LIFE AS 1.2.3

It’s a dull Thursday afternoon, 1:37p.m to be precise. I have a project management class but…….I don’t feel like turning up for the lecture. So I’m seated on my bed…thinking what to write about, coz I looove writing, randomly though.

A friend of mine who doesn't stay within the campus hostels comes in to pass time in my room. We talk about just life…what awaits us after campus.

He then shares with me a story, actually an advice his uncle gave him when he was joining campus.

“Live life as it comes. Step by step. Life is like a staircase, each step comes before the other. Just like the rites of passage in life, each comes after the other. Of course there are exceptions at times but....they cannot be thaat major.

He also compared life to a sugarcane. The top of a sugarcane is so tasteless! But the bottom, towards the roots….oooh my!!I get sugargarsms all the time-aha!

We all have choices in life, someone could start from the top to the bottom, others could start from bottom to top, others from the middle to the top-then middle to bottom. Or viceversa…but at the end of it, we all are accountable for the choices we make and at times we can justify our actions.

Take an example of a number, say 8. If told to come up with an arithmetic problem whose solution is 8, we will come up with varying figures.so many!!but we’ll all end up at 8, the same destination.

To make this simpler, let’s confine the problem to numbers 0 to 9.

If told to come up with a problem whose solution is 8, we'll still use varying signs like division, multiplication, addition and subtraction.

Make it simpler by specifying addition to be our sign.

We'll still come up with different problems....like someone could take 0+8, another 1+7 ,2+6,3+5 or even 4+4 OR 8+0,7+1,6+2, 5+3 or 4+4.All of these sums lead to 8!

At first, I hesitated to say my figures of choice because I thought it meant something bad, obviously.

But then he simplified each choice by using an illustration of blocks: our destination in this case is 8

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0+8- this person rests first then goes for the 8 blocks like a marathon.

In life, he first composes himself, starts after gaining momentum and shoots to the destination.

■+ ■■■■■■■

1+8-picks one then rests and picks up after the + to collect the other 7, destination? 8

■■+ ■■■■■■

2+8-picks the first two, rests then heads for the next 6

The trend varies for everyone, but the destination is the same.

There are soo many people at the starting line in a marathon. But at the stop point, people reach at different times, some give up along the way, some decide to walk all the way others are the life savers in ambulances to help us reach in good shape all the way-at the end of it all, we go through the finishing line.

Our stories vary. Your chapter ten could be someone else's chapter one. Life has many stages, different chapters, several pages.  Comparing your page 15 with someone else’s page 5 only leaves you frustrated and maybe discouraged. You may be age mates, they may be older than you or younger than you but you are on different pages, or different chapters.

Joe Mwangi's book"ten years down the line”, he mentions the principle of duality of life. We all have different perspectives. He explains this by the example of the common half full and half empty glass. At the end of it, it's the same thing...only that we express it in different words or ways.

What matters most is finishing your book at your pace, step by step without comparing or competing.