People wonder why
I like to feel so fly
Why so much of my pain I hide
And act with so much pride
People wonder why
I’m not the finest guy
Yet have so much confidence in my talk
And so much style in my walk
People wonder why
I never seem to cry
When life is just so hard
And my desires I never really had
The reason is this
I may not be rich
With a flashy car to screech
I may not be well built and strong
With muscles like King Kong
I may not be fine
With beauty perfect like a straight line
But when I’m on stage
All eyes are on me
People wonder why
I walk with my head held high
When there’s no inheritance to my name
And have very little fame
People wonder why
I never stop to try
When though I try I fail
Or end up in the tail
People wonder why
I never really cry
They wonder the size of my ego
And the strength that helps me to go
There comes a time
When I alone matter
When though my flaws be many
The spotlight still shines on me
I cannot give life up
Because today puts me down
I cannot go to sleep always in tears
Because the thought of tomorrow brings me fears
I cannot feel inferior
Just to make you feel superior
There’s something within my soul
You can never touch or be
That is what makes me me
In your house you are a prince
On the stage I am the king
In your office you set the rules
On my stage I alone am the rule
You may have it all
But up here I too can stand tall
The reason is this
I may not be rich
With a flashy car to screech
I may not be well built and strong
With muscles like King Kong
I may not be fine
With beauty perfect like a straight line
But when I’m on stage
All eyes are on me
The world takes turns to make everyone feel important, and indeed everyone is, in their own special ways. Life has blessed everyone with diverse qualities and various specialties which make each individual unique and distinct from another. There are times when people do not readily know what genuinely sets them apart from others, there are times too when they do but feel that their distinctions may be of little significance compared to others when the truth actually is that everybody can maximize their potentials and uniqueness, it may be harder depending on how much work people before you have already done or not done but the underlying fact is that you too matter.
Growing up Sam was privileged to be taught how to play a lot of sports, from soccer, to running tracks, to playing volleyball through basketball, baseball and cricket. Proudly he can say that through all these activities he has learnt how to be a team player, a focused and determined person and importantly a confident person even in the face of the most intimidating of opponents. His growing ages also saw him develop an enormous interest in writing and fine arts. It began with playing a role in every stage drama from preschool through to high school, recitation of poetry and choreography. In the midst of his many talents and interests, he took time to find himself, to realize that though basketball made him happy, poetry puts him into bliss. He found a way to feel important about himself, to inflate his ego and inner self and to allow his confidence to be alight; all these he discovered when he realized how much he loved to write, how well he could captivate an audience and how his inner value seemed constantly to rise when he was on stage and doing his own thing.
Convinced beyond every doubt, Sam understood that some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths, some ladies are born with ethereal beauty, some men have herculean strength but that notwithstanding, he believed that he too had a time when it felt like the world revolved around him; when though not perfect in anyway everyone depended on him.
By the time he was eighteen, Sam had taken up poetry as a career, travelling to many places and events, he was privileged to meet many great people, go to some very fantastic places and made some good money on the side. Soon he had appearances on TV and on radio so many times even to the extent of hosting his own show. He met ministers of state, great pastors, music and movie stars and even Presidents just because of a few beautifully strung words.
From all his many encounters his confidence grew simply because of this beautiful fact that in those moments, when he was not the richest, neither the finest nor the most important, all the cameras, and all the eyes all over were fixed on him. In those moments it felt like the world was suddenly dependent on him, it didn’t matter who liked him or not, it didn’t matter what he had or not all that mattered was that he was in the spotlight, his value was increasing his worth was climbing because he had captured the moment to do what he knew how to do best; poetry.
Everyone has a worth, sometimes it is hard to see or realize because we are too busy intimidating ourselves with what others have.
Langston Hughes, was a great poet, acclaimed till date to be one of black race’s most distinguished people of art, in the eighth grade he discovered his talent in poetry and other writings but like many children he will soon be requested to stop writing and take up a much more “promising” interest or career. Over the course of time, because he knew what it meant to him to write, because he knew the fulfillment he got from mounting the stage and keeping the pages flipping he would come down in history as one of the best.
There’s something within everyone that sets him or her apart from others. In many situations our lack of or inadequate confidence in ourselves becomes the core reason for our inability to make successful what within ourselves we have purposed to do. Confidence is the urge that keeps your head high even when there is an obvious reason to stagger in the midst of a powerful gathering. It is this confidence that people like Langston Hughes will employ to declare: “We younger Negro artist now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad if they aren’t it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful and ugly too…if colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”
Sam believed that regardless of another, he existed and just because he didn’t fit someone’s criteria didn’t make him any less of a person than who he was. In the midst of his pains, he knew that he was important in so far as he was able to manage the strength in him that his talents offered and the confidence subsequently that was produced thereof.
Like Sam everybody has reason to believe in him or herself, everybody can work hard and look forward to the moment when the world would suddenly turn and give you an audience. You don’t have to be rich, or beautiful or strong or even educated to have a worth, the work here is your ability to convert your worth into bankable value and benefiting from it as much as possible. Nobody deserves it more than you do and nothing is reason enough why you shouldn’t be proud of yourself.