Who am I? I always start answering this question by saying that I am a software engineer, a happily married mother of four, an avid runner and the author of two books. That is more or less the order these things occurred in: software engineer, married, mother, runner, author.

But those are things that I do. They are not who I am. So, if I take all of those out of the equation, who am I really?

I inherited a few attributes on the day that I was born that “directed” “who” I might be. For example, I am a Caucasian, Afrikaans speaking woman born as the second child to a mother of age 39, a housewife, and a father of age 49, an admin clerk on the mine. This set the scene for the person I was to become.

I am hardworking and loyal and endeavour to always be as honest as I possibly can. I am braver than what is necessarily good for me. I speak my mind and tell my truth, and, after decades of saying what I felt was safe, I am determined to not change that about me. I love too deeply, care too much and tend to overthink. I want my work to have value and truly make a difference. I want to feel appreciated.

I am not a little bundle of energy, the wild one or the life of the party. I have a serious and solemn, almost academic, aura, but I do believe that it is also a glowing, happy and passionate aura.

Although one of my mottos is, “A man is not a plan,” the one thing I cannot see myself living without is my husband. So many people say that marriage is hard work, but I find the opposite to be true. My marriage does not add to my workload, it makes my life easier and enriches it.

My little side hustle became the selling of my books – which never was the plan. Somehow I self-published and seeing as I wish to one day publish another book I guess I will have to figure this thing out. I suck at marketing and pricing and am starting to think that word of mouth really is overrated.