Being Kenyan is a God-given gift. Identity is something we all have. A wise man once said that you need to know your identity to know the direction that you are going. If I was born in any other country, I'd most likely have interacted with different people and developed different goals. I love my life as a Kenyan, with it's joys and it's sorrows. Even people from the first world cry.
Being a Kenyan for me means:
- Having a religious belief – believe me, I've met people who don't know what going to church and or wearing Sunday best is.
- Being asked if you are a good runner.
- Finishing KCPE, breaking pens and pencils and thinking that life has just begun.
- Asking the girl you adore most in your class to keep your eraser and sharpener.
- Doing CPA or ICDL before joining University.
- Watching Spanish/South American soaps with the folks.
- Going to Shade Hotel or Hillock Inn or Cabanas on special occasions.
- Having dreams to go to the west when you've just finished high school.
- Accepting that monolisation is a stage, and suffering through your first year in secondary school.
- Listening to late date (back-in-the-day) or Late night Capital and hoping your sore heart will get some soothing.
- Spending X-mas with your family and having nyama-choma.
- Experiencing peer-pressure in high school where sex and alcohol and drugs came into play.
I can go on and on and maybe my sentiments do not apply to Kenya as a whole but if I never went through none of these things, I wouldn't be who I am today.
Natulenge juu!!
