Bruinou.com turns 3!

This boytjie turns 3!

Bruinou.com – 3 Years on!

The
5^th April is an important date for a number of
reasons…

For
starters, it’s the date, almost 29 years ago, when I decided that I had had
enough of my fledgling life in the safe confines of my mother’s womb…I decided
that it was time for me to breakout like Michael
Scofield and make my debut in this world. So, without very much thinking,
head first, I made my cameo appearance into the world, bidding farewell to the
free, temperature-controlled accomodation; cheers to the nutrients and oxygen on
tap and goodbye to the spa-like watery coccoon I had come to call
womb.

There’s just something about the birth process, the acknowledgement of
the beginning, the knowledge of how/when/where it all started, that helps us
better contextualise and understand ourselves. 3 Years ago, after having toyed
for some time with the idea of creating a credible online community aimed at
bridging the divide of a “media-less” Coloured community of South Africa,
Bruinou.com was born…pretty much in the form you see now; a form which many
of you have come to know and love. A form that has until now, served us fairly
well…but as with most things…there’s always room for
improvement.

As I
enter my last year of being a 20-something, I have the awkward discomfort of
looking back at my life from ths vantage point and to question just exactly how
I got here. Dreams of being that lucky sucker who actually fulfills that old,
cliched dream of being a millionaire before the age of 30 have all but
evaporated and what’s left in its place is nothing but the cold hard reality of
real life, real failures and real issues. Looking back at my 20’s, I can see
that what should’ve been a blazing-trail is looking very much like a scorched-earth
policy as I assess the landscape of my life thus far and the damage caused
by my incendiary passion, burning commitment, flaming hopes and of course…some
of the resultant burnt bridges. That my surname is “Ash” seems rather apt at
this point. Still, I feel like I have so much work to do still, to ignite the
hearts and minds of the masses and create that elusive fireball of achievement
that will leave onlookers with seriously singed eyebrows.

That
Bruinou.com has become a defining part of my life is beyond doubt…but
niggling questions play in the back of my mind. Self-doubt spawned from
incessant debates, hordes of detractors and baseless accusations of me being
some kind of neo-separatist have caused me to question the value of this online
creation, its impact, its future and its real purpose. Assessing again the
number of positive outcomes which I have managed to achieve through
Bruinou.com; the lives I have managed to touch and the people I have been able
to meet through this online community fill me with hope: a sense of pride and
purpose…and for this, I’d like to thank each and every one of you that have
journeyed with us so far.

Coming from a community that has very little regard or sense of
“leadership”, this word has always scared me. The possibility that people might
actually look to me as some kind of emergent leader is something that still
does’nt sit too well with me. If anything, I’m definitely not a “leader” in the
classical sense…although I would much rather lead in the areas of
entrepreneurship and business…sadly, my record thus far in these areas is far
from illustrious…but I’ll keep trying.

That’s me y’all! 😉

I
see the disappointment sometimes on the faces of some people who meet me for the
first time. They’re half expecting a charismatic, firebrand, highly influential
somebody with an entourage…and when they see that the guy behind Bruinou.com
is just a regular outie with a praatjie…the deflated expressions on their
faces are very telling. Instead of me taking this to heart, I’m actually quite
relieved to get by as the unassuming somebody that people don’t look twice
at…the guy who blends in and who is a part of the social scenery. I’ve never
claimed to be more than I am and I think in this instance, the fact that I am a
cardboard cut-out of the quintessential Bruinou stereotype is in my view, my
best asset. It means that the only qualification I need to be able to talk about
you…is because I am in many ways, a direct reflection of
you.

I’d
like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYBODY that has registered on
Bruinou.com and who make this website the tightly knit, special online space
that it is. To the people who playahate on us…shot ous! The fact that you’re
talking about us means we’re probably worth mentioning…which is a victory in
itself.

Here’s to the next year of Bruinou.com! Here’s to
you!!