The Power of One

by Bryce Courtenay

cicatrization

faculties in everything I did. In teaching me independence of thought they had given me the greatest gift an adult can give to a child, besides love, and they had given me that also.

It wasn’t until I went to boarding school the second time that I learned that the business of survival is a matter of making the system work for you rather than attempting merely to survive it. Doc had encouraged me to think, but now I would have to think entirely for myself, invent my own ideas and express my own opinions. I would have to trust myself and my own answers, and be true to my own convictions. If I was to survive I would have to follow the truth as I knew it in my heart. This was for me the power of one and, once it had been attained, I knew nothing could destroy me.