This is my story... Thapelo Masemene

I will always cherish my last parting words from my last year’s Mentor, Mrs Frankiskos.  She said, “Thapelo, I’m releasing you to the sharks.  I've equipped you with skills to help you to snorkel your way to success.  Like an eagle that’s pushing its eaglet out of the nest to learn how to fly, it’s time for you to fly.  I’m so proud of what you've achieved in such a short space of time – you’re a gifted, powerful and intelligent African lady, there is no doubt that you will be successful.  Go out there and make me proud!”.  Fly like an eagle – that is the phrase that keeps me going.

“A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree” – Proverbs 11:28.  

My name is Thapelo Masemene, and this is my story... 

I am a spiritual being, therefore it made perfect sense to me to dedicate my career to the Lord.  The reason for this is that it’s not about me; it’s about living a purposeful life based on the will of God – to be where God wants me to be.  I want a career based on Education and working with young minds; to mould young minds into something great.  It made perfect sense for me to go into the teaching field.  It’s not that I never tried the corporate environment; I did and I hated every moment of it.  I explored the corporate world while doing my students jobs back in university.  The job entailed a whole lot of routine, it lacked challenges and I did not see myself there.  Then I started to question what my true purpose was.  What on earth am I here for?  In the book of Colossians 1:16 we read that “Everything got started with Him (that is God), and finds its purpose in him”.  Therefore, basing my career in the Education field felt right; I found my true purpose. 

Each and every single day of my life this year had so much meaning.  It’s not that life in the classroom went by smoothly all the time. There were instances where I felt that I did not have everything under control.  My main problem was dealing with behaviour and classroom management.  I taught three classes, namely Grade 7, 9 and 10 Mathematics.  My Grade 7s were my little angels!  They were little sweethearts who I always looked forward to teaching.  My Grade 10s were more mature and generally easy to work with.  Then there were the Grade 9s – little boys with tiny horns!  My Grade 9s always tested my patience – they were little Godzillas!  I tried my level best to get the discipline on track – on some days I would be successful and on some days my efforts would fall flat.  I guess that the one thing that helped, to some extent, with instilling discipline was my big voice and “the look”!  It got better as the year went by and they are much better now.  In fact we get along very well, and it is such a breeze to teach them.  Finally, I really got the hang of them.  However, my Grade 7s are now starting to develop tiny horns and all the innocence and our pink “lovey-dovey” aura is getting lost.  Well, I guess that this is in fact a cycle.  Like Mrs Frankiskos used to say, it always gets better by the day. 

Over and above the teaching, I had my PGCE to complete.  Now that was a mission!  For the first time in my life I found myself having to juggle school and work, and it was not easy.  There were moments where I felt that I was totally loosing it, where I found that I was now becoming all emotional when something went wrong.  It got worse when instead of getting some support and understanding from some of my fellow colleagues about what I was going, some people were judgemental.  (It was a small fraction though, and not in the Maths Department).  They did not understand!  What I needed was support and an understanding of what I was going through.  As I went through this phase in my life I realised that it is not about pleasing other people, it is all about achieving my goals and ensuring that I do my best in everything I do.  The main thing that kept me sane was prayer and knowing that God will not let me do something that was impossible to accomplish.  In my moment of weakness I knew that God was carrying me through, for we read in 2 Corinthians 13:4 that “We are weak... yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you”.  This scripture says that in your weakness there is the presence of God’s power, for His thoughts are higher than ours.  We also read in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that the Grace of the Lord is sufficient and that his power is made perfect in weakness.  Rick Warren in his book The Purpose-driven Life he mentions if God only used perfect people, nothing would ever get done.  To live with a purpose is, in itself, living life to the fullest.

At the beginning of the year I planted some good seeds, now I’m harvesting good fruit.  I worked really hard, and it feels really great to see good results coming out of my hard work.  2014 is going to be an even better year – I know what to expect and like Auntie Hettie said, it gets better with experience.  To everyone that made this year possible – Mr Thomas, Mr Morake, Mr Harris, Mr du Toit, the Mathematics Department, Mr Reynolds, Mr Ryan, Mr and Mrs Prins, Pastor Kgabo Nyikiza, Apostle and Prophetess Tshehla, Richard, Charlene, Mme Masala, Mme Tshweu, Elias, my friends, my family... thank you for believing in me.