The pen, the heart and the keyboard.

About seven years ago while still in High School something phenomenal happened to me. I decided to write an essay for a Common wealth competition not because of the fact that I liked writing and neither did I even have the slightest hint that I had a talent in writing but purely in a bid to irritate my English teacher at the time.

My dear English teacher was a staunch christian with rigid values and a no nonsense attitude. She especially disliked latecomers, a tribe to which I must be a chief in and a number of perennial vices that I all found myself well endowed with such as dozing in her class and occasionally sparking off conversations to entertain myself during her lessons that seemed to take eternity to end.

Anyways on this particular day she tells the class of the relevance of participating in this competition and after convincing herself that the brats she was talking to had grasped the concept she asked who would participate. To her greatest shock the one brat that raised his hand was me, the very last person in the world she had wished to convert was willing to become a martyr for her gospel.

She held her head high and convinced herself this would pass and after sending the essays she told me mine got misplaced and the deadline was due. It was therefore a huge shock when the only certificate that returned from London had come in honor and appreciation of me.

The experience was amusing for me but I had found pleasure and beauty in sitting with a pen and paper and fiddling with my thoughts, ideas and realized there was no where else I could really be myself like when writing, the obsession turned me into a freelance writer, sub editor and editor of a newspaper. I have also worked with media at various levels and the truth is that all thanks have to go back to that teacher who gave me passion for writing through the most peculiar of circumstances.

I would like to dedicate my very first blog post to her, "Name withheld" and hopes she keeps inspiring young rebels like myself in the future to come