All by grace.

Life gives us rocks to break and rivers to cross. The rocks I was given have always been harder and my rivers deeper. 

I was born in Kalacha, Kenya, at the heart of the great Chalbi desert. I had no close relative as I was growing up. I had no cousins to protect me from the older girls and boys at the playground. My dad was born alone. My grandfather and my great grand father were both born alone. Mama's three brothers and two sisters live far away from where we lived. I was born in the year 1998 on 17th of September. Neither mama nor dad went to school.

I was lucky. I was taken to a boarding school about twelve kilometers from home when I was at the age of five years. I was not only the youngest but also the tiniest among the girls in my class. Everyone in the class bullied me. They teased me because I was so tiny but did better than them all. I feared passing exams. They gave me all kinds of bad names. Yes this bothers me. Despite all these, I kept my scores high. 

I have two elder brothers, two elder sisters, a younger brother and sister. One of my elder sister and brother did not have the opportunity to go to school. My sister got married off to a man of 30years old when she was only 12years old. After a month, she was pregnant with her first kid. She now has two kids and is expecting another one soon. She is only 18years old. That wasn't so bad.

The same thing had been planned for me. I was only 12 years when a man who had three kids asked my parents for my hand in marriage. Mum and dad accepted and I was to be married immediately after I did my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. The man was three times my age plus four. 

​​​​​​I was too young and dumb to protect myself. My parents were poor. They had no say in the society. Who is God though? He worked miracles and when the results were out, I was the best in my village area. 

I won a scholarship and proceed to secondary school. I was aware of what was going on at home. The man was putting lots of pressure on my parents. During holidays, I would spend most of the time thinking about what to do to protect myself from getting married to this man who has never been to school and has kids with women he has never married. I tried so hard to handle all these. I started bing just an average student at school. 

By the grace of God, I completed my high school studies and got a grade good enough to take me to a public university in the country; the biggest and the best in the Sub-saharan Africa at that. I joined the University of Nairobi in the years 2016. I am still there taking a degree in Journalism and Media studies.

Since I had chosen to study and be the best version of me, my parents and the old man have asked me to pay the old man's gifts to my parents. I would have been graduating but since I have an extra task of paying back for what I don't know if I ate or used, my graduation will be delayed but the most important part is I am still strong enough to push away every rock off my way. I can stand for any woman who guest through troubles such as mine. 

I don't want any other girl to suffer the way I did. My advice to the young women out there is that, nothing is big enough to break us down to the point of not rebuilding again. Life always finds a way. Strong for myself,strong for the world. Cheers!