About Me — George B. Kelly
A dreamer dying to live
May 2015 at age 25, I stood on the beach of Ganapoli, which felt like the confluence, or should I say a divergence point of my life. What lies behind me was my history — who I’ve been and all I’ve known. What lies before me, would be all I’ve come to know and all I’ve come to be in the past half-decade.
Everyone got a story, that much is true. But what really is our story? What is the premise upon which a story exists? A life lived? Or the result of an adventure?
If man is made for a purpose (as they claim) but finds himself absent of that purpose, a story thus is inevitable as he searches for that ideal. For without a sense of purpose, existence becomes nothing, it becomes meaningless — like death. Surely that must be what makes a story meaningful. Therefore our story in life is our continuous struggle to conquer death whilst we live. Unless our purpose in life is found, then the meaning of living evades us.
Maybe that is the reason I found myself standing on the beach of Libya — on the Mediterranean that cold night, along with over a hundred other people, on an inflated raft, making the sail for Europe. This night, stands as a focal point in my life, as a new chapter is about to unfold. To understand this very moment — how I got here, let me give you a crash course of what lay behind.
What laid behind?
I grew up in a pentecostal-ly conservative family of seven (2 parents and 4 siblings). I turned out to be the first child, consisting of 4 boys and a single girl — well, that was then because now we are just 5— 3 boys, a girl, and Mama. Life hasn't been fair — as it’s the story of many. Experience in life is what shapes us as humans — who we are, how we think, what we’ve come to accept as truth is simply the sum total of the things we've experienced, the things we've seen and felt.
“We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe ‘peoples. ‘ Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.” — Allan Watt
My father saw me as an opportunity to right his wrong — better put, as a chance to write the unfair hands that life dealt him with. As a child, his own father has died when he was young, so he had to become a man quickly. If you paid close attention, (or if I had been wise enough to pay attention), it’d been very clear that he pumped all his energy into his first son (me), to give me the best education (he could afford), the best opportunity available. We weren't rich, but we weren't the poorest — we sorta flirted between average and the lowest bottom.
Born in Benin City, Nigeria, there weren’t many quality high schools, but I went to one of the best. He, (my father) wanted me to. As he always said, “Education is the best gift I can give to you.” He was very conservative, strict, and lived like an intellectual (even though he was a school dropout), yet he was a dreamer. No doubt that's where I got a lot of my traits from. He passed away before I could get into the university, I was aged 17 at the time.
His passing plunged the family into financial quicksand, which changed the entire dynamic. For a child largely protected from the outside world, to have to go out and become a man, was the greatest challenge I ever faced. The coming years would bring more tragedy our way; I lost my immediate younger brother, dropped out of school — could not continue due to financial stringency.
In the back of 2013, I experienced a major heartbreak after a six years relationship ended just two weeks after the passing of my younger brother, it sent me into a deep depression that took me the entirety of 2014 to recover. That was when I made the decision to go somewhere else — just to see if maybe my destiny lies elsewhere.
And that is why I am standing at this confluence in time, at this beach of Ganapoli in Libya with a gaze set on Europe.
What laid before me (Five years in Italy)
When we set sail that night, beneath the fear and terror of the ocean and its wave, lies a silent hope in every heart that night. The same wind of hope that carried the ship of Columbus as he sailed the ocean to uncharted parts of the world. The hope that whatever lay ahead, could not be as worse as what is left behind.
But today, after five years, there are a lot of lessons I’ve learned than at any other time of my life. Not the least of which is that success is not geographically locked. It’s the result of intelligent disciplined actions towards a proposed objective, regardless of who you are and where you are.
But I didn’t know any better, so I became the real-life character of the famous book, “The Alchemist.” And like Santiago, I found out in the end, that what I traveled to Sokoto to look for, was right here within my shokoto.
These past five years have been an awakening — a chance to learn about myself, to have a better understanding of the world. It's been an eye-opener I must confess.
Habits, Love, Faith, and Finance I have discovered to be man's greatest challenge. One whoever is able to conquer these areas of life or has learned to skillfully navigate them has won at life.
What lies before me today?
Today I am a happy writer, living in Sicily, Italy. I do a waiting job during the summer, and during the winter I get enough time to write. A hobby I love deeply. Writing helps me connect with the bottomless depth of my soul. Currently, I have my first book in the edit, hopefully, to be published in the next few months.
It's over six years today, the question thus is, what lies beyond today?
Clarity lies beyond and within me. Today I know what I want and where I am going. Faith lies beyond and within me today — I know whatever befalls me, will surely come to an end, and what will be left will be better than what was.
Above all, my Dream lies beyond and within me — as my north star, guiding me to my purpose.
Nearly six years ago I sailed the Mediterranean in search of a meaningful life, follow me to read the stories and lessons from my journey through life here.
