Pen & Pencil

It was in the evening as the tired sun is about to set in the distance hills, its rays painting most magnificent sights, penetrating through the dense cumulus; all those reds, orange, pinks, yellows, blues, and violets, caressing the earth's surface.

You can hear cows calling their young ones, Boongoooo!! Goats calling Meeeee! sheep calling Mereeee! In that direction roosters crowing, saluting the end of another day, birds chanting in their melodious voices lilting hymns of a lovely evening. In the trees birds slept, accompanying the tired sun to its bed with their songs as students arrive at their homes from school.

My cousin Loruata, sat down with his little note-book and a single pencil. He wrote the alphabets, A B C… as I watched from a distance. Only those who went to school got the chance to receive a book and a pencil from uncle Alex, and I did not. Why, because I never liked school and I had better things to do than sit under a tree all day instead of being out there! I thought, in the adventure, herding livestock, hunting and having a lot of fun. And the price for this, I was not given a book or a pencil to play with?

And so, I saw an opportunity, ooh yeah! You know how it is when you are a kid, your brother or sister has something, you want a piece of it too and of course there is nothing wrong with that only in this case without being given, taking it by force. Like a stealthy lion lying low in the grassland awaiting its prey to make move, I swooped and snatched the pencil and the note-book from him. as Loruata tries to get it back, I started doodling over a piece of paper, and what happened next is barely explainable. You have to feel it to fathom it. Just doodling and doodling and doodling wildly over that piece of paper felt great, a feeling that had such an immediate impact that it changed the way I felt about school forever.

"I am an ambitious being, hoping to major in aeronautics, become a pilot or more, and work with planes, helicopters, satellites and computers. My academic goal is to be educated and be able to contribute to our society and help my family in Africa. At times this goal doesn’t seem possible but since I have had experience manipulating life and life manipulating me, the feeling seems mutual. I know that the only person who can help me is I. life in this part of the continent for me is like a warrior in the wilderness, and eventual I will find green pastures, no matter what; the conviction of success is without question.

I’m strong in heart, mind and spirit, driven by an educational thirst for knowledge and understanding of humanity and its nature, technological and theoretical, reality and fantasy brought on by imagination and life, to contribute to our communities and our world, live life but not leave life in its juvenile days. By learning how much people have dedicated themselves to their own dreams, as humanity history bestowed, they have attained a place in our societies, in our minds and in the ways we as humanity conduct our very own existence. To have a promising future and a better tomorrow to make a difference in someone’s life be it for ones girlfriend, family or country, all has to come from an indomitable will to want something or one thing".

I wrote this quotation about 9years ago, and I have indeed succeeded in attaining a degree in aerospace engineering. I still have a long way to go.