Dare to Live the Life You Have Always Wanted.

 Until when is it appropriate to say “Happy New Year”, coz I am about to say that lol. Happy 2020 guys and a happy new decade too. Glad that we all made it past 2019; it was not such a kind year to everyone and it is refreshing to know that we have a new start. I am at that age where the phrase “uko na mtu?” is a more common phrase than “how are you doing?”. But hey, we still move. It’s that time of the year where we make resolutions such as let’s go to the gym, quit a habit, better financial decisions et al.

This year I chose to make three resolutions and it turns out that most of my friends have one of the resolutions in common, that is going back to school. I have friends looking to go back and do their masters while others like me are looking to go back and finish their professional certifications that we had already started and hopefully start new ones at the same time. Guys even got to pick so many courses from Udemy seeing as it was having discounts. For just $9.99 (that’s roughly ksh. 1000) you got to chose any course that you want. Some online platforms such as Coursera even go ahead to give you financing options. The online option of study is a flexible one seeing as adulting does come at us fast sometimes.

Another resolution I made this year is to travel and read more. I genuinely did not get to read as much as I would have hoped last year, (I do not think I even got to fifty books L), and that means that my reading list is bigger this year. Good thing is that by week 4 of January I have already read two books. That is not a bad start if you ask me. I hope that this year I get to review more books and not just do a twitter thread (https://twitter.com/Mbogosue/status/1210683271102836736?s=20 ). My current read is Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; a book that follows the lives of twelve different characters mostly women, black and British through the struggles of life. I also hope to do major travels this year and one of my goals is to do a solo trip out of the country. One of the things I hope to finally do is go on a mountain hike. I just realized I have not been on a hike since September 2018, the elephant hill hike (https://theshaffiey.blogspot.com/2018/09/). Let us just say Elephant hill left me traumatized and I am slowly getting over that trauma. Look out for the next hike I organize. On the travel front, I seem to have started my year okay seeing as I was in Kilifi for New Year’s and one thing I got from the trip is that I need to do more festivals. 

My affirmation for this year (I got it from doing the affirmation ritual at Kilifi NYE lol) is “I am bold and courageous”. Another philosophy I am hoping to go by this year is “everything ends”. Acknowledging that everything ends helps us celebrate the present more. I got this from a blog post that I read from medium.com (https://medium.com/mind-cafe/everything-ends-how-to-overcome-any-fear-dc9a4c956aea). Here is to a year full of hope and a decade full of greatness. I am hoping to be more intentional with what I do and that includes how often I post and what I post about.