At one time or another, you may not have achieved the desirable results. We do not talk about failure as much as we do success. If you fail no one wants to know your story unless you found a way against all odds to turn your 50 attempts into a success story. For a long time education was the key to success. This was hammered into the heads of all Kenyan children. You were to go to school, work hard, pass all exams and thereafter get a well paying job that will enable you raise the living standards of your family. Generations fought for women to be educated. Generations fought for women to have white collar jobs like the men. Maybe we got it all wrong .. maybe education is not the only key. After all, no one guaranteed that it was the master key.
Later in my University years is when I began hearing success stories of people who dropped out of school. No one bothered introduce us to this unique crop of individuals during our career fair. It was always the doctors, the engineers, the lawyers… funny enough our teachers were not part of the lineup because even to them other professions were more noble and they wanted the best for us. Scratch that, maybe they hoped we had seen the best of their profession as they spent most of the time with us and hence they did not need to be paraded once a year. It was also when joining university that I met people who opted for teaching as a career because they could not see themselves doing any other thing.
The goal has always been to be successful. Being among the best is not considered good enough, you have to beat them all, stand out, get the awards. Once you instil the habit of beating everyone to be the top, you will forever fall short. We created a culture, sustained it and demanded that we put all our efforts in attaining it.
It is never enough for an artist to be nominated for the Grammy’s. People will always ask but did the Artist win the award. Even if they won, how many awards did they scoop that year or in their entire music career. An artist who has good enough songs that attract a sizeable crowd is still measured against the amount of money the Artist makes and the lifestyle the artist can afford. It is no wonder some artists are battling with drug addiction and worse off that most of them commit suicide. Some realize they cannot live up to the expectations of their fans or their own expectations. One might have managed to scoop several awards in a year but the next year the creativity does not come up to par or maybe it does but we the fans do not give the Artist the same recognition we gave them a year before and thus they do not scoop any award.
I am trying to re evaluate my idea of success. I do not think that it is a two sided coin where you either get heads or tails. Success is a continuum and I need to recognize that I may not have it all. We have been reminded that one cannot test the ability of a fish by how it climbs a tree because that is not its forte. The same accommodation should be accorded to humans.
Instead of asking how many accolades one has on their belt perhaps we could value someone by how empathetic they are in a situation, how engaging they are in a conversation and most importantly to trust them with the opportunity to show us what they have accolades aside. I am just about to sit exams and the possibility of failing has paralyzed me with fear. It is what drives me to wake up at wee hours in the morning and my reason for sleepless nights.
The day the results come out is a day of reckoning. It is when the wheat is separated from the chaff. This is when people will finally know if you were all talk. Looking back, I have already had life examining methods that should count for something. Once when my life depended on it, I used the skill obtained from the education and narrowly carved my path out. However, this will be irrelevant if on the day of the exam I do not recall the other things that are just examinable but are not necessarily put to further use.
Just like the Grammy’s, there is no end to amassing the accolades. The other day I mentioned that I could speak a foreign language and the first thing the person asked was whether I had considered learning 4 other languages; mandarin because the Chinese have taken over our economy and it would be better if I am well equipped. My mind completely switched off after that hence I do not remember the other 3. In the same day I was being asked whether I had considered enrolling for a Professional Course and how that will help boost my employability now that I have the same accolades under my belt as everyone else who was taken for their internship in my current work place.
Some of these accolades are just amassed in the form of certification but the skills we should have been equipped with are long forgotten. Many of my friends have the DELF French Certification but they can barely put what the certificate says they hold into practice. I am probably heading in this same direction considering that I am forced to get a Certificate to prove my competency in a language I engage with every month for the past 7 years.
The other day I was being informed that the examining process is a little different from every day parlance. So one may know the language, speak the language but fail the language exam because of their parameters. ( after seating the exam, I beg to differ but this may be true for other exams)I wonder who thought assessments are the best way to prove knowledge. I am complaining about this as I take a break from my intensive revision that I hope bears the society accepted fruits.
Dimples Migraines and Aahs 