Taking stock – Page 8

Get to Know Me Tag

April 2, 2017

What is your middle name?

Muthoni, it means in-law

What is your favorite color?

Blue, any variations but mostly baby blue

Who was your first best friend?

My cousin who was pretty much my twin growing up. We had matching outfits and everything.

How tall are you?

I used to be 5’4 for the longest but had a little late blooming last year which puts me at 5”6 now.

Cats or Dogs?

Cats because they leave you alone for the most part. I also think most cats are Scorpio and I am a Scorpio too haha

Funniest moment throughout School?

When I was growing up in Kenya, we used to get hit with a ruler if we acted up. Most students used to cry but I was a born rebel so I used to laugh while the teacher slapped my hands with the ruler. 😛

How many countries have you visited?

I guess 3 if you count Kenya and U.SA. As you can tell from my blog, I’ve visited South Africa in the past but it’s such a big country, I didn’t get to see it all.

Are you in/gone to college?

Both. I got my bachelors in pharmacy last year and this year I’ll get my Doctorate in pharmacy aka PharmD

What was your favorite/worst subject in High School?

My favorite subject was English world literature cause I liked interpreting poems and other writing. I choked up on my oral analysis of Martin Luther Kings’ I have a dream speech but I still got a 5 on my IB English score. Worst subject became IB Math because I hated vectors and writing papers about math problems. Thank God for a guy named Ryan who helped us with all of our Math papers!

What is your Favorite drink?

Spicy chai latte. Starbuck’s doesn’t even get it right. Only middle eastern or East African cafes get it right usually.

What is your favorite animal?

Cheetah. Cause they’re super-fast and have beautiful print. Also, they’re cats as you can refer to #5.

What is your favorite perfume?

It changes depending on the season. For summer, Marc Jacobs Daisy. For winter, Chanel Mademoiselle. For spring, J’adore.

Tea or Coffee?

Tea as described in #10. I only drink iced coffee drinks such as Frappuccino with a lot of chocolate chips. I am too caffeine sensitive so, I stay away from expressos and such.

What would you (or have you) name your children?

I am one of those people who is pro-adoption, so if the kid comes with a name, we’ll stick to that. Otherwise, for a boy, I would go with Oscar who will be nicknamed Ozzy and if a girl, Sierra Leone, like the country. I think the latter would make for a nice model name which is what I would probably try to encourage in my children if they came out tall and with good bone structures lol.

What Sports do you play/Have you played?

I played tennis and cross country in high school. I don’t do as much running as my knees are weak but I did go play tennis last weekend. Freshman year of college, I played intramural badminton but despite my partner and I sucking, we still made it to the semifinals my default as our opponents wouldn’t show up for the games.

What is your favorite book?

Americanah by Chimamandah Ngozi Adichie. She also has great prose about being a feminist and she’s just an overall bad ass writer.

Who are some of your favorite YouTubers?

Jamie and Nikki, an interracial Australian couple who seem really sweet and are pretty interesting people (he’s a videographer and she’s an ex-model, who is now pursuing nursing).

What is your favorite movie?

Used to be Titanic but would probably be “Dope” which is a great coming of age film. I remember crying at the closing scenes of Titanic. Based on the new debate that Rose and Jack could have both fit on the plank, I have become a bit jaded towards the movie. If you haven’t seen “Dope”, I highly recommend it.

Are you Single or Taken?

Taken by me, myself, and I haha. Seriously though, I am not looking for a relationship.

Whats your idea of an ideal first date?

Anything that’s not the typical dinner date or involves water. A hot air balloon ride would be nice.

How many Girlfriends/Boyfriends have you had?

All I’ll say is that the number is less than 5. I am not very big on dating. I might become an old spinster lol.

Favorite memory from childhood?

Going to the country clubs every weekend, riding horses, and boats. Eating really well grilled meat and fried mukimo (you have to be Kenyan to know what that is but google is at your service).

Do you speak any different languages and how well?

Swahilli-proficient. French and Spanish-conversational. I also understand Kikuyu and Kamba but I don’t speak them due to some auditory and verbal memory mismatch haha.

Do you have any siblings?

Yes, two brothers who serve as my body guards. Good luck figuring out who’s older.

How would you describe your fashion sense?

My fashion spirit animal is Rihanna. I am not afraid to take risks and try new things.

What is your favorite restaurant?

It used to be Zea’s in Mobile, AL but since its unfortunate closing, I’ll have to go with Teranga in Boston which serves very delicious Senegalese food including goat and fish. Sometimes, they also have African beer.

