DREAMS

 Dreams constitute the ambitions, aims and goals that we hope to achieve. Our view of the life we would like to live in the future. All of us had dreams since childhood of living some kind of life. A life that we admire, see as simple and one full of happiness.  Such a life is characterized by a well kept family, a nice car, good house that is in alignment with nature letting in the bright morning sun rays and the cool evening rays, travelling wherever you want to, having an enjoyable job, going to church and living life sweetly.

Right at the point of conception and birth we are all set in flight working for our dreams. Some are born in a life that they would really like to change, others in a life that they see no avenues for change. This is either because they are satisfied with their way of life or they have decided to remain in whichever state they find themselves in.

The desire is felt greatest when one has an aim of changing his/her family’s financial state, when making promises to a loved one on how the future will be or even just a desire to accomplish some things such as travelling the world, starting a project to help the poor or improving the state of one’s community. 
 

Situations and occurrences in life bring about modifications to our dreams. Some dreams are realized earlier than expected, others as expected, others take longer than expected while saddest of all are those that are abandoned on the way or never realized. A case in point is that of parents. During the courtship years, many promises are bound to be made especially by the man. The two lovebirds sit together and see the life that they would like to have such as building a nice house, buying a car and building a nice family as well as achieving ones desired level of education.

With time the couple might achieve their dreams but some do not. Other people known as children come into the picture and make changes to the equation formulated. The children come to a time when they also need to have a taste of education. The prevailing financial situation and obligations might or might not allow the two parties to pursue their ambitions simultaneously. Most of the time the parents will halt theirs to let the young ones pursue theirs. The promise of building a house, studying or buying a car is adjusted to some later date in the future. The parents therefore set their children into flight and hope that they will achieve theirs quick. 

The parents will make lots of sacrifices and do everything to ensure the children have a smooth ride. Some children will be good and behave as expected while others exist who do not. As all these happen time moves. Some children will end up building the house and buying that car others might not. The parents might have some of their dreams realized through the children. Other dreams will definitely be abandoned since time might not allow them to come to completion. Children should therefore have this in mind and do all they can to ensure the parents get the best that they can.

Above all, whatever is perceived in the mind can always be achieved. We all are as great as our dreams and the more we dream the more we grow. However, we should not live dreaming only but putting in place measures to actualize the dreams lest we fail to realize them. The times might come when we will be obliged to forgo our dreams for the sake of others but as far as we can let us dream the wildest dreams and pursue them.

CAREER CHOICES IN LIFE

Life is all about choices. Many people say so or it is a fact that it is so. Making choices is a different experience for different people. Some find it easy to make a choice and stick to it while others take ages even to make the simplest of choices or decisions. Others make choices but never stick to them, making changes on the way and ending up taking up something that was of their least consideration.

Such choices include choosing a career, a life partner, an item to purchase, something to do or just a course to pursue in life. For instance, making a career choice is a particularly tiresome experience for some. Right from childhood, most of us have a career in mind that we hold on to. This career could have come into our minds in different ways. Such ways include the prestige accorded to it, a successful person that you look up to, suggestion from an individual or even just the intrigue of the career’s name. Most of our choices at such times include the high flying and high ranking careers such as medicine, engineering, piloting, management etc. Most of us at such times have a rough or no idea of what the career really involves or whether they are compatible with us.

Proceeding with life and many changes are bound to occur. Some more ‘appealing’ careers are met on the way, some which are completely strange. Our experiences with particular subjects end up changing or further increasing our chances of pursuing a particular course. Others find themselves failing in subjects that are in a way related to their chosen careers and passing in others. Therefore a condition for change of choice is set up. Engaging in extracurricular activities appeal more to some as they realize that one can make his/her talents a career and it must not necessarily be academically related. They find that careers are also found in sports, music and acting. Education to them thus is a way of bettering their talents in various fields.

More exposure to life and the range of choices increases. We come to find that engineering is not a single thing but a general name of a range of careers such as software, electrical, mechanical, aeronautical, environmental, geospatial, agricultural and even newly defined fields such as financial engineering. Similarly medicine is another group of several careers. The choice therefore needs to be specified. Our choices therefore in a way increase as we keep growing. For the lucky ones, their paths become clearer with time.

For high school students, a time comes when one is required to make degree course choices. Similarly, some find filling the forms an easy task. However others exist who find it a tasking thing to do. Many people will therefore start doing extensive research in a quest to discover their best paths. Actions such as reading books, searching internet sources, consulting people of different calibers, praying etc are taken in the hope that ultimately the preferences will be clear. Unfortunately, too much information tends to tag along confusion. In the end, the person becomes confused and even angered. Such a person might therefore make choices impulsively just for the sake of filling the form. Others depend on their feelings and instincts, choose the hot selling careers of the time, are influenced by people in their lives, make choices with a plan of changing them in the future and life continues.

Getting into university or any institute of higher learning and changes are bound to occur. Some continue with the search for the best path, others switch to courses they desire based on their experiences after completing high school. Further still, others are forced into doing some particular course based on their performance. With time, some find that they enjoy something they previously thought they would not, others dislike what they thought they would like but still due to circumstances and inability to change continue in whichever places they are. On the way, some gain financial independence, move to other schools especially abroad and continue making changes.

Within time, higher education comes to completion. Some find jobs while still in campus, others make groundbreaking inventions, find a job on their first application, venture into business or a whole different career path but the majority take time and energy to find a job. Many unexpected things happen, life continues until one leaves this world either having found their path or not. But one thing for sure is that one can make up his mind to enjoy whatever he is doing and might or might not discover his true path. No matter where you are don’t let your whole life be a pursuit of a specific thing. Make sure you enjoy every point of your life so that whether you find or fail to find that which you think is your place, you would have enjoyed your life. All the best as you seek your place.

