I was so stressed and depressed after I received the confirmation on the course I was to study at university. I had chosen the course myself and the university was my choice. It’s just that some people made me feel bad about my choice.
I am not this kind of passionate people but I knew I wanted something to do with the environment. I just had no idea how to put the words together and explain myself. I covered up by saying I wanted to be a doctor. Honestly I never dreamt of this. I cannot stand the sight of blood!
Going through high school, I still had no idea of what I wanted in life. I took physics, thinking I would probably venture into engineering. I had no passion, nothing really to do with engineering. I remember once I visited a doctor back in primary school and he suggested that I should do something to do with rocket science, since I had passed highly in my KCPE.Rocket Science. Weird right?
I love mathematics ever since I started playing with arithmetic. A friend back in high school suggested that I should try doing economics. I thought this was a really great idea. But I only saw economists as people who sit down in an office all day long. This is not what I wanted. I love nature, I love interaction, and I love exploration.
I applied for economics and later changed to environmental resource conservation. I was just choosing any environmental course, of course at the university of my choice, Kenyatta University.
I was very stressed, because people thought it was just a minor course and my parents were stressed too. If you talk of environment, people think of trees and trees. Are you going to plant trees all your life? Where are you going to get that job anyway? You better change that course to something like Commerce. Yes people talked. Some said I should have tried being a doctor, since I’m quiet type, but that wasn’t what I loved. This is the struggle of living in a generation where courses like education, commerce, economics, engineering, and medicine are the topic of the times
Some said I should have tried education because it’s a sure bet for a job. I was confused for the first two weeks in campus. I remember how people ran up and down over the streets of Kenyatta University, dropping letters requesting to change their courses. I was even amazed that some actually joined my class. When asked why later, they said they were driven by passion.
Meeting new people at the University, they still made me feel that I was on the wrong path with my environmental career, stating that all of us in the course would remain jobless forever. What?
My first lecture was my best. The lecturer knew this struggle, so she brought someone to talk to us. This talk acted as a therapy to many of us who were suffering silently. That evening I completely made up my mind. The rest of my campus life was the best ever, learning and discovering more than I could fathom.
Passion is better than anything. I wasn’t going to change my course. I decided to pursue my dream of being a conservationist. I became more than just someone who planted trees.
Apart from this, Kenyatta University was my home. I found friends – real friends – and I found life.
Today I am proud I chose my life, my interest, my passion, and my destiny. If you ask me today if I will plant trees all my life I will proudly say yes. I might be jobless now, but I will not stop being an environmentalist and a conservationist because my job didn’t put me here. Passion brought me here.
Learn about another entrepreneur’s journey – Dr. Jennifer Bernstein
