ON BECOMING PRECIOUS CORE
2001. That’s the year when we opted to study French at high school level. As if our inability to go beyond “bonjour” and “comment ça va” wasn’t enough. We took the plunge and sat in a class where we would be taught in French, study novels in French and delve into the intricacies of a language that didn’t come naturally to us.
Every other person in our French class hailed from a French-speaking area in Cameroon: Douala, Yaounde, Bafoussam. Our little life had involved shuttling between Bamenda and Buea, where English and pidgin English were the parlances. True, we had spent some time in Yaounde. But not enough time to learn French adequately.
We were so bummed in that class. We couldn’t laugh at the jokes that were told. We couldn’t communicate. We were a complete alien. A disheveled mess. We sat there hoping. Hoping that one day our breakthrough would come and we would understand French.
Our breakthrough came. But not the way we expected it to.
Our teacher met our mother at the market place in the big city, away from our boarding school which was located in the outskirts of that city. He complained to her about our inability to comprehend the language. Actually, it wasn’t just a complaint. It was sprinkled with sarcasm.
Our mother relayed that information about our inadequacies to us. Once she told us, something in us was stirred. We decided to proof our teacher wrong. We decided to start learning French like we had never done. We started from the ABCs of the language with a book, entitled “Basic French” as our guide.
In the evening during the compulsory reading time in school called “preps”, we would flip through the tattered pages of our foundational book. We studied French more than we studied History (and we studied History a lot). We had a deep-seated determination in us that we would learn French and we would succeed in French exams.
Months later, when we wrote mock GCE examinations, we had a higher grade than everyone else in our class. Than everyone else who was fluent in French. We could see the shock on our teacher’s face when he announced the results.
That was a breakthrough moment for us. We have had similar breakthrough moments. Like when a supposed movie director eyeballed us and said we could not act. Then he saw us in a local(very local) TV commercial and was completely wowed.
Like when we started this blog and it didn’t make much sense to some. Yet they have seen it grow into something authentic, strong and real.
When you consistently fight for what you believe in and work hard towards achieving your goal success comes. Whether that goal is passing a French exam or building a blog.
To think that sitting in a room, computer in hand, bringing words to life would bring us these many blessings… Even when it seemed like no one was reading, we kept writing. We kept sharing. We kept doing everything we could to make this space grow. We have fought for our ideas with undying passion and commitment. And there’s nothing like seeing results.
We have discovered that even when you are in the right place, doing the right thing, you still have to fight. You still have to kick doors to open. You still have to push. You can’t just lay around and expect things to happen.
Writing here and making videos for YouTube are things we have worked hard at solely because we believe in God’s plan for us. We believe in us so much that we just can’t stop being who we were meant to be. We can’t stop allowing our pen to speak, sharing from our life and heart, sharing recipes, writing about relationships and all the things that we get prompted to write about.
We wake up in the morning with a great sense of purpose and fulfillment. We're on a journey to dying empty and Weloob is a HUGE part of that journey.
To you reading this, you have no idea how grateful we are to have you in this space. It is our prayer that you find a passion that makes you excited about waking up in the morning. We have found our purpose which we're fulfilling one blog post/recipe at a time. It is our prayer that you find yours and travel down that road.
Whether it is a French teacher or a local movie director, the voices of discouragement will be all around you. But you must choose to enthusiastically act upon what you believe in. Dreams do come true – but only when they are worked for.
May 2017 be a year of living fully for you. May you unleash your potentials and become that somebody that God made you to be. Above all, may you enjoy a blossoming relationship with your Creator. Because there’s really nothing like living for God.
And on this note, we say Happy New Year to you, our friend. Thanks for always visiting Weloob. There are much more exciting things (aka videos, blog posts and recipes) to come in 2017 and we can’t wait to go on this journey with you.♥
P.S. No “Here’s What’s Up” this week – this post takes its place. It will be back on Monday.
