The SGR train has a capacity of 1,260 passengers, with a luggage carrier capacity of 70 tonnes. Thank you for the 1,176 reads that I have received in the one year my blog has been in existence. Thank you for being part of the journey, carrying my ideas and hopes along with you as a traveller would his luggage.
Kenya has a literacy rate of 78% and with a population of about 50 million people that translates to 39 million literate Kenyans. So why should I celebrate 1,176 people reading my articles? Why celebrate a drop in the ocean or a grain of sand on the beach?
This celebration has been motivated by the love that has grown on me, like a mother watching over a child I have seen my blog move from one baby step to the next. And like a society that helps a mother raise a child, you the reader have helped me learn, and see the fruits of my labour.
I started the blog on February 19th 2019, and I have received feedback and help to share my articles from family, friends and strangers that I might never meet. I started by sharing articles I wrote to family and friends via email because I was afraid my work wasn’t good enough for a blog.
Soon, after gathering some courage I tried to get my articles on the Daily Nation and failed terribly. However, I’m glad that I finally did start the blog, which has made me respect all of you who take far greater risks in starting businesses and chasing your dreams.
One of the challenges I have faced has been an internal one. We are told not to let anyone despise our youth; well I beat everyone to it and did it myself. I remember days I would have writers block because I would question what moral authority I have to share my ideas. At my young age, in my mid-twenties, what can I share that will inspire those who are older, those who have had more experience than I have. What about those who have had a tougher life than I have?
A story that encouraged me is the story of Sultan Mehmed II. Taken away from his mother when he was young after his brother’s death, he was thrown into uncertainty, never to see her again. He began his training to take over the thrown from his father. When Mehmed II was only 12 years old his father abdicated the throne to him. His reign was short lived after his father took back the throne. Halil Pasha, the head of government did not like how the young sultan ruled and convinced the father to take back the throne.
This was partly because of an obsession Mehmed had; his father had failed to conquer Constantinople, and he felt that it was his destiny to conquer it. His headstrong attitude brought friction between him and Halil Pasha who was the equivalent of a Prime Minister in the Ottoman Empire.
Mehmed II later regained the throne at the age of 18 and commenced plans to take over Constantinople, which was the capital of the Roman Empire in the East and was the wealthiest city in Europe. At the age of 21, Mehmed laid siege on Constantinople and after fierce fighting and clever tactics he took over the city with the best defences in all of Europe. He did what his father had failed to do, and what other said he couldn’t do like Halil Pasha.
Don’t despise who you are; what you have to offer is amazing. What God put you on this earth to do, is part of His grand plan. The experience you have accumulated over the years is something the next person can learn from and with humility we should also accept to learn from others.
“A person who does not read lives one life, of maybe seventy years; the reader lives 5000 years.” Sultan Mehmed II was an avid reader, who could speak five languages, learned from his father’s mistakes and although was a Muslim, read the Bible too.
I thank you all for the feedback; I have soaked up a lot of knowledge from all of you.
Some of the information shared is not always correct so I’m thankful to everyone who has ever corrected me and engaged me so that we could both learn from each other.
I truly fell in love with the Berean Jews who received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul (an Apostle) said was true.
Whatever you read on this blog or on any medium, God created us with the ability to process and think for ourselves, so as Albert Einstein advised us, “Question everything.”
This is a thank you letter to all who encouraged me to start the blog, playing the role of midwife. Those who read silently, those who read and give feedback, those who inspire me through the lives you live, I am filled with gratitude. And finally, thank you God for the readers and the words that you bless me with.
I promise it’s only going to get better and as James Baldwin said, “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time!”
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