Cameriere, champagne per favore.( Waiter, Champagne please)

 

My school journey had been a long one but I seriously do not know how it is just coming to an end. I don’t even believe it because even few years back when I thought that school was ending, that is when it started. I remember how I was that smart kid in primary school. I was always the first in class except for one time when I was the third in class. That time I was used to being the first (I am even my parents ‘first born) and I was so confident. Being excellent was something normal to me, I can proudly say that I was so intelligent. Things changed when I started my secondary school!! I thought I was going to be the first in class as I used to be but there were many intelligent students. That is when I became an” as long as I pass/don’t repeat a year” student. What I can say is that it always took me an end to realize the reason why I started. It required me my final years (senior three and senior six) to get serious and remember who I used to be,” that young and intelligent girl”. It was like I had something to prove to the world. It was like I had to let everyone know that lions never graze.

Car horns replaced soft melodies

I had to fight to keep my inner voice

My bread was kept inside hot furnace

Crying was not an escape, dreamland was no longer a wonderland

Helpless and clueless, I took a breath and murmured” que sera sera”

I saw water talking to fire, I saw life rising and setting in a blink of an eye.

I shook hands with terror, I danced to the music of time.

I befriended sinners and saints, I met smiling snakes and gentle giants

I filled my oceans with thousands drops, I sang my anthem at the 25^th hour of the day.

I vowed to keep fighting until the 61^st minute, I said hi to every early morning bird and late night owl.

I glowed as I was growing, burying them with smile.

I came, I saw and I conquered.

 

My university years were something else. As I have tried to say it in my poem” Veni, vidi, vici”, I came, I saw and now here I am conquering.

 Life was challenging for a seventeen years old me, who was about living in Kigali (Biryogo to be precise, yeah man mi people) for the first time in her life, far from home, far from everyone she knows, far from her comfortable life but through it all, I learned valuable lessons in life.

My school life taught me that living on good terms with others where possible is absolutely priceless. I have learned the value of friends because I befriended “sinners and saints”. I learned that you got to guard yourself jealously because you are all that you have. I learned to save and to spend. I learned to hold on a little bit tighter before letting go. I learned to be real and to pretend, all for the sake of something worth protecting.

Though I am still learning, cheers to all lessons I have learnt along the way.