My Hero

I signed up months ago for a Lunch and a Lesson workshop on how to teach essay writing with colors that was to be held today.  My mother and I drove to Susan’s house and while we were preparing the lunch part of the day, Susan told us to be thinking about our essay topic:  My Hero.  Needless to say, I had no trouble coming up with a hero or the three reasons why he was my hero.  My pencil hit the paper, and this is what resulted:

Heroes help others.  People yearn to be around heroes, if not to actually be them.  Most notably, however, heroes face challenges with grace and dignity.  Emmanuel Manirakiza epitomizes the title of hero.  His ability to overcome adversity, to set and achieve lofty goals, and to inspire others characterize him as the most heroic person I have ever met.

            Born in a seemingly inopportune setting- Rwanda in the early 1990s- Emmanuel encountered more adversity than most of the world could ever imagine.  A nasty war stole away his father and much of his extended family, and a nasty disease- cholera- robbed him of his mother and younger sister.  Rebels infiltrated the refugee came he fled to as a mere toddler forcing him to fend for himself in the bush in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He survived by sucking water from the roots of plants and fighting off snakes with stones.  He survived the machine-gunfire that lodged bullets in his calf and scarred his face, just below his left eye.  Once, shackled by rebels on the side of the road and literally starving to death, he survived the menacing glare of his own uncle, strong enough to help, but cowardly enough to ignore Emmanuel as he wasted away in the rebels’ possession.  In the midst of all of this adversity and so much more, Emmanuel overcame.  He ended up at Sonrise School, a school founded in 2000 by Bishop John Rucyahana for AIDS and genocide orphans.  He quickly rose to the top of his class and even scored in the top ten nationally on his Primary 6 exam earning him the nearly $300 he spent to buy his surviving sister a plot of land and to build her a very meager home, even by rural Rwandan standards.  He continued to excel through high school scoring in the top ten again on his Senior 3 national exam earning him a laptop computer that he would inevitably sell to ensure his nieces and nephews could have a chance to overcome their own adversity.

            One of Emmanuel’s goals in life was to provide an avenue out of poverty for his sister and her children, but his goals rose far and above that one.  As a young secondary school student, he had a dream to start an environmental club at Sonrise.  He wrote a business plan, actualized his dream, and even garnered financial support to buy and plant many trees to help prevent erosion and liven up his campus for his fellow classmates.  Another goal was to acquire a world-class education at a prestigious boarding school in South Africa.  He achieved this one as well and reached many other goals while he was at African Leadership Academy:  to interact with powerful politicians, to intern with the Rwandan government, to run his own business, to improve his writing, to deliver a speech to his classmates chronicling his life, to travel to the United States on an exchange, and even to accomplish his childhood dream of riding a horse.  His latest goal was to attend a prestigious university in the US.  He was accepted to the University of Rochester and offered a full scholarship to attend.  This fall, he would have had the chance to reach yet another of his lofty goals. 

            With his passing on to a better life at roughly a mere 20 years of age, Emmanuel was unable to reach his goal of a bachelor’s degree from a prestigious university, but his goals to change the world have inspired every person with whom he came in contact in his short time on Earth.  His life on Earth was characterized by a passion for people.  He served as a peer counselor and even advised people 5, 10, even 40 years his senior.  One of his favorite activities, public speaking, whether in school chapel or general assemblies moved people either to tears or to action.  His many accomplishments encouraged others to strive to make and attain their own lofty goals.  No one wanted to leave a one-on-one conversation with Emmanuel for fear of missing out on his abundant wisdom.  I remember siting in a dark, empty conference room at African Leadership Academy on a surprise visit to see him and soaking in his wisdom as he shared his story.  And his story, what a story!  His story is his legacy which will continue to inspire everyone who hears it for as long, or as short, as they may live.

            While Emmanuel is no longer with us in his physical body, we can all be inspired by the adversity he overcame to set and obtain our own lofty goals.  I can gratefully say that my hero, Emmanuel Manirakiza, changed my life, and I can only hope that his legacy will continue to change every life with which it comes in contact.  May Emmanuel’s loftiest goal- to change the world- inspire us all to do that very thing, for Emmanuel.