Needless to say, that passion never died, 5 years later, i was off to university to study Law. I was so excited, yet apprehensive of what was awaiting me in my future. I would not say i was the best in the class, but i loved the study of law and what it taught me. Some subject more than others..i found myself drawn to human rights, criminal law…matters that had the social appeal aspect to it. Matters that i could relate to in everyday life.

Along the way i was content with just getting by…along the way, i bought into society’s idea of the type of person that could make it as a successful lawyer and based on the characteristics described by society, i did not fit into that description. I was therefore content passing my subjects and looking forward to the next step in my life which was a Masters in Law.

Was i passionate about what i wanted to do….not really, i did what was expected of me by my parents, but i must admit, along the way i enjoyed the area that i chose, which is international human rights law, i loved the enlightening debates we had in class and even more so, i loved the dissertation that i focused upon, which was about women and armed conflict.

I finished my Masters degree ready to take on the world, confident and more sure than ever this is what i wanted to focus upon in life. My dreams soon got shattered as i realised that my education in this area would not be enough and that i would need more experience, My confidence dwindled with each rejection letter i received. But instead of staying down, i focused on getting my experience, even if it meant getting an internship.

With time the thought of actually being a practicing lawyer came to my head. I wondered why i never pursued this route. I had talked myself many times out of this, believing that i would never be a great lawyer based on my personality.

Eventually i talked myself out of this self defeating attitude and went onto get my practicing certificate.

I thought of all this today as oi wondered why do people stop dreaming BIG? What does one do, when they have achieved their dreams. i believe that people dream even bigger dreams. I am in that phase at the moment. My history is a testament to the fact that life does not always bring about all that we may wish for, but it does not mean we give up, it does not mean that we take hold of all the negative voices and people that say that we cannot make it.

I want my baby to know that she can achieve whatever she puts her mind to. All she has to do is believe in herself. Nothing in life comes easy, but if you keep trying hard enough and not giving up…eventually you will achieve your goals.

For a moment i had forgotten this life lesson and had to remind myself of this. The easiest thing in life to do is quitting, its tougher to keep going, but the rewards are so worthwhile. That is the lesson that i want to pass onto my child.

This task just started in one school and soon spread to other parts of India, as the speaker noted, it was simply contagious.

Please have a look at the video. Its about 10 minutes long, but i tell you its very inspiring indeed.

Other than that i have been trying to adjust to life in the US. I recently just got my permission to work, that felt great, some sign of progress. Needless to say i have been a bit down thinking about my next move and where to from here. The job secene right now is not favourable and im trying to keep my hopes up. That includes not watching the news, honestly it is depressing as they keep announcing how big the unemployment percentages are…..kills my soul, whereas i would love to enrich it. I thus havce been busy, looking for work, working on my CV, thinking of my next plan, looking at places for me to vlunteer my time, especially during this time of christmas.  I dont want to to be slefish and simply think of me, me, me.

What else? Oh just visited TED GLOBAL website: http://www.ted.com/ If you have never visited the site, i implore you to do so. It is sooo inspiring what people are doing out there with their gifts and talents. I just cant do any credit to the website if i write about it, you simply have to visit it and the amazing people on there and learn a thing or two.

Im baaaack. More from me in the days to come.

They did it again!

Over the weekend the big news in the sports arena was Serena Williams. New circulated all around the world about her exit from the US Open. Personally I don’t watch a lot of sports but I do love tennis. I have always loved tennis. When in the UK, I always looked forward to Wimbledon and in the Land Down Under, I always loved watching the Australian Open. My love for tennis grew from back in Kenya, I remember sitting down with my Father watching tennis games with him. Needless to say I have been hooked ever since.

Back to Serena, I have always loved watching the William sisters on court. They play with so much passion and zeal, it’s hard to imply sit back and watch them in silence. You feel their passion too.

Now let’s call a spade a spade, yes I will talk about the race card, even in relation to this game. I’m looking at the bigger picture here. The only fault I saw with Serena’s game was that she was human…..and if that’s what they want to make a big deal about then let them. She is certainly not the first person to get upset during a game. Remember John McEnroe, he was known for always losing it. These guys have so many tennis players known for cursing out on the court, why the hullabaloo with Serena?

