SPEECH AT MY GRADUATION CEREMONY, 29TH MAY 2015
IS IT FATE, DESTINY OR BOTH?
At some point in my life, I faced accusations and condemnation to a point I wasn’t sure I really wanted to continue living. Things have happened in my life ever since I can remember that till this day I cannot fully explain. I have shed tears and given up on myself several times because I could not understand what was happening in my life, so many times I felt nothing good could come out of me and everything around me worked so well together to convince me that. I cannot narrate my whole story here to make everyone understand where am coming from but all am trying to say is that this ESTHER you see here didn’t just happen. Hold that thought…………………………
Everything changed when I humbled myself enough to say, “May be I am meant to be great from a humble beginning” and made a decision to join a day school, St. Agnes Girls Gaukune in form three. This left many wondering, including my family members. Others who saw me as a failure may be thought that is where I belonged. This is where I would ask, was it fate or destiny?
When I say I believe in fate, some people think am crazy. Fate has something to do with divinity and the will of God and as a strong believer, I believe when He says that He works in ways we cannot see. That His thinking is not like ours and that his works can never be like ours. It is in this humble institution where it would have seemed like dumping that everything changed. All because one man believed in me, Mr. Justin Majau. One glance at me and for some reasons which I have never known to date, he put me in a very special category. Some people (especially from home)always wonder why Justin and I are so close but now you know, May be God took me there to meet this man. Justin was the deputy principal and one thing he never joked about was discipline, in my hands he entrusted so many responsibilities with the faith that I could handle. He saw it in me, greatness……………and I believe this is what am destined for, nothing less. I participated in all the activities that made me grow. He may also not know the impact he made in my life but in his own ways he sparked my esteem and faith in me with an open mind to what am capable of becoming
It was in light of this that I fought hard to get to the University and found myself at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology which was then Kimathi University College of Technology. A place I could never have thought myself at and taking a course I do not even remember selecting during revision of courses. Fate was again at play, so I thought. A young University with so many challenges but then I was here; I accepted the will of God and decided to walk His path and let Him help me in shaping my destiny. I reminded myself a statement I always made at the assembly at St. Agnes, “It doesn’t matter where you are but what you do where you are”. I chose to focus on the strengths rather than weaknesses, the available resources rather than what was just in my mind from what I heard other institutions have and more importantly, I chose to open my eyes wide enough to see the opportunities and my mind broad enough to exploit them. I developed a love for my University that no one could take away and owned it, some of my friends especially my classmates could have sworn that I was under a spell. Besides my class work, I engaged myself in leadership and church activities as God was and still is the strongest pillar in my life. You have no idea how well that worked for me.
I believed in my University as humble as it was and all the true friends I made both students and staff. That is how I got here, a degree in Bsc. Information Technology second class honors, upper division and better still, formation. Today am a happy and humbled lady as I address all of you and am letting you know that by the grace of God who has brought me this far, this is just the beginning.
Mum and Dad, thank you for everything you have been to me. I am a reflection of you and that means you can only be a master piece, an epitome of strength in my life. My siblings, the best I could ever ask God for………..I LOVE YOU AND FOREVER WILL
The church has been like a home to me. From the hands of priests back in Meru: Fr. Clement, Fr. Mathias Mativo, Fr. Patrick Karani, Fr. James Kinoti, Fr. Benard Kirimi, Fr. Lawrence Mwenda and others who were and still are great friends to me who nurtured me in church leadership and spiritual growth to the hands of my dear chaplain at the University Rev. Fr. Prof Donatus Mathenge who blend his intellect in academia and the bible so well to enhance my spiritual growth while still taking my studies so seriously and embracing the virtues he values so much of ethics, critical thinking and what he calls ‘soft issues’.
To the friends I made at the University, it was your love and warmth that made the four years bearable. You were my brothers and sisters and I will miss you dearly. The University Management, I lack words to express my gratitude. Allow me to mention just a few; the dean of students Mr. Mureithi Kaimoe, the chaplain Rev. Fr. Prof. Mathenge, the Public Relations Officer Madam Catherine and not to mention, all my friends in all the departments who have shaped and impacted my life positively during my University days. Special thanks to the Vice Chancellor, Prof. P. N Kioni. Your faith in me has inspired me to heights you may never imagine and for this and many other reasons, I will forever be grateful and promise to be the best I can be. Thank you to all of you, for playing different roles in my life in your own ways that have shaped me to the person I am.
I am telling this story to inspire someone somewhere, especially those who have lost faith in themselves for some reasons, I was there! You may not feel great but I want to be that person who inspires you to greatness. It was as a result of a few people believing in me that I believed in myself and swore to make the most out of my life each and every day and I desire to do the same to everyone I meet in my own small or big ways; to foster a transformation that many will sit back and wonder how it happened. For I believe that “you can be what you want to be only that you have to want it enough and you have to use the help God gives you to release the powers that lie dormant in you. Through the help of God, through courage, character, manliness and the power of positive thinking you can make your life whatever you want it to be”, Norman Vincent.
THANK YOU AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU
I am Wanjiru Kaburu 