Choose to make a difference

The reasoning behind me starting this blog is random and something I'm not sure even I quite understand myself I hope to find out before I finish this post lol. I have never really considered myself to be a writer or someone that even really reads or pays any attention to blogs like this so my sudden urge to embark on writing blog puzzled me at first. I dont even know if anyone will read this but heres hoping lol. I do know however when I got the idea.


I recently came back from a very interesting and inspirational trip with 20 other youth to Nigeria. Interesting in the sense that it was the first time I have been since I was little and I really got the opportunity to experience my home country, to see the many good things that the country possess, to meet the people, to eat the food, to drive and fear that there will be an occasion where there will be a pot hole that we cannot get out of, to buy things from guys on the road (thats the real hustle, you man in london think you know). I got a chance to see the beauty of Nigeria, the places, the views, the scenery that I never even knew existed in my country. I was able to gain a sense of pride in my country that maybe before I thought I had but never really did till I had this experience. Of course everything wasnt all roses and there were many things that we saw and experienced that a lot of people would see to be negative, (during an armed robber threat while we were driving me and my brother's 1st incline was to take our sim cards out of our phones) but we were inspired to view these problems as things that we as children of nigeria can help to solve.



The inspirational portion of our trip gives more insight into why I decided to start this blog. Inspirational because we had the opportunity to visit schools for the disabled, Inspirational because we got a chance to visit a school for children that had their parents killed over religious riots in the north, Inspirational because we saw poverty that we have not even come close to seeing in the comforts of England. We were also given the opportunity to listen to many people in high positions, including the king of Okeila and the king of the whole Yoruba tribe, we got a chance to listen to an 18 year old Phillipino C.E.O of a big company (yup I said 18) and many other people spoke to us inspiring us to be the Obama's of this world and to be all that we were meant to be

One person in particular that spoke to us left a big impact on me personally. His name is Seyi Wright and he is a motivational speaker. He gave our a group a seminar/workshop which was entitled "Choose to make a difference" At first I assumed it was going to be one of those OBAMA YES WE CAN speeches like we had received in the past but this was a lot more. US rapper Drake says in his song I just wanna be successful and gives a worldly view of what success is and we sing along. Seyi Wright's view on success was very different however. His view was basically that a lot of people who are deemed to be successful in the proffession based on maybe their salary, or the longevity of the work but have had no real impact on the lives of the people around them so are they really successful?. He spoke about people that may have worked in the same place for 50 years but have never made a positive difference and had left no Legacy. He told us that most of the time making a difference had nothing to do with all our Academic qualifications But had a lot to do with the gifts that God had blessed us with. He began th workshop telling us to list our acheivements and most people in our group's first incline was list all our academic exploits but he said no dont list anything to do with your studies, he then told us to list our strengths and weaknesses and I noticed that 80 percent of the youth in this seminar couldnt perform either of these tasks. They didnt feel they had acheived anything outside of education, they couldnt think of any strengths they had in their character but had less difficulty pointing out their weaknesses. This really saddened me because I knew the giftings and talents that a lot of these kids had. Seyi Wright picked up on this and told us that we are all blessed with gifts, that we all had strengths even if we didnt realise it, he inspired us to beleive in ourselves and our abilities and he told us that we were all destined to leave a legacy.

Me personally did not have too much trouble listing my acheivements, strengths and weaknesses but even as a 22 year old guy that had jus finished uni I had no idea what it meant or what it would take to leave a legacy and make a difference, it had not been something I had thought alot about previously all I have ever really thought about was getting a job in a field i probably wouldnt enjoy but get enough money for, paying off my student loan and being financial stable not giving much thought to leaving a Legacy, like I said I wasnt even sure what that was but then Seyi Wright asked a question that not only inspired me to start writing a blog but sent me on my way to discovering how I could embark on leaving my legacy on this world. He asked a seemingly simple question which was "What is your passion?". It seemed like a tough question at first but when i thought of it the question was not tough at all the answers were flowing. I knew I was passionate about a two things in particular Basketball, working with and the development of youth. Seyi Wright then advised us in closing to combine our strengths that we have found in our character with waht we feel we are passionate about and that would be the start of how our we can make a difference and how our legacy can be stamped on this world. This really hit me, something so seemingly simple but overwhelmingly meaningful allowed me to start developing ideas of how I can truly make a difference in this worl. I want to use this to encourage people espescially people that have just left uni and are going out into the "real world" To know that its not your degree, where you got your degree or what grade you got that defines you or defines the impact that you will make. Only God defines that and it is only when you understand what God has done in you and can do through you will you understand what you are capable of(Phillipians 4-13). It is also important to take time to study yourself, understand what your good at what your passionate about and discover how you can use that to not only better yourself but those around you

So Why the blog? Well for reasons that I still cant explain the idea popped in my head during the seminar to talk about some of my passions, my thoughts and my ideas in a blog. To be honest ill probably spend alot of time talking about random basketball stuff or trying to make you laugh, but whatever I talk about I hope in the long run it will help me make a difference!

Peace