life – Page 4 – Dimples Migraines and Aahs

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021

Qué sera sera

At the end of the day, all reading will depend on what my brain chooses to remember on the exam day. After that, it depends on the examiners mood and how strict or lenient they choose to be.

There are only so many ways you can cross your legs and just a few postures to shift from.

Time still runs out whether you are in the 5am club or not.

Getting things done, well that depends.

I have tried reading several units a day each spanning just 2 hours. I changed to understanding units per topic. I later added going through past papers to get the feel of the exam and scrapped all that for jogging my memory to see whether I remember the points read and if I could explain them in my own words.

Will I ever be ready?

Do I want exams pushed an extra week?

What if I just get it over and done with?

I could read everything, understand everything. Interpreting the question well would definitely add me marks and the icing on the cake would be remembering everything I read and seemed to understand. At the end of the day, it heavily depends on the examiner, their mood, how lenient or strict they choose to be

Qué sera sera … what will be will be.

August 27, 2020August 27, 2020

Entertainment, edutainment.

This week ( read sometime in June. It’s been that long in my drafts) while looking for entertainment, I realized how dynamics have changed. Long gone are the days when our parents finished school and had appointment letters waiting for them to join the workforce. Then came the days of motivational speakers who using stories such as that of the owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken encouraged us that late blooming is okay. Fast forward to Gen z who are already making their first million before they figure out their career paths doing effortlessly what they love.

Chebet Rono, a kenyan blogger and radio presenter while celebrating her 20th birthday in June listed some of the milestones she accomplished at 19: Appearing in a magazine, headlining a couple of blogs, earning her first million, meeting and interviewing her Kenyan Idols, Having 4.2 million YouTube views and appearing on most of the Kenyan TV networks. At nineteen I had no accomplishments other than being alive and joining campus. She’s just one out of many… Chloe from the Netflix show too hot to handle also turned 20 this year. She’s a model, she got several brand ambassador deals after the show and she also came up with her own branded clothing attire ‘ love yourself queens‘. I’m just watching Patricia Bright reacting to how a 20 year old spends her 40,000 dollars salary and I’m equally in awe.

Patricia, as I am is shocked about the things the girl spends her money on. Key word there is her money. The girl in the video is a designer and she started hand stitching her designs from age 15. At that young age she was already competing in project runway junior and got her exposure. She does her designing part time and still manages an 8-5 job. This is depressing for my Kenyan audience because at 27 people are still battling unemployment. It only got worse with Covid 19 and the many positions being declared redundant.

Its really tough not earning coins in your name. Patricia’s reaction when the girl showed her shoe closet and all we could see were designer labels was ‘I like designer shoes but I did not like designer shoes when I was at low budget. I liked offers, discounted prices not yeezys’. this comment reeled laughter from me. This is the same Patricia who has fashion hauls on her YouTube from all trendy stores. She had to cut her taste to match the money she was earning.. you mean she didn’t always own designer items! The comment made me look around my tiny room and I could sure do with love for low budget things don’t we all?

Patricia did however bring a point to light, a lot of these social media celebrities we see doning designer clothing all the time don’t actually own some of them. They are given to them for the marketing. Sometimes they get to keep them, sometimes the clothes are sent back after the shoot. Other times they get to keep them for a discounted price. Several people strive to dress like a certain so and so or own clothes from flagship stores that you were the first to love not pre loved. Anyway, now we know that people we look up to did not start there and neither do some of them own those clothes.

After several welcome to my Channel videos, please like and subscribe instructions, seeing shopping hauls, home makeovers, DIYs, travelling on a budget anything and everything that can be documented up to and including Iconic corpses the feeling of what am I doing with my life is overwhelming. There is constant pressure either from within or around to account for your time.

To end my search for entertainment, I took a trip down history. I watched the lives of reknowned men and women. What they did, what they went through, and what made them famous. Those tales are mind blowing; I would urge this edutainment. Learning about famous painters, musicians, presidents, kings and generally any name you hear or see being thrown including authors of quotes you have resonated with. Vincent van Gogh’s life was particularly remarkable. Many know him as a famous painter but few really know his paintings. I struggle referring to myself as a writer as I am still learning the craft and I do not think I have much to show for it yet coupled with the fact that I have not written long enough to establish a niche or produce work that I consider befitting of the public eye on a daily basis.

