So, what is the role of a coach in an apartheid state? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure, I’ll keep reflecting. I know that a soccer program won’t end colonialism, but in the meantime I know that I have to teach good or else I’ll have to answer to Ibrahim.

What I started to reflect on consistently was that in order to be re-born, resurrected, and rejuvenated, something or someone (even just a piece of someone) essentially has to fall away, expire, pass on. In a word, death. As morbid as it might sound, deep, transformative, and lasting change requires a death of some kind.

If we can only thrive on sunny days, what will we do when it starts to rain? If we can only float when the current is moving with us, how are we supposed to swim when the current moves against us? We have to learn to rise and keep moving forward.