What are some of your favorite tv shows?

I just recently started watching “This is Us” which I think is very well thought out. I also watch a British TV show called some girls.

PC or mac?

I started out as a PC girl with a sony laptop being my first but most of them have led to disappoint so I toughed it out and bought a mac last year. I think the shelf-life and speed is much better so its money well spent.

What phone do you have? (iOS v Android?)

Started out with Android and loved all the phones I ever had. Due to an unfortunate accident in 2015, I switched to Apple. The camera is great but I miss my music. L

Tell us one of your bad habits!

One of my bad habits is getting so absorbed in something that I don’t hear others when they try to talk to me. This happens to me all the time when I am at home and my family hates it. I guess I’ll try to work on this.

$$$ MONEY MONEY MONEY $$$

December 26, 2016

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY….money. How many things have you done purely for the love of money? If you answer honestly, money probably rules the majority of our life choices-what you do, what you buy, what you invest in life, etc. We’re all in a relationship with money and most of us are in an abusive one. Simply stated, money is the pimp of life. It forces us to do things we don’t want to do-get up in the morning, brush your teeth, and get ready for a job that you probably don’t like. But despite how abusive the relationship is, we always go back to it. Like the battered wife, we make excuses for money- ‘Oh but he buys me x,y, and z’ or ‘he takes care of the kids’- and hang on to the hope that the relationship will change one day. But deep down inside we know that money will never change. Money will always be money.

If we want the relationship to be different, we must change.If we don’t want to be slaves, we must use money against itself and buy our freedom from it-from the debt and more importantly from the dependence on a 9-5 job. We have to learn to be like the greats, the Russel Brand and the P. Diddy’s of the world, who learned how to pimp their money. We must always have a plan- which some of us think of as a budget but the more ambitious think of as a business plan. If there’s anything I’ve learned from rich people is that they don’t like to spend their own money, they invest it. And we all know money is a great force to be reckoned with so we’ll probably be more successful if we face it with a team. So how about that squad you spend every weekend drinking with. Maybe it is time to stop digging an early grave with alcohol and start investing in a cemetery instead. Excuse my morbidity but its important that we acknowledge that how we spend our money can either kill us or make us a killing. May you have great success in the latter.

And when y’all make it big out there, don’t forget to come back and tell us how you did it- preferably over a nice lunch at the Hilton on your bill. 🙂

In Memory of Alexandra Johnson

December 17, 2016

This year has been truly rough. I could end this entry with that sentence but it might take a couple more posts to really explain that all to you. To start the story, I should introduce you to Alexandra Johnson (one of the most beautiful human beings) that I have ever met. She was everything that you could ever want in a friend, a co-worker, a student, a girl, a human being, period. She was kind. She was loyal. She was assertive. She was serious. She was funny. She was a “role model”. But let me stop with the one-liners. Let me give you the full story.

alexandra

I had the pleasure of meeting “Alex” (as most people called her) during the spring of this year when I worked for a non-profit organization called Let’s Get Ready (google for reference, if you’d like). Let’s Get Ready relies on college students who serve the role of “coaches” by tutoring disadvantaged high school students for the SAT test which serves as one of the standardized tests for entry into college. So as the co-site director of one of the high school programs, I had to recruit these coaches. I’ll admit the process was hard as the coaches are not paid for their services. However, we were blessed with a great group of Northeastern students who wanted or needed to give back to the community. Alex met both of those qualifications. As, a student of color she knew the privilege associated with SAT coaching and how that plays into where people go to college. In addition, she also needed community service hours as she was a recipient of service-based scholarships. This combination made Alex one of the favorite coaches of the program. In fact, she was recognized as coach of the week on one occasion. I nominated her for the award due to her dedication to the program and her creativity in interacting with the students. But I don’t want to bore you with the details. Yesterday, I found a clip of one of the raps she helped a student write when she was coaching him on his SAT vocabulary (if you know the SAT, you know the vocabulary is challenging). To show you just how ingenious she was, please watch the video using the link below (sorry I don’t have the premium version of wordpress to embed videos).

Alex Coach Video

If you’re impressed, that’s not even the half of it. I learned a lot about Alex in the short amount that I got to know her. I don’t know if she would have considered me a friend as I was her supervisor but rest assured, she made a great impact on my life. So, Alex, if you’re listening up there in heaven, just know that you have a friend in me. I hope to see you again someday. Continue resting in peace. Northeastern misses you. I miss you. I’ll try to keep helping others as you dutifully tried to do every single day of our interactions. ❤ ❤

NB: ~~I didn’t include pictures of her because I do not have permission from her family. If anyone knows her family and would like to ask for me, please do so.~~
Permission has now been obtained from her family.