Befitting as per whose standards one asks? At some point, Van Gogh sought solitude so that he can produce his own inspired work as opposed to being influenced by what the people around him were creating or what he was being told by his brother was selling in the art gallery. He of course acknowledged other Painters who at his time he considered skilled in the craft. Unfortunately, his artwork was not appreciated as much during his lifetime as people thought him mad and rightly so.

It is good to love many things for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much, performs much and can accomplish much and what is done in love is well done
Vincent van gogh

This quote answers that the measure of quality of one’s work is in it being done in love. It matters not the appreciation, or monetary value but because Van Gogh experienced what lack of these two can do he advised that one should love many things. Another take away from Van Gogh’s life was the devastating effect of loneliness. Love for anything without someone to share with is misery. Having battled with feelings of inadequacy and questioning my path and its trajectory, I am rather content with what emerged from my search of entertainment.

December 13, 2019January 7, 2020

Have a little heaven down here while experiencing life with a big spoon

Image result for different sized spoon images

I am not counting but we are just about to start hearing about new year resolutions. Late last year I decided to be making mine later in the year around this time so that I have a head-start preparing how I will accomplish them. Fortunately since then, I have always accomplished my year’s bucket list and in some occasions surpassed what I thought was too early to dream of achieving. This coming year, I would like to challenge you to dream big, live large and simply have your little heaven down here .

In this harsh economic times I know this is the last thing on your mind.I hope after my last full stop you will see the need to make it a priority. This year has been awakening for me in different areas of my life. I have come to acknowledge that life will always be complicated, money will always be scarce but we need to make the little we have stretch further.

I came across a quote which befits this space. It stated: the emergency that always gets you in the end is the one you didn’t prepare for. So let’s face it, there is always gonna be another mountain and we’ll always want to make it move( The Climb-Miley Cyrus) and while trying to make it move, we can use some equipment. This equipment is the bigger spoon.

Often we’ve read that the grass is greener where you water it. This big spoon is the sprinkler. Whether kwa ground vitu ni different, it doesn’t hurt to have a little heaven down here. There are some experiences you hear of and marvel at how large people are living this life when will we get to hear about yours? Good thing is, you do not have to break the bank or be part of NYS 4 to have your experience.

Hosea 4: 6 tells us, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. I have been a victim countless times.

Ask!

Seek!

Research!

let this year be the end of your destruction. More so because most answers are within our reach by the click of a button. Kenya has so much to offer that we Kenyans have not realized. For instance, do you know that there is a Bear in Kenya? Yes you read it right, a grown Bear! Now that you know, research to find out where this Bear is located and plan to make a visit sooner rather than later before it becomes extinct like Sudan the white Rhino.

Not once, not twice have I been in a gathering whose audience is mostly whites right here in Kenya and I ask myself why don’t we kenyans show up for such as I believe there are a majority who would enjoy the experience. Later, I get the answer to my question which is always, I did not know about it. Fine, there are things I still do not know but i’m putting my best foot forward and my ears on the ground. Even if I may not partake in each and every activity I will know about it.

Knowledge is power and the more you know, the more you realise how much you do not know. Your big spoon is YOUR big spoon; whether it is a tea spoon, a table spoon, a soup spoon it is YOURS. Don’t hate on another’s table spoon while you are still on your tea spoon perhaps for you its tea time and for the other its simply lunch, or dinner and not their tea spoon moment.

All I am trying to say in these many words is that you need to try out that new restaurant, visit that place your heart longs for, make time for your own happiness. The more we wait on people so that we can do it as friends, or have company the higher the chances we will not accomplish what we long for. I might be on my teaspoon moment but I’m hopeful that lunch is coming and then I will use a bigger spoon to experience all the marvels this life has to offer. Hopefully it will be a table for two as you will be dining along with me.