The following is an excerpt from Matthew Emerzian's book "You Matter".
Pulling up to the arrivals area at any terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is slightly dangerous and very annoying. The only way to describe it is “too many people and cars in too small of a space.” This formula has never been my favorite, hence the reason I leave concerts before the final encore. That very last song is never worth the hour stuck in a parking lot, in my opinion.
What made this trip to LAX even more adventurous was that I had never met the person I was picking up. We had spoken on the phone a few times, but never met. Her name is Dr. Tererai Trent, and her story is one for the ages.
From the pictures and videos I saw of her online, I knew I was picking up someone larger than life.
I am because of you. We are because of we. We matter.
As I came back around on my ten-minute loop of LAX, I immediately spotted Tererai. There she stood in her traditional Zimbabwean headdress and dress. The colors were magnificent—different patterns going different directions and creating a persona of power, style, and courage. I pulled my car right up in front of her and jumped out to meet her.
We only had a few hours to spend together before Tererai needed to return to the airport, so we went to a nearby hotel lobby, grabbed a table, and dove into conversation right away. It’s amazing how within just moments I felt like I had known Tererai my entire life. It also felt like she had been alive for thousands of years, not because of her physical appearance, but because of her wisdom and the way she spoke. Her Zimbabwean accent was super thick as she rolled her R’s and shifted the pronunciation of certain words. Her cadence was one of southern gospel preacher, almost as if every word carried with it animation and life.
She was spellbinding.
Tererai grew up in the village of Zvipani in Zimbabwe. Unlike her brother, she was not allowed to get an education. Their culture believed that girls are for getting married and having babies, while boys are to become men and the breadwinners. Tererai shared with me that she would borrow her brother’s books and try to learn at home on her own because she knew she would need to be educated to create a life for herself. She clearly had that desire for something more in her at a young age. When Tererai was just thirteen years old, her father sold her as a child bride in return for a cow, and by the age of eighteen, she already had three children.
Years later, Tererai met the leader of international affairs at Heifer International, a global nonprofit committed to ending poverty and...
Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar