Two weeks to go, and counting... Today, am saying 14 days to go...Tomorrow it'll be 13, the next 12, then 11, then 10... 9...8...Kinda like those little red digital figures on a time bomb, ticking away the seconds to destruction. Or that metallic voice over the intercom, counting down to blast-off...
Honestly speaking, at the end of my countdown is nothing as dramatic, only a day to mark my completion of 23 years of existance on this blue orb...See? Nothing dramatic, really. I mean, what's turning 23?
It's not like turning 1 when everyone's ecstatic that the little ball of life has actually survived a WHOLE YEAR on this harsh planet... Nor is it like turning 5 which is significant in developing countries coz most childhood deaths occur under five...Even turning 10 is worthy of praise; a decade completed.
Or if I was turning 23 with a decade removed-13, that would be cause to celebrate...TEENAGE! Officially grown up! Or so it seems then. Maybe there'd be more cause to celebrate turning 16 in certain countries-not this one definitely-coz then I'd drive, and do so much more legally. (I can't drive by the way)
Everyone celebrates turning 18. Recognised as an adult anywhere in the world, though most times it's only after producing ID, coz people this age more often than not DO NOT act like adults.
Then there's 20...and 21...and 30 ...40 (Here lies my youth...)
But 23? Who celebrates turning 23?
I do...or at least I plan to.
Just over a week ago I lost two friends in a motor accident. The total death toll came to five but the other
three names didn't conjure up any faces. The two however...
The guy was a church-mate...at both the churches I attend in Kampala. We attended the same class fellowship at KPC and he was one of the few friends in Kampala that bothered to call me when I was away at university in Mbarara. He'd contacted me earlier in the holiday, saying we should get together, catch up on each others lives and all that...but we were both engaged in our different trainings till 20th July and we agreed we'd link up after that. Come 21st, am told Eddy was killed on spot that very morning when the van they are travelling in to bury a classmate's dad swerved off the road! To say it was a shock would be a vulgar understatment! I'd ran into him along Kampala road earlier that very week, and we'd agreed to set a date to meet. We were supposed to go for icecream....!
The gal was not as close...we were in Primary together... played in some of the same groups... lost touch when we went to different High schools...met up again at a mutual friend's birthday party earlier this year...At first when reading an sms mentioning the deceased I though it was someone else coz I was under the impression that the people travelling were MUK students and she was in Nkozi...I found out the truth the next day. Gina died on spot, just like Eddy. Gina died 14 days to her birthday...2 weeks to whatever age she was making. She left behind a 6 month old baby boy...
In light of the above, is it any wonder that am planning to celebrate 23? It might seem like just another year completed, nothing elaborate...but it will be another year completed. That is so much more than so many people get. It might seem like nothing but am grateful.
Honestly speaking, at the end of my countdown is nothing as dramatic, only a day to mark my completion of 23 years of existance on this blue orb...See? Nothing dramatic, really. I mean, what's turning 23?
It's not like turning 1 when everyone's ecstatic that the little ball of life has actually survived a WHOLE YEAR on this harsh planet... Nor is it like turning 5 which is significant in developing countries coz most childhood deaths occur under five...Even turning 10 is worthy of praise; a decade completed.
Or if I was turning 23 with a decade removed-13, that would be cause to celebrate...TEENAGE! Officially grown up! Or so it seems then. Maybe there'd be more cause to celebrate turning 16 in certain countries-not this one definitely-coz then I'd drive, and do so much more legally. (I can't drive by the way)
Everyone celebrates turning 18. Recognised as an adult anywhere in the world, though most times it's only after producing ID, coz people this age more often than not DO NOT act like adults.
Then there's 20...and 21...and 30 ...40 (Here lies my youth...)
But 23? Who celebrates turning 23?
I do...or at least I plan to.
Just over a week ago I lost two friends in a motor accident. The total death toll came to five but the other
three names didn't conjure up any faces. The two however...The guy was a church-mate...at both the churches I attend in Kampala. We attended the same class fellowship at KPC and he was one of the few friends in Kampala that bothered to call me when I was away at university in Mbarara. He'd contacted me earlier in the holiday, saying we should get together, catch up on each others lives and all that...but we were both engaged in our different trainings till 20th July and we agreed we'd link up after that. Come 21st, am told Eddy was killed on spot that very morning when the van they are travelling in to bury a classmate's dad swerved off the road! To say it was a shock would be a vulgar understatment! I'd ran into him along Kampala road earlier that very week, and we'd agreed to set a date to meet. We were supposed to go for icecream....!
The gal was not as close...we were in Primary together... played in some of the same groups... lost touch when we went to different High schools...met up again at a mutual friend's birthday party earlier this year...At first when reading an sms mentioning the deceased I though it was someone else coz I was under the impression that the people travelling were MUK students and she was in Nkozi...I found out the truth the next day. Gina died on spot, just like Eddy. Gina died 14 days to her birthday...2 weeks to whatever age she was making. She left behind a 6 month old baby boy...
In light of the above, is it any wonder that am planning to celebrate 23? It might seem like just another year completed, nothing elaborate...but it will be another year completed. That is so much more than so many people get. It might seem like nothing but am grateful.
