The search for the Missing Springbok

Haha my title sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery! 

This post is  explaining the second facebook status that I put up last week!  (To read about the first see my earlier post Eish)

Esther L Milanzi

March 6

After a really rough 24 hours, I am really grateful for the people God has placed in my life. I am weak without my support system. 

In order to understand this post you must meet Nala, our baby Springbok...

Eish

First let me explain two of my facebook statuses from last week:

See my next post for the second status!

Esther L Milanzi

March 5

Eish! — feeling exhausted.

For this you first have to understand what Eish means! It is a commonly used term here in South Africa to express exasperation. I use it a lot! Now, why did I use this on my fb status last week?

Well it all started with the adventure to the soccer game.

The national game of Brazil vs. Bafana Bafana! We had been excited about it for weeks. Two of our dear friends (who will remain nameless) organized the purchasing of tickets.

The game was in Johannesburg, which is only an hour away. The tickets were purchases by our friends last week... so we were cool. We left leave after work at 5 so we could get there an hour early...

Wrong. And more wrong.

30 before 30

This is a post I had on my former blog. I am adding to it now and reposting it on this blog because one of my goals was to come to South Africa  and it actually happened. It has been a month since I've been here and I think it is finally feeling real. I am feeling super blessed for this opportunity to experience South Africa in a personal sense (meeting my family) and in a professional sense (being here with Fulbright and working at an FET doing student development work).

Before I get into that I'll explain where the 30 before 30 came from...

Back in 2012, my boyfriend and I went on a road trip to Atlanta. We were going to a party of a friend of his, who was about to turn thirty. We decided to come up with a list of 30 things we want to do before we turn thirty! It was really fun and so far we have both checked off several things on our lists. 

When I created this list it was just something fun to do. But in the last two years, I have used this as a guideline to help me budget, plan and prioritize. The first step in making something happen is by figuring out what you want. Once you know what you want and you are willing to make sacrifices to make it happen, you are usually more than half of the way there. One of my life goals is to inspire people to make their dreams come true. I've found that the hardest part is helping people to verbalize and vocalize what is that they actually want. It is so common in our society today to just settle for what other people expect of you versus what you are capable and what you actually want. 

It is easy to get discouraged by circumstances. Yet over the years I have met so many people who refuse to let circumstances define them. Some of the greatest stories come from people who have failed and used that failure to fuel their future successes. 

Ok let me step off my motivational soap box and get to the post... I have a lot of dreams. Some seem super impossible and some I never thought I would be able to do, yet they have been checked off the list.  All I know is that dreams come true when you have faith and you are willing to work towards making them a reality!