 I have always wondered why the girls always make a point of saying how much they love the Australian crowd or the Wimbledon crowd, specially thanking them for their support. Now I know why, she is not getting the kind of support she deserves in her home turf. The US Open crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium was cheering for the Belgian Clijsters over one of the greatest female players ever and an American in Serena. 

She has won 11 major titles including winning four consecutive which was dubbed the Serena Slam.  It is also reported that the US Open crowd cheered for Clijsters over Venus in the fourth round. Venus is also one of the greatest American female players having won seven major titles herself.

I also think they are not used to watching a woman lose her cool. Scratch that last statement I see other women lose their cool. I’m sorry I think race has a big role to play here. These guys have just never accepted the Williams. It could be because of how they came into the tennis world which was not a typical. Father training the girls to world class level and them dominating the scene for all these years.

In short, Serena was fined for being human. I for one know one can be pushed to their limit and she’s been tough all this while, but then it comes a point when enough is enough and she lost it….unfortunately it cost her.

But Trust me, these girls will be back with a  vengeance. That’s how they have always fought back and that’s what they will do. She is already on her way back , she went continued to play on where she and her sister Venus won the doubles.

For a deeper look of where this opinion stems from follow this link….I loved Simmer’s analysis on the subject: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/254026-the-serena-williams-controversy-and-the-elephant-in-the-roomrace#comments

Seriously that networking site takes up too  much of time when i could be doing better thing with my life other than knowing and updating people about my life. I figure if you really wanna know you will ask .

Anyhoo…it feels darn good. I hope I dont go back as I previously have. Instead i choise to live the real life.

Its a quiet weekend for me, hubby is at work with a 24 hour shift and im getting ready to go for Indian dinner with a friend. Feels good.

I’ll be back as ive neglected my blog for so long. So much to rant and rave about. How have you guys been??

I will tell you what i do:

1) Check my mail

2) Check my facebook

3) Read the daily papers online

4) respond to important email

Only then do I begin my day. I end it in a similar manner.

Honestly I’m getting tired of it. I want to go back to the simpler days. I know they say that Technology is meant to simplify things for us….well i agree to some extent, but in the same token i would like to say that i believe it has driven human beings apart.

At work, I  no longer have to go to Jill who has a corner desk to let her know what my views  are on the report that she just emailed me. I would love to sit with her, but because we are being taught how to work smarter not harder, i email her my views back.  We miss that day to day contact that is so vital in working as a team. Sometimes you just want to stretch your legs  and wander around the office, but this is seen as unproductive.

When it comes to families and friends, we have emails, skype, IM, video via skype, you tube, facebook, twitter. But somehow i have managed not to have very close contact with my friends. Why? They tell me it is because they are so busy and if i want to know hoe everything is, i can see updates on these mediums stating what they are up to. You know like facebook status updates: Mary is sleeping, Mary is angry, Mary is engaged. I had one of my close friends tell me she is getting engaged on facebook through an update. I was hurt by that, i thought a decent call or at the least an email would be better.

These are just some of the issues that i have found with technology.

Today i found myself thinking about the launch of the fiber optic cable in Kenya and while i know this will be good for the country, in terms of business and so forth. I feel sad as well. The one thing that i did not know I appreciated until now, was the slow technology, especially in terms of Internet. It forces people to learn to communicate, to maintain face to face contact. You get to touch people…..(I know you’re laughing) but after being in the USA for 3 months, I realise how much the people of the US do not have physical contact with one another. Then i finally understood the movie “CRASH” – (wikipedia this movie if you haven’t watched it…its a must see). Physical contact is so important to a human, you do not realise it until you don’t have it.

I want the simple days back. I don’t want to be so overly consumed by the forces of technology. I do not want it to be my fix…..its my coffee in the morning, its my company while my husband is at work…..its addictive and if you don’t watch it, it consumes so much of our time than it should. Ian addiction that i’m finding i have to wean myself off.

