I never dreamt of being a writer. Writing was not my forte. My experience with my English teacher early on in school did not help me. The English subject become one of those dreaded lessons; before I knew it, I was performing poorly in English compared to other subjects. Luckily, in high school we had set books. English literature supplemented my English grammar. The books, ‘The River and the Source’ and ‘The burden’ become my favorite reads. I enjoyed literature and analyzing the characters in the books. This saved me during my last English exams.
Fast forward to my first job at 21 years , with an organization that deals with young people, The World Youth Alliance. Reading and analyzing some of the great philosophers was core, we had to understand the foundations of human dignity and why it should be at the center of all policies. The founder Anna Halpine made us read some of the greatest masterpieces in philosophy the likes of Karol Wojtyla, C.S. Lewis, George Weigel among others. She would give us assignments on a weekly basis. Besides marking our reviews, she took time to also help me in my grammar and boosted my confidence in the Language.
The reading culture at World Youth Alliance drew me to be fond of Biographies and Memoirs. I made it a habit that each time I travel I have to read at least two books. All this contributed to improving my English Grammar. It is also through reading that I feel in love with written real life stories.
Having grown up in a family of story tellers starting with my grandmother, I felt each story was worth documenting; one for entertainment, two, for people to learn, and three to preserve history for future generations. I was drawn to sharing true events that people could relate to, but I didn’t know how to.
My first Manuscript (happily filed) was titled ‘My Family’. I wanted to write a biography about my family. I was a bit ambitious on how I wanted to go about it. I started with the Agikuyu history all the way to our Clan only to realize that I needed a lot of time to research, interview and document each member of the family. I gave up before I made any progress. The writing initiative was shelved for many years as I pursued other projects. All along at the back of my mind I still felt I needed to accomplish the task. I embarked on trying a second approach sometime in 2019. This time I made progress but I feared that nobody would be interested in my story (imposter syndrome). I shelved the draft again until 2020 when Covid hit. I decided to get a coach to walk with me, i also gave the manuscript to a few of my friends to read and comment. It was the best idea as my friends gave me courage and hope to publish. My friend Carol Maingi immediately recommended me to CLC and we have been walking the journey together since then.
I really appreciate the time I spent with my late grandmother, my uncle who is referred to as the ‘older dad’ in gikuyu and my family. They were/ are great story tellers. This ignited the need to share the stories for the benefit of others. To the people I have encountered in life who have directly or indirectly influenced my need to write, who have challenged me and who continue to journey with me, it has been evident that each encounter with a situation or with someone makes you better; you discover your purpose.
Being an author is a test of humility because it brings us closer to the truth about ourselves. By acknowledging and using our talents we are exercising psychological humility as stated by Alexander Harvard in his book the ‘Created for Greatness’. He further states that acknowledging one’s talent is an act of ‘magnanimity. He concludes by stating that while acknowledging our talents we should refrain from comparing ourselves to others, because we are not all equally talented; also people differ in the specific talents they possess. Our journey to discovering our talents is different but with a common purpose, to serve others.
May we continue serving others through our writing as we keep in mind that, growth never stops. Keep freeing your imagination, waste time with your imagination, nourish it, give it free rein and push it to its limit for you to be perfect.
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