Reflective Essay

My essay is about my interview with Mr. Percy Mestry on his life in the apartheid era. He lived in the great Shady Bazaar in Vereeniging. Mr. Percy Mestry was there when the Sharpville riots took place. All the people from Vereeniging gathered and went together to Sharpville to help those in need. They closed their shops and gathered as much money and food as they could to go and give it to the people in Sharpville. They took the injured people to hospitals and got them treated.

Brave: it is an adjective. The meaning: a brave person is willing to do dangerous things and does not show any fear. It can also be a verb. If you brave an unpleasant or dangerous situation, you face up to it in order to do something.
I chose the word “brave” for Mr. Percy Mestry because he was ready to take up any challenge. He was not afraid to fight for what is right. He went to Sharpville knowing that his life was in danger. He did not care. He took the risk and went there to save all those people.

I think that Mr. Percy was a very brave man. He was not afraid to stand up for his rights. If he knew something was wrong, he wouldn’t sit back and watch that wrong thing. He would stand up and try his best to fix it. Even at the time of the Sharpville riots he went out and helped the people. He wasn’t afraid. He did not sit behind locked doors like a chicken. He gathered people and went to rescue those injured people.

They even went as far as going door to door for food collections. They collected money, food and clothes for those who were in hospital and for the relatives who had nothing.

Mr. Percy Mestry was an exceptional man. He did not let the whites stop him from having his good years as a teenager. He obviously could not do a lot of things, but he went out and made the best of his youth. He was the captain of the soccer team. He played soccer tournaments as well as coached soccer teams. He was very involved in sports. He played an important role in the sporting field.
I think that Mr. Percy Mestry is a great man. He taught me a lot in a short time. He showed me that being a coward gets you nowhere. We must learn to be brave and take up challenges. We have to learn to get out there. Experience the world for what it really is. We should come out of our fairytale lands and accept the reality of life. I thank Mr. Percy for his time and effort. And I also want to thank him for teaching me all those things about the past. I have now learnt to appreciate life and stop complaining for what I don’t have.