Johannesburg - Mapaseka Koetle may have won herself the title of Outstanding Supporting Actress at the recent Royalty Soapie Awards, but she says it's been a long and hard road to get to where she is.
The actress, who plays role of Dintle on popular soapie Scandal!, told Move magazine recently that she believes acting is her calling and in order to fulfil it, she needed to learn some hard lessons.
"My childhood wasn't perfect but I was happy; like every child there were things I wanted that my mother couldn't provide, but reality hit home when I moved from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg to study," she recounts.
Mapaseka says she was surprised to find her fellow students had cars, fancy apartments and expensive hairstyles while she had barely enough to survive and had to walk a long distance to school each day.
"I envied them," she says, "But I kept going because I knew who I was and what I wanted. I came to Joburg to study and act. Nothing was going to stop me," she says.
And that, dear friends, is how you win at life!