Happy new year!!! 

How've you been? *proceeds to shake hands, pat people on the back, and say “Chad!! it's great to see you!"*

I haven't seen you guys since last year... is it too late to be making such jokes?

It’s never too late to be making such jokes. Jokes aside, it feels good to be finally writing again. I really struggled after my last post to find the motivation to write. I want to blame it on the strains of being a college student but honestly, after my last post, I thought I had reached my peak.

I’ve spent weeks trying to replicate that style of writing and the playful banter in the post but I couldn’t. The topics were too broad, too benign and the sentiments were too bland. I was trying too hard and it just was not working. 

It wasn’t until I read this post by Craving Yellow that I felt a fresh strike of inspiration. 

I think I had forgotten why I started writing this blog. Instead of focusing on writing about my experiences as a Kenyan abroad, I started writing to see what people would say and whether they would find it just as funny as my last one.

On top of that, I was scared of getting anything but positive feedback and stepping on people’s toes with my opinions and experiences. 

How you gon’ write a blog about your version of Africa and not put in your own feelings? 

It’s a thing I have noticed about Kenyans, we like to control the way in which we are perceived by others. I don’t know about other African countries but Kenyans are perfectly comfortable with the status quo. We don’t really like to upset the boat even though the boat is leaking and we’re almost capsized.

It is the way women are meant to swallow their feelings when their husband brings home another wife. The way children's ideas and dreams are stifled because they are young and allegedly don’t know what they are talking about. It is the way government officials are constantly pillaging state coffers and the public is meant to look the other way.

In Kenya, we have created a society in which we teach people how to read and regurgitate knowledge but not how to think of ideas, ways, feelings, and innovations outside of the spectrum we are meant to inhabit. 

This is not a thing that people usually do but my resolution for my country this year is to help people see ingenuity as a gift and not as something to be dismissed. I say this as the country goes through a famine, doctors, and lecturers striking for better pay and Kenyan politicians gearing up for the elections in August. This year is already off to quite the start.

I personally don't do resolutions so I’m just going to do me probably with minor adjustments and see where the year takes me. 

Hopefully, I won’t take such long breaks unless I have to for school or I have serious writer's block.
Now that we’ve gotten through all that yucky, mushy emotional stuff. I hope we can all have great year unapologetically living out our truths (except if you have racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, homophobic, and transphobic ideas. In which case you can have several seats and educate yourself.)

P.S I have no idea who Chad is, but if you know one let him know it’s great to see him