Part 1: Growing in Knowledge
Unfortunately, my reading efforts were never fully reflected in my performance at school. When I was in Standard Five in 1998 for instance, I scored mediocre marks that made me the object of ridicule at home. That was in spite of the much studying that I did in my free time.
Never one to give up easily, I continued reading voraciously as my primary school years wore on. I not only read academic books but also such classics as Robinson Crusoe which riveted my imagination.
And when I got into Standard Eight in 2001, I studied even more so that I could pass with flying colours the national primary school exams known as KCPE. I remember dipping my feet into warm water to keep myself from dozing while reading late into the night on some days in 2001. On other days, I would wake up as early as 4.00am to do some private studying. Such was the diligence with which I prepared for my KCPE exams.
Given all the studying I did in 2001, I am sure I read more than any other KCPE candidate of that year. And there were more than half a million KCPE candidates in 2001. But guess what! When the 2001 KCPE results were released in late December that year, I didn't appear among the top 100 pupils in my province, which makes me wonder where all the knowledge I had read had gone.
But at least my reading efforts weren't in vain because I scored enough marks in KCPE to get into Starehe Boys' Centre, a prestigious institution in Nairobi where I had my high school as well as college education. When I entered Starehe, I continued studying diligently with the zeal of a he-goat on heat. And as was the case in primary school, my reading efforts were never fully reflected in my academic performance at Starehe. For how else can you explain that I never emerged among the top five students in my class in my entire high school career?
Yes, I used to read a lot during my primary and secondary school years. Sometime in 2001 as I was preparing for KCPE exams, my kid brother Symo suggested that the reason I wasn't excelling in school was due to the much reading that I was doing. One of my high school classmates named Rocky Mbithi echoed similar sentiments sometime in 2004 by telling me that reading a lot was making me confused.
Rocky Mbithi must have had a point because after I left Starehe in April 2007, some of the people I met in church and at the university remarked on how confused I looked. Imagine after all the knowledge I amassed in Starehe, all I showed was not brilliance but confusion! It was such a disheartening experience.
Recently when I reflected on how I read a lot in those bygone years, I arrived at the conclusion that the knowledge I gained wasn't finding a home in my head, so to speak. It was like much of what got into my head while reading got out through the nose, ears and other body orifices. What's worse, the knowledge that remained in my head wasn't organized, hence the confusion that people saw in me.
When I talk of knowledge getting out of my head, I am reminded of another experience I had while I was revising for the SAT exams in 2009. Taking the SAT exams required that I absorb a lot of college-level vocabularies. I would drill the meanings of the vocabularies into my head, and then you know what? When taking sample SAT tests, I would bump into a vocabulary I had studied but be unable to recall its meaning. I had a memory like a sieve.
Despite all those setbacks, I have never given up on reading. I have kept devouring books, magazines and newspapers. But these days, I am making a conscious effort of letting the knowledge I gain find a home in my head and soul. I now agree with the great English philosopher John Locke when he quipped, "Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours."
And why have I kept reading and acquiring knowledge? Because I believe the more knowledge we acquire, the happier and more peaceful our lives become. Also by growing in knowledge, we attract the opportunities that launch us to the lives of our dreams. Life becomes exciting when we apply our knowledge to our day-to-day living. The U.S. Air Force has it right when it says in its motto that "man's flight through life is sustained by the power of knowledge". Ciao!
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on growing in knowledge, you might also enjoy another one on "Wisdom From a Cab Driver" which I wrote two years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
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