Positivity for growth.

We all have our stories that we sometimes decide to keep for ourselves for fear of judgments forgetting that it's a nutrient for growth of someone else. We learn not only from our mistakes and failures but from the success and what others went through. 

When I was in primary school, my elder brother and sister were in high school. Those days, primary school education was free. We were three of us in primary school. I have never forgotten what mama use to do just to keep my brother and sister in school. The school fees use to be about 30 dollars or sometimes 20 for each of them. My brother was a high performer and my sister was just average. 

On one instance, towards the end of December holiday, mama decided to go to some 'relatives' for help with raising the 60$ for her children. She went to one of the closest we had, distant in real  situations. The man was rich. His sons study in the Kenya's capital. He had a big house and so many rich friends. When mama shared her reason for coming, she was told that people don't plant money and she must work for herself to educate her kids or get them back home from school. She asked for anything she could do to get paid but since she was from the countryside, she had no space in the family. She was made to sleep in their old store and mama was bitten by scorpion in their store. She stayed there till morning and the next day, mum went back home without a word about the previous night. 

Their action was to kill mama's morale but she was motivated more than ever to make sure her children made it to completion of their studies. She suffered and finally met some Catholic Missionaries who helped her with my brother and sister's school fees. After three years, my brother completed his secondary school and my sister completed a year later. My brother scored marks that could take him to university but had to go to college considering the cost. He would work over the holidays and when the school opens, he always had enough pocket money. The priest never stopped paying for their fees. The same with my sister. I was young but I was aware of what was going on. Especially how mama was treated by 'my relatives'. I felt so bad but my emotion never took over my humanity.

Back on the side of 'my relative', his boys didn't do well at school. They kept repeating the same grade for a year. I also completed my primary studies and luckily, I won a scholarship from a Non Governmental Organization. I went to the best girls secondary school then. It's here I met 'my relative's' daughter. She was a class ahead of me but later in the years, she repeated her form three and finally we were classmates. I was a high performer in my class and since she wasn't as good, I took up the responsibility of helping her with revision. We spent so much time together, reading and doing tests together. 

She started improving and later,since I was the secretary to the school Journalism Club, which had girls with good grades in English, joined the club. During parents' day, her family members would come all but for me, nobody would come since my home was so far away from school and I was very okay with that. She would then call me and we could eat, play and laugh with the rest of the family. Things started falling into place. But I never shared this with mum because I did not know what she would feel until when I was in my first year at the university. She was so happy and proud of me after I told her everything.

What I came to life, is that when we are focused on doing right, we will do the right and however long it would take, you will get the reward. You may get chances to do the opposite but still, your reward would wait. For my case, I could choose to excel and brag about my success to the poor girl who did nothing to me but I chose to do the opposite. She had lost hope of going to the university but now she is in a university she never dreamt of. My family is stable and mum never begs from anyone again. We (my brother,my sister and I) pay for our siblings fees. Problems are never permanent. No situation in life is permanent but the response we give to obstacles determine the length of our hard situations. Cheers to years of God's blessings.

Strong for myself,strong for the world!