Keep fresh in your heart and mind the highlights of your life – that’s my message to the world.

It’s 2: 00 PM on day 2298 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read Ezekiel 34:12    and work on my  25 Smiles Campaign    – yesterday  Jim Mahar  donated $39 and Julie and Don donated $100  (thanks guys 🙂 )  which brings the total  raised to $9 600.04 only  $2 899.96 more to raise to reach my second goal of raising $12 500 for Smile Train before Jan 10 2017 (SO SO SO GRATEFUL to everyone who has supported this campaign so far ).

Recently I’ve been thinking about my 2016 To-Do List and other highlights of the year and in an effort not to forget them I wrote them down. Take a look:

2016 To-Do List Update

1. Raise $6 250+ for Smile Train   (surpassed goal of  sponsoring 25 smiles through my 25 Smiles Campaign now attempting to sponsor 50 smiles before Jan 10 2017)
2. Be respectful, kind, honest and generous (tried to be)
3. Call my godparents once a month (I called them more than I did last year but still not as often as I should have)
4. Learn one new thing every day (I started out well but by the end of the  year this just sort of fall by the wayside  )
5. Continue trying to finish reading The Bible (done on April 20, 2016)
6. Continue to make sandwiches for sisi’s (our housekeeper’s) neighbourhood as part of Virginia’s Sandwich Run (I did it for some time during the year then it seemed to be more convenient for everyone if we just bought her two loaves of bread to give to the kids so now on the days we don’t forget that’s what we do )
7. Read 20+ books (read 7 books so far (looking back I realize reading 20+ book with everything else I was doing was overambitious even for me))

8. Self-publish my book Life: My thoughts on everything from faith to beauty (the book is almost finished and if all goes well will be published next year under the new name Defying the odds: Where there’s a wheel, there’s a way )
9. Support myself financially (someone did offer to pay me to host their posts on this blog but for some reason something about the deal gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach so I said thanks but no thanks (money will come but I will not compromise my values and principles to make it come faster))
10. Meet Jacqui Mackway-Wilson ( Jacqui, Gaynor, Steph and B came to meet me at  Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour where I ziplined on November 6, 2016)
11. Meet Sebastian Schütte (spoke to Sebastian on the phone on his birthday)
12. Learn to fully undress and redress myself (did not even try)
13. Learn to help myself in the bathroom (did not even try)

Highlights of 2016

1. Finished reading the Bible on April 20, 2016
2. Raised $9 600.04 for Smile Train so far
3. Getting a call from my first and last forever and always superhero Catherine Constantinides on my birthday (of all the birthday gifts I got this year that phone call meant the most because I more than most know how busy Catherine is)
4. Went ziplining at Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour where I met Jacqui, Steph, Gaynor and B
5. Honoured to be one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South African 2016 (thanks so much to Caryn Gootkin for nominating me (i thought i wouldn’t even make it to the top 1000 South Africans but Caryn thought different LOL)
6. Did my first radio interview with Criselda Dudemashe
7. My intentional acts of kindness (I won’t go into detail about it because I don’t feel it’s necessary but I will say the little things we do make the biggest difference)
8. My Christmas project (I contacted everyone who’s helped me throughout the year just to say thank you (it was fun to hear the voices of people from all over the world who have helped me never expecting anything from me)
9. Getting The Book of Joy as a Christmas gift from (yes, you guessed it) my first and last forever and always superhero Catherine Constantinides (more than the actual gift (which I so appreciated) I appreciated that she took the time to buy the book, write an inscription and mail it to me halfway across the county [to be delivered just in time for Christmas] (I often wonder what your to-do list looks like superhero be a good mom, daughter and sister, green the Earth, be a voice for the Saharawi people, make TV, meet Oprah and oh by the way send Nisha a Christmas gift I’m so honoured deeply and humbled that I’m worth  so much of your time)