The Education Ambassadors SA team caught up with Teboho Mosia who describes his childhood as magical. Read his inspiring story below.
I grew up in a small town, East of the Free State, Bethlehem. I had a magical childhood really. I was always surrounded by love. I was constantly reminded that I would be something in life and that education guaranteed a good life. My aunts who raised me together with my mother and now late grandmother are academics. So, education was a constant conversation in my household.
I was what many said at the time, a weird child. I was not active in sports like my cousins who excelled in soccer and other sport. I used to read a lot. From magazines to books, anything I could get my hands on. I would just escape in a literary trace. This really opened my mind to a world outside my own. My imaginary friend was words, to this day, I often get people who notice that I have an extensive vocabulary to which I credit to my love for literature.
Magical as my childhood was, I battled with acceptance. I wanted to fit in. So in my teenage years I started hanging with the wrong crowd and started drinking in grade 9. In retrospect, I now see that I wanted to be ‘cool’ like other kids. I had just lost my grandmother and I was not one to cry. That would give credence to the perception that I was a sissy. Something I now embrace. We are different as human beings. Self-love goes a long way.
I used to believe that there was nothing I could not do, I mean I read books on Malcolm X a man I thought was infallible. Revered by many, he would do no wrong in my eyes. So, when I would come second or third in class or not win a debate in school or battle in getting a girlfriend, that would shatter me. I would cry myself to sleep until the next win. I was my biggest critic.
I wanted to be celebrated. It was important to me. So important that I would spend days plotting how to perfect my next move. This really took the joy out of my childhood as I would not say anything to anyone, I needed to be good and okay at all times. I mean I was that guy who spoke eloquently and was always properly dressed. How could I not be okay? Something that I carried to my childhood and would later delay my progress in life.
Career
I am a television news Copy Editor and Producer. I produce my own show on ANN7, Channel 405 on Dstv.
- I am also a presenter weekdays at 6pm on Newsroom Live (name of the show) on the same channel.
- I write for news publications.
- I am a professional Voice Over Artist with my last project being with one of the four major banks for a TV commercial to run in July.
- I own my own communications agency, BEU Communications.
- I am based in Midrand, Johannesburg.
The most incredible thing that I love about my work is that I get to write and read and get paid to do it. My biggest and ultimate joy!
I am a creative. I cannot box myself in one trade. My industry allows me to have more than one job, and that’s an opportunity I thank God for every day.
I started working while in Varsity at a community radio station, so I think it is safe to say that I have been working since I was 20. The transition from radio to TV production certainly has to be my career highlight. I get to grow on the daily. But my biggest career highlight has to be registering my own company, Beu Communications in 2015. A baby I would like to see grow to being one of the best in the country, coupled with my TV and radio commitments.
The most important factors to keep in mind and future plans
Commitment and a insatiable love for information. I work in news, you have to always be on the pulse about everything in the country and abroad. We work extremely long and somewhat strenuous hours, so one really has to have a love for what they do. You have to have the willingness to let go of certain things in order to grow. I am most grateful for the challenges I have been through. I made a lot of bad choices in the past but that prepared me to be in the space I am in now.
I have prospects of working oversees. My sights for the next few years are certainly abroad. I would like to be working for CNN, BBC or Aljazeera. It will depend on who calls first 🙂 but certainly, I would love to be working abroad producing TV shows through BEU communications.
I always say one day I will get to tell the world about my mother’s tenacity and resilience. A woman who had me in her teens and ensured that I had the best life one could ask for. For the longest time I used to not get her. Only now in my adulthood that I get her and respect the decisions she took that did not make sense to me when I was much younger.
Some of the people who also inspire me are my friends. I have a handful of hard-working, ambitious and focused friends that I would probably drink tea for (I hate tea).
In closing, remember that for every dream, aspiration, like, interest, seek God’s favour and watch Him marvel upon your life. And relax, everything has it’s own time. Relax and have a good cocktail wearing a pair of great shades like you own the world.
Email: tbhmosia@gmail.com
Twitter: @Tebeu
Facebook: Teboho Ellesworth Mosia
Instagram: @Tebeu_
Thank you for sharing your inspirational story with our community, Teboho. We wish you all the best in everything you do.
If you would also like to see your inspirational story published in our blog, email it to: info@educationambassadors.org.za
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