If this doesn't inspire, nothing does.

I have a friend whose story is nothing short of real motivation. His story is great and worth sharing with his permission of course. Most people are subjected to their past, and they let history torment them at the expense of their future. Kadamba’s story is different. I choose to share his story because it shows how wrong people can be at judging your future by digging your past. In reality, nobody defines your future but you.

This guy, we met back in college while I was still doing my undergraduate. We became great friends and shared many stories and experiences but this one got me to date. Kadamba hails from a humble background, living his childhood life in Nairobi Kenya. His life in primary school, academically for that matter was not that interesting.

His position was undisputedly the tail and it was in the domain of his classmates that he could never do better than the worst student in his class. I am not sure if he believed that too but I really doubt because as you might have guessed, this story definitely has a happy ending. As he once put it, Kadamba survived primary school and went on to high school where all the magic happened.

In his own words, this is how Kadamba narrates his story,

“Actually, it was when I joined class 8 that I awoke and realized that I had to work hard in order for me to make my future bright. I had to stop being lazy. I also changed my friends, ignoring those who didn’t like to study and befriended the smart ones.

Birds of the same feather flock together. No sooner had I befriended the smart students, then I started becoming a serious student in terms of studies. I joined study groups and spent more hours studying harder than before. At home, instead of going to movies or playing games as I usually did, I now went to the community library to study. I had decided that I wanted to change my life and the only option I had was to start by studying hard and improve my grades. I did my KCPE exam and scored 259 marks. Other people might have considered such grades to be poor, but to me, that was an achievement I never thought I could get. After all, I knew I was not in a competition with anyone but myself. I was so happy to get an average mark and felt motivated to put in more effort.

Despite having an average grade, I got letters from several high schools to join, most of them being boarding schools in upcountry. The schools were good, but the fees could not allow me to attend these schools. Taking you back my history, I was brought up in Kibera slums Nairobi Kenya and spending ksh. 25,000 per term for one student was a “luxury” we could not afford to have. My parents weren’t that good enough financially, plus I had two other siblings who were studying. So I had to settle for a local secondary school within Kibera called Raila Educational Center that provided free breakfast and lunch. This was a win-win for my parents since I got to study at a lower cost plus free lunch was provided.

Nevertheless, I was so excited to join a high school. For me, the state and rank of the school did not matter. All I knew was that this was a new beginning and I had to do things right from the beginning. At the back of my mind, I told myself that this was a chance to become a different person. In high school, I kept on the spirit of studying every day, being a frequent member of the libraries and even made friends with teachers. Classes used to end by 6:00 p.m. but I extended my studies all the way to 8:00 p.m. just because at school I could study better and peacefully than at home.

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. every morning, prepared myself and by 5:30 a.m. I was ready to go to school. I journeyed half an hour to go to school and I arrived by 6:00 a.m. During most of my early mornings, I studied the hard subjects because, well, as they say, the mind is fresh in the morning. In that case, I’d challenge myself with the difficult subjects. By 7:00 a.m. the other students would start flocking into the classroom and lessons would start by 8:00 a.m. up to 6:00 p.m. in the evening.

Through all this hard work I was among the top student in my class and most people knew me because of my smartness in Mathematics and Chemistry. Those were my favorite subjects. In fact, I was the best student in these subjects. Anybody who had questions regarding these two subjects would look for me. During my final year in high school, I toped the class during the indexing exams in 2011. That’s how good I had become. I remember bagging all the top student prizes during the first term in the fourth form. I took the prizes for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Geography. Up to this day, most of my schoolmates still remember me for this.  

I did my KCSE and passed very well with a B-(minus). This was a good grade for me to go to campus and do a nice course. Unfortunately, my parents could not take me to campus because of financial constraints. JAB(Joint Admission Board) currently known as The Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) could also not sponsor me because that was below their pass mark to get a subsidized entry to college. This made me really sad and depressed. The only higher education my parents could afford at that time was computer packages which were offered in a catholic school nearby. So, I joined the computer package course which took one and a half months to complete. I finished as the top student.

 As we were waiting for the certificates, a friend of mine that we schooled together called me and asked me if I was willing to repeat form four and get a second chance in a boarding school which was recruiting students who had done well but were not able to get enough grade to be sponsored by JAB. I asked him how much it would cost and he told me that everything was going to be free since it was a way of boosting the school’s mean grade performance by taking in smart students in their school. I thought for a while and asked my parents if they would allow me to do so. My parents agreed. One week later, I and my two other friends packed our stuff and we were off to Meru to try our second chance. This time I was more determined than ever. The environment of the school was conducive to studying. I met a lot of students from different parts of the country who had the same goal as I had, and that was to work really hard in order to get a good grade so that we would join a university and be sponsored by the government.

So that year was the year I put every bit of energy in me into my studies. I studied day and night, every time I got a chance. I asked questions, we did group discussions, did quizzes. I did everything possible to pass the exams. I went back home once for like 2 weeks to go see my parents before I embarked into the last term of my study. The exams came and I did my best. Two months after waiting for the results, the results came out and I had passed with flying colors. I had a B+(plus) of 68 which was enough to earn me a scholarship from the government. I was so happy and so were my parents. I then got a calling letter from a government university to go pursue Bachelor Science in Computer Science, something which I was passionate about. And that experience taught me a lot about how people see life and how I should see it.”

Those are the words of Kadamba Moses himself. By refusing to be judged by the world, Kadamba managed to make his script his own.