Do you find yourself like this or is it just me?? I would love to get your views What do you do when you wake up? How do you end you’re day. If you’re like me, how are you trying to change? Are you trying to change?

I know im looking forward to going back home to Kenya for one, where i have the option to not have the internet, not have my mobile as I will have a land line if you really need me. I want serenity back in my life. This is just madness, computers taking over my life…

Here is New York Times article i was talking about:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/technology/10morning.html?_r=1

I was having a heated discussion about this topic with a friend the other day in which she herself  argued that she would love to Migrate abroad and leave all the cares and worries about Africa behind her. I informed her that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

What is you’re opinion? Would you migrate to Africa. This poll applies to everyone. Those in Africa should also let me know, because essentially they would be opting to stay in Africa.

This is just part one of a topic i want to delve into and share my insights on. Take my poll, leave comments. I would love to hear from you and get your views on the African continent

Rubbish is where all the money is at the moment. Have you ever thought of what happens to all the rubbish you throw away. Trust me, even if you are are currently on a six figure salary….consider the idea of getting into rubbish.

Im not saying it as a joke, as in seriously, one could argue well what about the job satisfaction? I will have job satisfaction, I will be happy that I have done my part to clean up the environment and yes ill be happy to have made a six figure salary at it and even more.

When considering potential professions to enter, one might ask: Why would anyone become a bull semen collector? Or the person who crawls into a concrete mixing truck at night to chip away the hardened cement? Two words: Instant satisfaction. (No pun intended on the bull thing.)

People who do the dirtiest and sometimes most stomach-turning jobs say they enjoy seeing the quick results of their labor. Unlike a banker who might take months — even years — to complete a deal, or an author who works on a book for a similar period of time, the dirtiest jobs can often be the most rewarding. And for some of these workers, it’s all just another day at the orifice.

To illustrate what I mean, Mr Mohr*, a banker quit his £250,000-a-year job to set up a modern-day rag-and-bone business has seen the company make its first £1m.

He gave up his ‘soul-destroying’ job at investment bank NM Rothschild to open AnyJunk, which removes and recycles items from unwanted office furniture to garden rubbish.

He has also won accolades as he has won a host of environmental awards (I told you its not just about money lol….there is definite job satisfaction

Mr Mohr charges homeowners and businesses to remove their waste and then recycles as much as possible. Less than 50 per cent goes to landfill, which he claims is far lower than with other firms carrying out similar work.

Almost everything in his own offices, including some of the computer equipment, was thrown out by someone else.

He said: ‘I didn’t specifically set out to run one of the greenest businesses in the capital but it happened through common sense.’

‘It seemed crazy to throw away perfectly usable furniture, office stationery and IT equipment when we could use it in our offices and save money as we were starting up. Our ethic is to recycle where possible what we can’t reclaim rather than dump it.’

‘Some of the high-end processing IT equipment is new as we need up-to-date computers to run the business but we use other people’s PCs and printers for some functions.’

‘If you collect enough of this stuff, you can get it to match. We’re always coming across treasures that make welcome additions to the office.’

Mr Mohr, a father-of-two, said he had become painfully aware of how much people throw away unnecessarily.

‘People chuck out piles of printing paper and endless plastic water cups. It seems obscene,’ he said. AnyJunk opened an office in Birmingham yesterday and Mr Mohr hopes to open premises in Bristol this year.

His brand of house clearance has been particularly popular with middle-class parents and young professionals.

FACT: The British recycling industry is already worth £10 billion a year and will boom as new laws force cuts in household waste.

I’m from Kenya and when I think of the pile of rubbish that we have in places like Dandora, Kibera and many land pits. The job creation that would take place from such a venture would be enormous, it would be a win, win for all. Im not talking in terms of office equipment, im talking about getting rid of real rubbish. Especially as the government has shown they cannot deal with the issues. We the people have to be innovative and do what we must do to create a better environment for ourselves. And while we are at it, enrich ourselves. Its been done in other countries and we can too.