Finding your niche
Besides statistics, nothing else has quite bamboozled
me like finding my place in this world.
Growing up, I was always labeled as a ‘gifted’ which
was cool and accurate by all accounts so up until high school, good grades
kinda were my thing. No one prepared me for what awaited me. Everything was
harder there and I had not the foggiest idea on how to prepare for exams and
everything not to mention the culture shock. Picture a 13 year-old scrawny kid
born, raised and schooled in one town moving to the big city of lights, Nairobi
or Kanairo if you will. I didn’t mind the culture shock as much. I actually
kind of took it as a challenge you know. Try to fit in without anyone noticing
I’m kienyeji for lack of a better word. What bugged me the most was how to even
prepare for exams. I tried what I was used to: go over everything one time and
I’m good. I don’t have to tell you how bad I flunked. I have always been underage
everywhere I go which made adjusting that much harder. I shit you not, up to
form 2, I used to call my mum on a teacher’s phone and she’d think some girl
was trying to prank her - sighs in premium embarrassment.
With time, I learned the ropes of how everything worked
and tried out some extra-curricular activities to fit in. First thing I tried
was basketball and it was love at first sight. Be that as it may I was still not
physically endowed for the sport – remember the scrawny part? Nothing had
changed. I pride myself in having a heart as big as Alaska and that’s what kept
me going. For those who speak basketball, I could not shoot a 3 pointer up
until form three or thereabout. On matters academics, I had found a way to pass
my exams – cheating. Just kidding, partly at least. The school culture was
reading the night before exams and relying on natural intelligence and street
knowledge which did work most of the time. If times became tough, we did what I
like to call collaborative answering of exams.
Fast forward to campus and it’s been an entirely different
kettle of fish altogether. I have never really fit in, ever – and this was no
different. Fitting in is overrated if you ask me - just do you however weird you are, own it. Wondering if people only like me because I’m funny and constantly
making people laugh so they like would be the title of my biography. I am sort
of a walking paradox in that I don’t particularly enjoy human interaction but
at the same time I love the feeling of belonging – you know the direct opposite
of loneliness. In fact, up to second year only one person in my class knew
enough about me for a short description at least. In all fairness though, she’s
the only one I let in – and deservedly so.
Outside of tech, I didn’t really try that much stuff. I
ran a blog with a friend during quarantine which was a lot of fun. It had been
a while since I wrote so it was a way to express myself in all my hilarious
glory. Like your work-out plan, that died out eventually. You can check it out
actually, its good stuff: https://yetustories.blogspot.com/.
Fast forward two years later and here we are. I’m writing constantly, trying to
bring some light into your lives with my life stories and I do believe this is
why God put me on this earth – part of the reasons at least.
How to find your niche? I don’t know… I suppose it
would involve what you are effortlessly good at and it’s something that you
love doing. Anyway, I have found mine and I only pray you do too if you haven’t
already.
All my love…
_storyteller.
This one!!!!
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