The way others feel about you is none of your business – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 07 PM on day 372 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, practice writing by hand, answer some question for my forthcoming profile on The Blogunteer–I used both hands to type the answers I am SO proud of myself 🙂 – feed myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck truth-be-told I am not trying that hard my first priority is becoming more independent which does not mean I no longer care about my campaign it just means I won’t chase after people for donations  – feed myself spaghetti bolognaise  for lunch – I used a fork and even less of a mess than yesterday I am SO proud of myself 🙂 – watch TV, continue reading Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, feed myself grilled chicken and tomatoes for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday I overheard my parents taking about the NBT’s – national benchmark test, a test that all the universities in South Africa look at before they decide to accept you into the university or not – and what my sister was going to study after school it was only in that moment that I truly understood how much pressure was on my sister and the guilt of it overwhelmed me because I knew that my parents had basically written me off as someone with no future which meant that my sister and brother – both younger than me – had to work extra hard just so that my parents could have at least two kids to brag to their friends about but now I realize that I can’t control the level of expectations my parents have for their children and that although it hurts that they don’t expect me to be anything it doesn’t mean I won’t be. Is the way you feel about yourself dependent on how others feel about you?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!