Nelson Mandela: A Mentor

I know this isn't something people would read but I'm very sure this is something people should write about. 

In my years as a student of Peace, Nelson Mandela is one my mentors. I could say this and would say this over and over again Albeit we haven't seen each other face to face, I've meticulously pulled all webs of his life in his process of toppling down the apartheid and found a single thread that led me to his being a man who had first thought violence was the key to winning himself the right to be called human. Nelson Mandela is a mentor, a very close mentor, for me because of this. I am not saying he is better than any peacemaker, than any humanitarian leader. I am saying that he is the closest to myself because he has gone through a process and through a lens where just like any other person, believed that violence could be a solution.

He was part of a movement that called for fighting back what fought them. But then he learned of the ways in the EDSA revolution, learned of the ways of Gandhi, learned that while he was in prison, words, unity, communication, and harmony could lead a people of resilience hand in hand and not gun in hand to relieve themselves of the apartheid.

This is Nelson Mandela.

My mentor.

My inspiration.

Thank you for the humanity you contributed to the human civilization that's losing every humane aspect of itself.

You deserve to rest in peace.