Still Proud to be Kenyan.

This was my third year in campus and I was heading for an important function that day. I was then the VP of AIESEC, a student organization that does wonders for those who engage in its activities while in campus.  That morning, I dressed up as usual, not official, but casual smart wear. This is the thing, I tried tucking in my shirt when I was in primary school, and it was the most uncomfortable thing ever. I would sit down and there were these uncomfortable bumps on my ass made by the shirt in my shorts that drove me nuts. I may have tucked in badly, but that is beside the point. The several times I tucked in, the same thing happened over and over again until I decided never to tuck in my shirt again. I never did and as a result I had my ass whooped by the teachers throughout primary school, and even though I was not whooped as much in high school, I was suspended enough times for more serious issues than not tucking in my shirt. But that was always the other issue on the table while the teachers discussed my suspensions. I was that stubborn but from a purely logical standpoint – which I was always ready to explain. You see, most people in school who did not tuck in their shirts did so because it was cool but I did so because it made sense to me. There is a difference. But I digress.

In campus, I mostly wore those kinds of clothes that did not require tucking in, and on that end, I was covered. But there were other things that constituted being men in campus. Most of us would wake up some few minutes to class time, go take a shower, cologne, get dressed, eat breakfast or not, and then head to class, all in less than 15 minutes.

But this was an important day, and I wanted to do more than the usual. So I did all the above, but I looked for more that I could do to look the part when I went to this function. So what was this that I never did that I decided to do this time round? Look in the mirror. I remember turning to my roommate, Dallas, a good friend with whom we had gone to the same high school and now campus, to ask him for a mirror. He gave me a puzzled look, and suddenly broke out laughing, hard, and I joined him in laughter thinking, yeah right! As if! Dallas then heads on to the next cubicle, where we usually took our breakfast. Marto, another high school friend stayed there. I asked my third roommate, a conservative SDA Christian who had two timetables on his desk, one for class and one for church, for a mirror, and he politely said he did not have one. So I head to the next room, where I find Marto, his roommates, Dallas and a few other mutual friends. I ask them for a mirror, and again that silence accompanied by a puzzled look that Dallas had given me earlier, and then laughter. You would think I had asked them for tampons. After the laughter subsided, Marto summarized the whole thing to me in a three word sentence when explaining why he did not have a mirror…

Hiyo ni Luxury!

Can you beat that?

“I was busy revising and I came across a topic that mentioned luxury and that prompted this trip down memory lane.”