GO GET

You see when I was a young boy, I was the kind of kid that would draw the attention of adults in a very nice way. Not because I tried. But I promise to do my best to put what the neurons in my head are dangling to and fro about in plain words. I was the kind of kid who was put in the front line during poem presentations. I was the type that would be chosen by the class one teacher to be the prefect. Not a big deal huh? This is how it is a big deal. I am a kid like all other kids. I actually cried my eyeballs out when on the first day of school. I soiled my pants one or one times between nursery and class one. Actually I do remember when it was it’s just that I don’t want to download that piece of memory fully. Why risk making this place smell of shit anyway? I was very talkative, one of the qualifications to being shortlisted in the blacklists of prefects as a noisemaker. But what do you know, I became that prefect. Stay with me I’m heading somewhere, alright?
I am the last born among three, for those who have just joined my audience lately from one of my links that you bumped into from your friends’ statuses. I’ve noticed today that a lot goes on Whatsapp statuses by the way. And oh, yes. It is the TV of today. Actually, it’s a chance for everyone with the App to make their own TV. I am not so good with statuses myself, both in posting and viewing them. Honestly, I view statuses when looking for a good laugh from memes of course. I’ve landed into trouble enough times for not viewing someone’s status. Sometimes because you missed the notification that their birthday was around that sharp corner. Mjangos look at me like, “Who is this that doesn’t view other people’s statuses?” For some, the highlights of their lives lie in their statuses. If you don’t view their statuses, then you are not up to date with their lives. And the results? Broken friendships because of assumptions that those people who don’t follow your stuff on your statuses don’t care about you anymore. It is the platform for parables I tell you! As if Jesus didn’t give us enough parables mjango. It’s like, you want to say something to someone but you don’t want to say it directly and you don’t mention their names either. Taking advantage of, ‘It could be directed to anyone or it could also be a passing thought.” When you react to it, the next thing you get is, “If you think it was meant for you, then it is you I’m talking about silly!”
Ah! Anyway, no space for drama today. For those who advertise the blog through their statuses, I raise a glass to you! So yes, I am the third and last born. Last-born kids, from my analysis, have a natural tendency to revise what they have seen their elder siblings do and if it’s right, they’d do a better a version of it. If it’s wrong, chances are they will learn through the principle, “Hii ni moto! Usishike. Unaona mimi nimechomeka?” ;even without their elder ones telling them literally. When they grow up like that, little by little they prove to their folks that their parenting skills are not so bad after all. That is how they end up getting their blessing. That is not to say that the last ones end up being entirely perfect. So let’s just say I had that privilege as well and so did and do some mjangos reading this.
I didn’t grow up knowing that I am bright. I realised it along the way when I heard people like teachers saying it. Someone showed me their analysation of bright people. She said there are people who are naturally bright. They don’t have to try, you just note it when you see them and how they do things or hear them speak. And there others who are bright but only after they try rather hard. If it’s studies, they’d burn the midnight oil and burn the lamp itself if they have to. In the end, it is only said they are bright after you see their results on paper. Not to blow my own trumpet please, but count me among the first type of bright people. You should note however that if you don’t fall in the first category of bright people, you are still bright if you’d endeavour to do what the second category of bright people do. Or if not, maybe the only bright thing about you is your teeth when you smile or your complexion if you undo the makeup; which is all good still.
Then comes the numerous talents. Ladies, I’m not talking about multitasking. Some of you think the ability to multitask is a talent. I’m not saying multitasking is not good. In fact I am big fun of it. I usually feel like that is one of the qualifications a lady must have if I am to wife them. May those that are able to read in between the lines realise that I am saying I am a picky one. So yea, that’s different from being multitalented. From a very young age, I learnt that I was able to do a series of things and do them well. If you are outstanding in something, then that’s enough to be called a talent. I can’t leave this point without saying this: My Luhya brethren, eating is not a talent! Our cousins have lost their lives while pursuing that so called ‘talent’. The only ‘talent’ that takes away from the table but brings nothing back to the table. Mundu wanje we have to style up!
So here is the point, having looked at all that, I still don’t see whether that lush kind of a personality is what I attribute to my attitude as a go getter. You all know who a go getter is eh? People who will stop at nothing to get what they want. People who are determined to the bone. They’d let no amount of gossip, trash talk, rejection and darkest queen of them all; failure – cause them to give up on their dreams, ambitions and wishes. They know the taste of failure. It tastes like something you all know. Lemon. To me it tastes like the flesh of lemon. But why lemon? Lemon because its sour but healthy. You’d chew lemon again not because you like the taste but because you know at the back of your head that it is healthy. Just like failure, if that’s what scares you. Failure is not sweet, but it’s healthy because you get to learn a nugget or two from it.
Go getters know what is at stake will be more at stake if they don’t do something about it. So they’d try again if they were slapped with rejection or stumbled upon failure. They’d get more fired up if they heard their name has been tainted. This is not to say that they are immune to human reactions like pain, discouragement and the likes – just like you are not. But the only difference between their human nature and yours is that they have learnt to snap out of it a little if not fully. Snap out if just enough to dry the tears clouding their eyes from seeing a better way for just a few seconds.
Having given myself as an example, people are not able to achieve what they want because of the advantages they may have had while growing up.
It’s true, exaltation from adults who play a huge role in the development of a child like a teacher and parents for the last born babies has something to do with the esteem a child grows up with. It is also true, that being exceptionally bright has something to do with the opportunities one gets exposed to in the endless road of success. And neither is wrong that getting to know what you’re good at (talent) a young age has something to do with knowing what you can make use of to shine bright like a diamond and even make a living out of it. We all want the best that life has to offer. Interestingly, that is what brings a sense of purpose through each day. You want that don’t you? Then if so, you don’t have to have to be praised by people, be a lastborn, said to be bright, multitalented or have any other star on your chest to be a go getter and make your life an accolade in itself in the process.
I have said all these because of all the mjangos I have associated with and they said I am able to be a go getter because of the advantages life gave people like us. You don’t know the disadvantages it also set for me. Besides, I haven’t made it yet. When asked why they don’t have the attitude to make things happen, they give reasons like, “I’m not confident,” “I don’t know what I’m good at,” or “I have never thought of it.” Here is a tip, the go getter attitude will sprout when you just dare, I say, dare to approach the people you say you are not confident enough for. Dare to try out a number of things so your words will change to, “I’m still trying to find out what I am good at.” And when you dare to sit down with yourself and discuss about your welfare, you are more likely to realise than not, that you need to get something of your own running in your life.
At the end of it all, you should never stop being a go getter, but some good news is that you will get to where you have been going, eventually. Just go get!