Hello

When I was a child I either wanted to be a mad scientist or an archeologist, drawing was more of a hobby and a way to express my interest in dinosaurs and my favorite tv and video game characters. I knew I had a gift in drawing when after correcting my friend's bad anatomy they started telling other kids I could out draw them. From then on I became the leader of all things art in our group. After primary school I chose a high school that offered technical drawings as a subject. I was introduced to perspective and for a while I thought I would probably become an architect or a draftsman but that would have been a great mistake. I would have hated it. 
 

After I matriculated I applied to study graphic design at a well known technical college. I was excepted but only received the news a day after enrolment. I was so happy to be at college even though it was just for four days. I had to stop classes because of a lack of finances.

 

Many years and fruitless jobs later I found myself unemployed and one day a friend of mine told me about a job opportunity where he was employed. The next day I went with him and landed the position as a car guard. I was very grateful to have a job after sitting at home for such a long period of time. My job was to help customers load their goods, make sure they get parking and that they park in an orderly fashion. This place was a wholesaler who exclusively sold to vat registered businesses. 

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I wasn't alone out in the parking, I had the company of the security guard and his dangerous dog. It was a nice experience, except for being exposed to the elements. However I endured, until one day a door opened for me to work inside the shop. The first year was nice because they put me in a aisle that was fairly quit except for the end of the year when summer hit and it transformed into a made house. My job inside the store included filling up and displaying the stock along with providing impeccable customer service.

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After a year of cruising by, things started to change with the introduction of our new supervisor. She was a very driven lady and I had become too comfortable with the statuesque which caused some friction between me and her. My new supervisor had high standards and I just could not keep up with her no matter how hard I tried. Everyone else was raising their game and it made me feel like a failure. A few of us was given 3 months to get our act together or face termination. Somehow I survived the 3 months but I became very unhappy the more clear it became that I wasn't a good fit for the job.

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90 % of us worked under an agency which meant we where underpaid and had no benefits. Our new supervisor made a way for all of us to sign directly under the company and have our salaries raised and earn benefits. A month after that I quit my job. I knew I would never fit in at the shop. Besides not fitting in the management system was chaotic which added to my bleak situation. Our super visor would give us instructions, only to be scolded by the manager for doing it wrong, and days later the chief manager would make you change and redo everything again.

 

I remember an incident like this where I was in possession of a certain item and was told by my manager to hold on to it. Then one day the reginal manager asked me why that item was in my possession and I tell him the manager gave me the clearance to do so, to which the manager who was standing next to his boss lies and denies he had any involvement in the matter. I was told to remove the item and a few days later I removed myself. Before I resigned I came to the conclusion, I wasn't good at anything else but art and counseling and since art was more expensive to study it would be wise to do a part-time course in counseling first and later on when I had the money study art.

 

I landed a new job at another warehouse, receiving and dispatching sim cards. One day at the library as I was checking out my books a flyer on the librarians desk caught my eye. It was a college open day invitation. I didn't waste any time researching where the college was located and what courses was available. One course that peaked my interest was the art and design course. My plan was to become a counselor first and later do art but I had a feeling this might be what God wants for me and proceeded to pray and seek God's guidance just as I did in the past when I needed direction for my life.

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The following months leading up to the open day the Lord would let me see the name of this college everywhere I went. Now that I knew God was in it all I needed to find out at the open day was if they had bursaries available. The admin guy confirmed the bursaries but that it was a 50/50 chance that I would get it and I would only get it after I enrolled. That meant I would have to resign my job and take a leap of faith and start college. That's exactly what I did, I even turned down a better paying job a few weeks before I started college. I put  everything on the line by placing my hope in Jesus and all the signs he placed in front of me earlier.

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While I waited for the bursary money, which included a traveling stipend, I had to sell my DVD's and games just to make it to class everyday. When that money ran out I borrowed money from my relatives on two separate occasions. It all worked out in the end because God was with me. 

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I finished the two year course and 5 years and another bursary later I finished a 1 year course in 2D animation at False Bay college. I've done two dream internships one at Boland Studios and the other at Sanusi Chronicles and had been working at my dream job as an animator for a local TV kids series at Zizi Animations(Pixcomm) in Muizenberg. At the moment we are between seasons and I'm looking to start my freelance career.