Mangaliso, how are you so confident? ​

Confidence
/ˈkɒnfɪd(ə)ns/

noun
noun: confidence

“A feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities.”

One of my former bosses told me time and again that he didn’t consider me average height, but that I was short – I’m 1.7m. I also tried modelling but the director of the agency said I was too short and needed to be at least 1.8m. In school, I was told I had a big nose. Others said I had a big head. When I was at university pursuing a career in medicine, I had this favourite shirt and I heard some of my colleagues whispering and gossipping about how much I wore that shirt – seemed it was a little too much. Others asked why I smiled so much because I was always doing so.

My Height
One of the things I wanted to really change about myself growing up was be taller and believe me, I researched all the ways it could be done. When I saw that the research wasn’t yielding any true methods, I prayed and asked God to do so​, at least make me as tall as my best friend. That obviously didn’t happen. What was left was to accept that I would never be 10cm taller and reach 1.8m. It’s how I was made and came into this world. That acceptance was the very first step to an awesome journey.

My Big Nose
I recall a friend drawing me on the chalk board in class and he really focused on my supposed big nose. It was a great laugh but truth be told, I never really saw that my nose was significantly bigger than others so that never made sense to me. Perhaps I had a different mirror. A couple of years after that incident, I was dating this girl and told her the story, and her response was that from her experience, guys with big noses, have bigger d****.

My Big Head
The kids in my class said I had a big head. Really, I had never heard that from anyone else. Truth be told, I was the top student throughout my high school years and I believe their justification for my ‘intelligence’ was linked to their perceived size of my head. The come back I developed to that was, well, I guess the bigger the head, the bigger the brain to store more information and be consistently smart.

My Favourite Shirt
I think we all have a favourite piece of clothing that we wear more than the rest. I felt sexy in that shirt because it fit me so well and it allowed me show off my chest a little. Here’s another dimension to this; Growing up, we were never the richest nor had the most money because my father supported a whole extended family i.e. ourselves (4 kids), my aunts, uncles, cousins, and so many other family members by himself. In his family, he was the most successful so the responsibility quickly fell on his shoulders. The man did everything he could to support us all. The downside of this, is that we didn’t grow up with flashy toys, the latest trends in fashion, gadgets or otherwise. With that said, my wardrobe wasn’t so big with unlimited choices. So I pulled off everything I could – and I did it well! But through all this, we did have an education because that was the 1 thing he ensured and fought so hard for.

Smiling too much
As a teenager, I always thought I had this wide, crooked smile so I rarely smiled – ever! When you see my pictures as a kid, you’ll notice that I rarely ever did. Then one time in high school, I was asked to take some pictures by a teacher, a challenge I accepted. I took a couple of pictures with some friends and smiled in some of them and when I looked at myself, I thought my smile was beautiful! From then on, everything else is history and I smile as much as I can!

Mangaliso Mithi
– Young and Exceptional