Reminiscing on my Good Old Writing Skills and How Far I have come

 I began writing in 2009. This was a trial moment and I was not sure if what I wrote was good enough. I had just joined college for a Certificate course in Mass Communication at The Multimedia University of Kenya. I used to visit the library often. What took me there was basically to look at the papers. 

It was a habit I had formed since I was a baby. My daddy now late used to buy newspapers and I was fond of perusing them. Another thing I loved was listening to the news, either the 7 pm Kiswahili news or the 9 pm bulletin. I got amused mostly by the current affairs especially when I grew older and could understand what was going on. 

I can remember vividly when I was in primary school, telling my dad of the new people who had been appointed by the President in the cabinet. It was exciting. I was into politics and mostly Kenyan politics. 

So going back a little bit into my high school days, there the newspaper was pinned on the notice board. Of course, high schoolers are majorly not into reading the papers. I was an average student but ooh I loved English and Kiswahili lessons, especially the Literature (set books) part of it, hehe, am not sure that contributed to me loving to write. Well at the high school level, the writing was basically for putting down notes, and revising was kind of boring for some subjects apart from English and Kiswahili. 

So, while on campus, via the papers I loved the commentary page, Daily Nation was page 16. So, I tried sending in my commentaries on current affairs to the editors majorly to the Daily Nation and The Standard newspapers. I sent not once, not twice. It took me some time but finally, I started seeing my by-line. 

Seeing, "Terry Muriithi" on the papers was so exciting. That was a great motivation and I kept writing. I progressed on to study a Diploma in Mass Communication, specialization in Public Relations and Advertising. by then, I had joined the journalism club in our university and that gave me the morale to write more. 

It did because some of my club mates were sending their commentaries to the papers and their by-lines were there as well. So, we started competing with each other and telling each other what we should do to enrich our articles. That helped. 

I am writing this to encourage one who is losing hope. Until today my hope is still alive. I still write and send in my commentaries. I had a meeting with one of the paper's editors to get a columnist slot. I admired to have a constant appearance on the appearance like the Late Philip Ochieng. 

Well, the editor's word was I have to get better at the art of writing. I still do aspire to be in the shoes of the late legendary Columnist Philip Ochieng. I did a vlog today on the same, about trying and not relaxing on what one wants - https://youtu.be/DZLSqePRUsg. As we start on a new month and new week, my word is "Keep Trying" and keep your hope alive. 

Remember to NEVER GIVE UP.