844 Its Over Now

There is no greater pride in Kenya than the pride of successful completion of 8-4-4. It is in fact the best thing ever and today I just had to listen to 'Easy like Sunday Morning by the Commodores'. It soothes and brings back good memories.When you are through, you sink into a seat and exhale that coveted sigh of relief having toiled and moiled over the years. It's that moment in life where you take a champagne, and pop dem bottles.

8-4-4 aint that easy, It is full of ups and downs. The 8 years you spend in primary are usually the longest. Time never moves, it is worse when you spend more than 10 years and results seem like an oblivion. However, there is hope, hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Hope that you complete Primary education with the intended precision. Again primary school days are the best, we relish them like cherry.

Today marks my 16 years in the Kenyan education arena. I don't know whether to laugh, cry or just be apathetic. I have mixed reactions. Yes I know I have to be happy but I am buoyant, upbeat and celebrant. I have walked the race and Yes i can say, "I MADE IT." My mixed temperaments of being a sanguine and melancholic have brought me thus far.

My graduation speech should be terse but motivating, mellow but still exciting and full of promise (8 months since I finished school. This was like forever somehow). It is something that is in my mind. Impromptu. I cannot pen it down. It will be tantamount to being called to congratulate someone you have never known. I want to find out if I got the requisite gift of the gab. To wow an audience that will gather today in my official transition into being called a Mister. Queen of England, I am only waiting to be knighted in a SIR. I am worthy of the respect.

I wanted to write about the four years in high school. Oh my! Need I say that the oner place in life where you truly have the best transition into adulthood is in the precincts of a high school. 80% of most people usually  transition into the age of majority while in High School. You become a young adult, but still under the care of your teachers and guardians. High School is a gem that makes men out of children. I still keep contacts of all the buggers we were with in the complex blocks that made us who we are. At least 75% of them have graduated or will graduate in various campuses across the country.

And after high school, University beckons. You think you will spend the remaining four years away from the books that you had to endure while in Secondary. Hahaha, the last time I checked; Some courses are more demanding than the biologies, physics and high school mathematics that students in high school think are a hard to crack. There are units in mathematics called Stochastic Processes, Probability Modelling, Real and Complex  Analysis and Topology (Mathematics that you cram. Ouch) among other units that can make you think you are the dumbest mathematician if no dedication is put in place.

But somehow university has its illusions, frustrations and probity. Most people think they are going to the higher learning institution to relax after hard work in secondary. Somehow its relaxing, yes to some extent. You hope to get a job, start earning, mess a little bit and the rest. When things dont work out, you take a nosedive and plunge. Dudes and Dudettes, there is something called being open minded. Never be static, be dynamic and versatile like a chameleon or stick insect and camouflage then make a lemonade out of a lemon. Society has no time for whiners, it only recognizes those who make an effort however small.

Again the four years in campus can be challenging. very challenging. Women, Booze, Peer Pressure and Exams. They say Exams are about Harambee. My oh my, students cheat like its business as usual. When you don't, you are an outcast. One of my buddy told me a certain chap had excelled in the skill and he came through with a fast-class, Yes FIRST-CLASS. First-Class is coveted. 

When you get it, society respects. But when you graduate, whether a pass or first class, people know the struggle. Many only wish to make it to university. University is a mixed juxtapose that you have just to take it as it is. It's never that serious. Abraham Lincoln had to fail more than ten times to become the president everyone remembers in life. His stance on slave trade made him one of America's best known president.

Oh! Today is my graduation day. I wrote this piece in a rush. Yes I had to rush  because stomach spiders and all that were disturbing me. My bowels were on the verge of releasing watery stools but I had to stay composed. That feeling you have when you are about to approach a panel of interviewers unprepared and you really need the job like your life hangs on the lifeline. I will try to be pragmatic though. I will endeavor to endear but be realistic and of course never fail to excite.

Over the years, I have been preparing for this day. I have made castles in the air as to what I would have said but my ken still deludes me. As such I have decided to be at RTP (Room Temperature and Pressure). In our high school RTP meant going to the exam room clueless having never read anything. Over the years, I have done so many things RTP. It has become a routine as life is not a rehearsal. Life is reality. Me wishes reincarnation was real. I would have easily kicked the bucket and reinvented myself as a mongoloid in another world.

Time is running out. At eight in the morning, One Dr Rattansi will do her thing. She will be officially deputized by Prof. Mbithi. Oh! Magoha will commission his last graduation and will no longer be the VC (Good Old Urologist). There are no students in Kenya who are as proud as former UON students. Lecturers will tell you that it is called, "The University of Nairobi." Graduations here are a national event. UON never shares. We conduct our graduation and the World comes to a standstill (Kenya that is). No other university is allowed to have its graduation when The University of Nairobi is graduating its students (MMUST paps pun intended). 

We as the The University of Nairobi hence hold the bragging Rights as the premier institution of world class excellence in the region. The current president first addressed The UON before any other university, The Deputy President is an alumni. The UON is the first university in Kenya of choice to any aspiring degree holder in Kenya. You never make it to The UON if you choose it as third, second or fourth choice (JAB students be wary). The BEST, Yes read that again, THE VERY BEST OF EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA.

Enough of UON. I have to make an exit. But as I try, memories are making me feel like breaking out into a cry. My nose is runny and my eyes are bulging with El Nino like tears of. I have to conquer the world. I am a tad too resistant since I may soil the make-up I have on my face. Men you need to try make up. Just mild. Like newscasters.

SITUONANE.