INCEPTION

December 15, 2016

-originally written on June 2, 2011

So on MAY 17, 2011 I graduated from HIGH SCHOOL which means I am officially college bound. Ironically it was also my father’s 50th birthday but that was unfortunately overshadowed by my milestone. On the upside, he never remembers his birthday anyway and he still looks like he’s 40 which means I am destined to age slowly (crossing my fingers for no wrinkles since gray hairs do not run in my family). That’s right forget the crap about embracing age and the nature that comes with it (poor eyesight, aching bones, foggy memory etc), i want to be youthful or semi-youthful forever!

northeastern-1 — Northeastern University, Boston, MA

Anyway, let’s get back on topic and away from my fear of aging, So in 3 months since school here opens in September, I will be an American campus girl ( allusion to savvy’s Kenyan campus girl which inspired me to start this blog). I am excited to move from Alabama which is not a very vibrant place to Boston which is one of the most lively places in the U.S. I’ll be attending Northeastern University to study Pharmacy and they have an awesome program that will enable me to become a Doctor of Pharmacy in six years. So can you imagine that, me as a 24 yr old girl ehem woman/lady that will be referred to as Dr.Mercy! I am beyond excited, not so much because of the title “DOCTOR”, but because of the lifestyle and the flexibility that a pharmacy career offers. I want to first assure you that I am not a GOLD DIGGER but alluding to this phrase that i have recently coined “there’s nothing wrong with being a gold digger if you are digging your OWN gold”.

Either way, like everyone else in this world, I have a dream (MLK voice) where I live without the worry of money. I am not saying I want to be Oprah or Donald Trump rich…I just want to be comfortable. In the U.S. as a single person it is possible to live comfortably on 30K considering you have a normal apartment etc. The starting salary of a pharmacist is between 75-79K and the median salary is 100K which means that this dream will essentially be reality if all goes well. Bring a husband and kids in the picture and a picturesque house and Voila!, that’s the so-called American Dream that you have possibly heard of. Of course kids will come later since by my standard 24 is too young to start a family i am leaning on earliest at 26 and latest at 28. That gives me 2-4 years to settle down, “figure myself out”, and most importantly enjoy my dwindling YOUTH. Also, just so you don’t think I am a self-centered selfish person which isn’t 100% wrong, I plan to come to work with the WHO (World Health Organization) or Doctors Without Borders to facilitate medicine in developing nations. Haven’t worked out how i will do it but I do know that in order to do so, I think I should work in some pharmaceutical development company and somehow guilt them into giving out some of their samples to people in need in developing nations whether it be TYLENOL or some Anti-biotics. Anyway don’t be frightened into thinking that, à la “The Gardener ” (google movie for reference), experimental medicine will be distributed to these poor people as a ploy to use them as guinea pigs. I think the transparency will be the key in making a sustainable impact to the disenfranchised communities that I want to help. I’m all about sustainability in terms of outreach as exemplified by philanthropists such as Bill Gates (who I really look up to, like the rest of the world).

Anyway, this is the most challenging part of my dream because it doesn’t rest solely on my abilities.

the American Dream

After starting a family and raising my kids to the best of my abilities, I plan to retire at the age of 50 or 55 despite the fact that the retirement age in the U.S. is 65. Following my retirement, I plan to return to Kenya and live somewhere nice, maybe Westlands or Nyahururu and maybe try to get a position in the Ministry of Health that actively aims to help people or just start a chain of Pharmacy clinics in Kenya.

Either way something inside me tells me I am destined for greatness and to produce great change…so if Kenya’s government has not gotten its crap together by say 2040 then I with the help of the disillusioned Kenyan masses want to start a revolution where we demand honesty and accountability from the government instead of sitting in front of our TVs and taking whatever they throw at us with our 4 o’clock tea. In essence, I just want to be a part of something that gives back to the country that I owe my entire existence to. I love KENYA and I want nothing but the BEST for it.

So my fellow readers and Kenyans, I apologize for indulging you in 5 paragraphs all about ME although i am guessing that’s what I usually do so in that case Thank You for indulging in 5 paragraphs about my hopes and dreams. I wish you all the best in your dreams and future. And in 50 years I hope to come back and tell you all that everything worked out perfectly despite life’s unending surprises. In the meantime, what are your dreams, and have you achieved them? If not, how do you plan to do so?