all tomorrow's parties

It's been four years since I joined uni, and the four years have been heaven! What! Ever since I decided to make the switch (I'd originally been called to go do building economics), I've always thought that B.Com is the best course in the world. Never mind that every half decent (and I do mean half decent) college now has their own flavor on offer (including, but not limited to, one Makere satellite college which Makerere insists have no affiliation with them whatsoever), plus really, I was at the best one of them all so that wasn't really a problem for us. When I was still in my old course, I had a classmate who'd actually done and passed those international baccalaureate exams and I used to wonder why would she go here when she could fly out, and her reason was that some friends of hers had told her "You haven't lived till you've been to the university of Nairobi". At the time of course I thought that was a pretty paltry reason for not wanting to go outside (and never come back). I still do, and turns out she does too, she was really just whiling away the time waiting for acceptances, coz once they came Uon was dropped like a hot stone. But having been through the machine myself, I can now say with a certain measure of authority that those friends of hers were onto something.

Life at that place is just out of this world. First by sheer numbers alone, you come to believe there's nothing you all can't do if you just agree on it. People are resourceful, as far as entertainment and events go, and if you know the right guys there's really never not anything to do. Stories abound - about both the students and the lecturers, but I was never a fan of the administration coz it never used to appear like they're doing me any favors. Or even like they even loved their jobs, so there's very few lecturers I even knew by name. I discovered I like gossip. ALOT! And that I don't care when Im gossiped about, although the way the system's been made you'll never know if it's about you, which I like. There was once this one bit about a guy who used to live with his girlfriend (the rooms were like 4 feet by 12 me I don't even know how you live two people inside there!!) and then killed her and hid her body under his bed, and no one discovered till about two weeks later when the body started smelling. Christ! The things we hear. No one ever talks about how he did it, but I think she probably suffocated to death - wasn't enough air for both of them in there. But as to why, stress is cited.

Then there was this band - The Journey. DAMN, I was a fan! They used to do these renditions of pop-rock hits both gospel and otherwise and it used to chuck so realistically. The first time I went as a first year I remember they played Breakfast at Tiffany's and at the time it had been forever since I'd heard it I was just blown away! I even went and looked for it just to relive old memories. Even after I moved to the upcountry campus I still used to find time and come attend their concerts, and they just got better with time. Although after leaving school I find it hard to go, bogged down with work and all. Then we used to do these road trips at the end of a semester where we hire cars and go out of the city for a day then come back late at night, and something always used to go wrong during them culminating in a major accident involving one of our cars and a matatu in which the matatu actually rolled and our car was wrecked. That was a scary one! Mercifully no one died - one matatu passenger just broke a leg, but naturally the idea of a road trip was not floated again following that incident. And then of course, who could forget, SIFE. In third and fourth years I discovered just how big a part of my life both in and out of campus SIFE was when one Sunday we'd decided not to meet coz nothing was happening and I couldn't remember what I used to do on Sundays. By 2PM me I was ready for the next day! I can truthfully say that if ever any single group of people outside of my parents have had an impact on my life it's my SIFE friends. And it doesn't hurt that we got to go to NYC and Paris. Doesn't hurt at all! :)

So the reason Im reminiscing like this is the graduation list recently came out (must say I'm impressed - we usually just graduate on expectations, they publish the list much later when we're all done with the masters!). And Im in it! With honors no less. I wish we also called it cum laude, like those other places, but for now who cares! Im graduating with honors! I love my life. I love the fact that I did not throw away my uni years just studying, and still came out on top. You know, maybe it's a good thing I didn't get taken for that elec engineering that i'd wanted coz it's possible id be speaking a very different story right now. For starters, I'd still be a student! Fate and its master, the Lord, seem to always be on my side when it counts, and that so far has been my saving grace. So on graduation I won't just be celebrating the closing of a chapter and the beginning of another one, I'll also be celebrating a life well lived. I did a lot of things in uni I'd never done before, I got a lot of exposure, I learned a lot of things, apparently I even came out with a degree, but most of all, in uni I met people who changed my life. And that is what all tomorrow's parties are going to be about.

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