Quarter Century Later: The Script Goes On

Quarter Century Later: The Script Goes On

I like living ahead of the curve. Since someone superhuman drew my curve, I have sought to make the gradient steeper and more contrasting.

BY MUSYOKA NGUI

musyokangui02@gmail.com

Other than in Facebook where they do a countdown of one’s upcoming birthday, I don’t have a real timer for this day. Of course there are pals who tick and circle the calendar and wait patiently for the day with surprises. They are few. But then such is life. It is riddled with scarcities; that of true friends included. I am not complaining though since in my case I’d any day go for quality and not quantity.

I do not pretend that I prepare for birthdays. In fact many have come and went without me neither lighting nor blowing a candle. Not that I mock the fickleness of life but it has to do with men’s engineering. They’d forget key events not only their girlfriends but also their own-and genuinely so. Perhaps that’s why we are surrounded by mortal timers to alarm us when dates are due.

So what has life taught me in the past 23 years I have been around? Actually I don’t know. As a phenomenon, there is no exact definition of life. By the way when is the best time to pop champagne? Is it at birth, in death or every day? What makes birthdays so special? Is it because of an angel’s arrival or a departure of a hero to another world? What counts more; the thought or the gift?

I will not complicate a straightforward event. Like everybody else, I will mark mine by reflecting at the milestones, the challenges and the promise of the future. One thing I am sure of at my age is that I am definitely more mature. Physically, some of my friends say I don’t look my age. What does my age look? Others think I am still 18. They have guts to dispute the Registrar of Persons- who deals with hard facts like days, months and years. Like seriously, did I forge my ID? Actually, my citizenship is by birth and I had no problems getting a national identity card. I have never lost or replaced mine. It is an old generation one that still scares the hell out of my younger colleagues who still harbour some remote figments of imagination that I pre-dated my birthday to vote or to get a job. Far from it.

Certainly, my past will inform my future. I have made certain decisions which I still am proud of. I am also proud of my many mistakes too. I have learned to live my life and live my dreams. It is something I am not willing to postpone to tomorrow because that tomorrow may never come and if it does it could have a full agenda. I do not procrastinate. I like living ahead of the curve. Since someone superhuman drew my curve, I have sought to make the gradient steeper and more contrasting. That I may live each day differently.

I can say little about my childhood years since I was actually acting the script of my parents, teachers and the society.  I still do love them since they taught me values of determination, hard work, and respect and most important they cared for me. They still do. And so I will forever remain indebted to them; my success is inextricably tied with what they did, said or did not do or said to me.  I am a better person courtesy of many people than I would care to remember and acknowledge.

Let me now talk about the script I have authored. In the past four years I have been in campus. The career I chose will inform how I live the rest of my life. It is something I love and it is great that the love was not unrequited.

Other than studying for a BA in Communication and Media, I have won several media awards and started successful mass media ventures. Better still, I have mentored young, yes young (I am old enough to have a younger protégé) journalism juniors. And most of my services have been free. The blogs I open for them, the scripts  I did for theatre club, the editing of the Varsity Post and generally being there for my friends. I am glad that they have reciprocated.

I am now surer of myself and where I want to be in the next five, ten and so years. In God’s name, Amen.

So I thank you all from corporate to comrades, colleagues to strangers to family and friends. Definitely your wishes to me of good health and better opportunities in future will encourage me to never disappoint you or yours truly. And if I do, as I will sometimes, please understand. I do not believe I have any highlight yet.

The writer is a blogger at musyokangui.blogspot.com and a Fourth Year Communication and Media student at Chuka University.