 

THE EXPERIENCE OF A DAY (FRIDAY 27-03-2014)

The day begins like another day, in fact better off than most because unlike most of the days this day I wake up relatively earlier( at 7.30am )with no traces of sleep though I had slept late. With some remains of Nissin noodles(manufactured in JKUAT) and two mandazis( acquired  yesternight from two of my friends who saw it well to share it with me, I seeing it as my service to reduce the number of cold mandazis in their stomachs which could ultimately be of no great use)  my breakfast is well set up. After a word of prayer I remove my laptop so as to charge it but upon turning it on I find out that it has 98% of power which is just as good as full. With that dealt with, I now look towards warming my breakfast.

With no water in the room, I take the heater and jug and set off in quest of the water. Upon return, I fix the two red and black wires of the coil to the 13A extension which is also connected directly to the wires in the wall. Ours is a life of no plugs and sockets after a terrible and financially draining experience with them (having to buy sockets at the rate of a socket per day isn’t so friendly to the shallow pockets of university students operating in a meager budget). I set the sufuria of noodles on top of the quickly heating heat- uncontrollable coil, cover it up, a little stirring and I am done.

I serve it into a plate, leave some for my roommate who made it and claimed that he didn’t like the taste and mark you it was chicken flavor.  I cut the mandazis into small pieces, mix them with the noodles and I am ready to take my sumptuous breakfast. The food is a little cold but I am not willing to repeat the process of warming it up so I take it the way it is and anyway, I am going to wash it down with some hot ‘strong’ tea which will definitely warm my stomach and body up.

The day’s first lesson is at 10.00am so we are in no hurry unlike some days that you wake up 10 minutes to the start of the lesson but still make it despite the fact that about 12 minutes alone are for walking from the halls to the school (Hall 1 is comparatively closer to the school unlike the prefabs where most of our colleagues live in). Such an incident is only possible if some compromises have to be made. The compromises include having no breakfast (hard for me), not tap showering (ours are no showers but overhead taps), or bathing. Combine the compromises with a willing heart and the possibility that the lecturer will be late and your deal is done. Missing the class can also be an option cause my a third is untouched and anyway you attend some classes and come out after understanding nothing;  which is just as good as copying the notes later. My first attempt at utilizing my a third was very unsuccessful.

For me as stated above, it is unlikely that I will leave my breakfast no matter what. At such a time one will find me seriously multitasking, for instance putting on my clothes as I take my breakfast and at the same time putting my books in order. 20 minutes to go and I will be seated in the lecture hall as good as any other person.

But this day I am in no hurry. I take my time, do my stuff and in no time it is 9.18am time to start readying up. By 9.45 I am almost late but I am ready to go. I join the others as we walk to Chiromo but this day though I walk fast I periodically fall behind. Anyway I don’t care because I know I won’t be late. At about 9.58 I reach MH1 which is the venue for today’s Programming Methodology class. I strangely (strange because it is different from my sitting position in high school) prefer sitting back and so I take the empty backseat. It is announced that the teacher will be late by 45 minutes and so I have much time in my hands.

Therefore, I take out my laptop, check to see the signal strength of the Chemiweb wifi which is unfortunately low and limited. I therefore resort to trying out some basic c++ programming as I connect to the internet. I am presented with a calculus question which I had promised to look it up but I find out that I don’t have it in my notes. I therefore update my notes and being in no mood to understand it presently, I promise to do it the next day. The day is still fine and the mood great. In no time my friends join me and the bench is soon occupied. At about 11.03 the lecturer arrives and the lesson begins. We start writing notes accompanied with some explanations which I don’t   get. Most of the time, I have had to take down the notes and hope that I will get to understand them later.

The lesson ends and I get to hear that we shall be having no other lesson. With a download in mind, I decide to remain in Chiromo. Therefore I head to Chiromo mase for my lunch. With the conspicuous absence of Chapatti (whose presence would mean having rice, beans and chapatti) I decide to have the well balanced filling mix of ugali, beans and cabbages. Unfortunately today I am disappointed with the spice less Mamlaka like cabbages. Chiromo has always been my favourite mase, followed by Kitchen One and Mamlaka respectively ranked according to the quality and pricing of food.

At 12.57pm I am through with my lunch and set off to my favourite bench where the network is comparatively good. I decide to go by the rarely used, highly raised flyover to put my legs in a little practice and avoid the hassle of crossing the busy road below. Before proceeding to the bench, I first enter the Agriculture lab to charge my laptop. Unfortunately, the network lets me down and I am unable to download the 200mb program. Furthermore, my media players don’t play the songs well and so having nothing else to I set off to my room.

My mood changed to one that is not favourable and my head started feeling sleepy. But sleeping was not my option cause sleeping in the day meant having to sleep at 4am; which is not only abnormal but also unhealthy. I therefore set to thinking of finding a solution to my mental state and a way of avoiding sleep. That is when I started the mental troubleshooting of the cause of my present state. Could it have been some spice in the noodles, not reading the Bible, a sense of misplacement, a promise not fulfilled but brought into remembrance, a seemingly helpless configuration to somebody, the disappointing lunch and network, need to take a bath or even a call of nature? Definitely one of them could be the cause or they all made a contribution.

 After drinking some water, carrying out some of the above tasks, but refusing to resort to food, I came to writing the events of the day as I listened to some selected music. Though the bad feeling did reduce it was not yet over as at the completion of this piece of writing. But definitely restoration will take place and all will be alright. Unfortunately, thinking at such a moment is inclined to the negativity and unnecessary self pity unless it is directed towards inner talks, meditation, prayer and making of good resolutions.