.

As a child I went to an all boy catholic school. It never occurred to me that there weren’t girls at the school. They weren’t there so I didn’t notice that they weren’t there. Also, this was during the apartheid era in South Africa and privately run catholic schools taught any race or creed so I was blissfully unaware that there was even such a thing as apartheid.

This perception changed when my family decided to move to Johannesburg and I was put in a government school.

There were girls in this school, learning alongside the boys. Now that they were visibly at school, it occurred to me that they weren’t at the private school. I thought that girls in the coast must not do careers but must simply stay at home and do house work or have boyfriends and get married or something because they didn’t go to school. The girls in Johannesburg must want to work and have careers if they were going to school!

Heavens knows where I got this notion from because my cousins and aunt were at school in the coast and I didn’t get to see them until late in the afternoon on some days because of it. They’d arrive home with their school clothes on, so where I got the notion that the girls on the coast didn’t work or go to school I have no idea!

Then there was the race thing. There were no races other than white in the government school. I simply thought there were a lot more white people living in Johannesburg and that’s why there weren’t any children of other races at school. It never occurred to me that they weren’t allowed to attend!

Funny how children think and a pity I had to grow up…