What it means to be an adventurous man - Gracias Matthew
Hi my name is Gracias Matthew Manzongo. I was born in Democratic Republic of the Congo and now I live in Phoenix, Arizona. What it means to be an adventurous man? I think it's about living a bold life. You know, it's about doing what you want to do and chasing up the, your dreams. One thing I personally have learned from just being all over the place, you know, cause I left my home country when I was about 13, 12, something like that Remember moving to another country because of studies, I did my high school and in South Africa and ended up coming here.
And in the middle of all of that, I've been other places. It's about always, bettering yourself as a man, you know, an adventurous man. You have to better yourself or did you try to seek new adventures, new things you can conquer, your new experiences.
But you know it's amazing how the world is today because there's so many cultures, so many people, there's so many different stories and life experiences that, you know, connecting to one place in the world, especially here in America. I'm taking the step of getting to know somebody else's culture and other person's background. It's amazing because you realize that there are similarities but there's also things that are very different, and just taking the time to think about that, realizing that, accepting that it's part of the adventure, I think. It's also about being an example and being a model. Y
ou know, I talked about the courage to chase after your dreams and it's also part of that, you know, an adventurous man is a person that sets standards and sets, you know, the ball high for other people to see.
It's like, wow, he has done that. You know, he was bold enough to go off the this or chase after that. I think it's all, it's all part of the adventure. So part of the journey, you know, you think, why not try food? Why not new places? Why not? You can all do it. You can do it. I think you can do it. You know, if you just try it, you can do it. You know, today we experiencing this like wave where women are redefining themselves.
You don't just want to be mothers. You don't just want to be, you know, housewives and all these things. They want to be all these other things that before in society did not allow them to be. I think men, we should go through the same process. You know, where we redefine ourselves to be more than just providers and the guy who gets the sandwich, you know, we can be so much more, you know, explore the world and do other things that we've never done before.
Raise kids, you know, be a stay at home dad, anything. I'm looking at my culture. There's a lot of limits to things like that. There's a lot of limits to what it means to be a man. There's a lot of limits to our masculinity. Masculinity, you know, masculinity is very coated. You know this expectations and this is what you're supposed to do.
And exactly what traditions say, this is what our customs are and all these things. And you feel like, well I have to fit into these things. And then once you try to fit into those things, it's hard to get out of those things. You know you are two or three dimensional person, you know.
But being an adventurous man, like I said, it's about being bold. It's about being, it's about trying new things. So as an African person or someone who has been raised in Africa, coming here, moving to the United States has allowed me to open up my understanding of what it means to be a man, my understanding of masculinity, of what I'm supposed to be your or what I'm trying to be, you know, I don't just, abide by the codes and what I'm expected to do.
Now I want to, you know, a little bit more of the adventure, try new things, try new foods and all these other things that I've never thought I would actually try. So that's what I think can be and adventurous man is.
-Gracias Matthew Manzongo