What legacy are you leaving behind?

 I had a lovely Mom growing but she died before I could even process teenage hood. The day that she died I didn't even sleep a wink. It was the most painful day of my entire life. Its been 19 years but thinking about that day still hurts like the minute I heard that she was gone. I couldn't even cry, and I didn't have the strength to console my little brother who was broken to pieces. I just became numb. I became angry. 

Lets talk about my Mom for a second. If there is one thing I could define about her is SuperMom. My Mom was a no nonsense person and she had that Mama bear in her that she never allows anyone to bully us. My Mom taught me strength, she was just amazing. Her legacy inspired this blog, that's why I am writing this today....

She grew up in an era where there was a fight for freedom from our oppressors and she selflessly joined the liberation army at the age of 16 years and went to Angola to fight for freedom. Her journey to Angola was quite scary and I remember very well every detail about it because she told me and my brother about it. She never had it easy. She spent 11 years of her life dodging bullets and moving from camp to camp and hiding away from the enemy not even knowing whether she will ever see her parents and her siblings. My Mom was a war veteran. On top of it, she had a verbally abusive Mom that drove her there. Knowing the type of Mother she has who is alive until today, I know that she is abusive. So she would rather go into exile, risk her life then to be mentally tortured every day by her Mother. That didn't stop her for being a good Mom. It didn't stop her from caring about her children and teaching them about life. That didn't stop her from taking care of her parents even though her Mother was abusive. She had a heart of gold and that legacy shaped me. 

To me a good legacy is blank cheque. Because it carries on for generations and it also get your lineage to benefit from your legacy. A good leagacy is doing good by society no matter what odds you are facing. A good legacy teaches your children lessons that you failed to teach. There are days where I am tempted to do wrong but I stop myself and think about the consequences my actions will have on my legacy. Today, I walk around proud because of the legacy that my Mom build for me. Every time I see someone that knows her, they define her by legacy. That is what drives me. My Mom was principled and she had a moral compass that she taught us and it shaped me and my brother. I want to leave that behind for my little ones. Mwenyo and Dwayne.