FIFA World Cups: A Fan's Story

A True Story

by Thuita J. Maina

on Jul 2, 2018

Picture related to the title of the story — *The 2006 Brazil soccer team, the kind my Starehe Institute schoolmate and fellow soccer fan, Benjamin Seadori, admired for its caliber of players. Photo credit: dpa/Alamy.*

The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the first one that took place when I was old enough to remember things. But I didn't watch it, even though we had a telly that aired the matches. I was just too young to enjoy soccer.

I also didn't watch the 1998 FIFA World Cup that excited my primary school classmates given the way they idolized Ronaldo, a legendary Brazilian player. They became happy when they found his photo on a chewing gum wrapper.

Not until my high school classmates at Starehe Boys' Centre made me love soccer did I start taking an interest in FIFA World Cups. And the 2006 one was the first I watched. Before it started, I created a software for its fixtures.

I was then an IT student in the institute division of Starehe Boys' Centre, and I used a photo of Ronaldinho to decorate the software. Seeing it work thrilled me to bits. You should have seen me that afternoon I finished the project.

When the World Cup began, I rooted for Brazil which I thought would lift the cup under the stewardship of its then talented attacking combo of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. I was heartsick when it lost to France in the quarterfinals.

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Also check out "The Beautiful Game: My Story".

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Lessons in Personal Growth

Excerpts

by Thuita J. Maina

on Jun 27, 2018

"Many people with secondary greatness - that is, social recognition for their talents - lack primary greatness or goodness in their character. Sooner or later, you'll see this in every long-term relationship they have.

If you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy.

Breaking deeply imbedded habitual tendencies such as impatience, criticalness, or selfishness that violate basic principles of human effectiveness involves more than a little willpower and a few minor changes in our lives.

As you openly, honestly share what you're learning with others, you may be surprised to find that negative labels or perceptions others may have of you tend to disappear. Those you teach will see you as a changing, growing person.

It is not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us. Of course, things can hurt us physically or economically and cause sorrow. But our character, our basic identity, does not have to be hurt at all.

Change - real change - comes from inside out. It doesn't come from hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior with quick fix personality ethic techniques. It comes from hacking at the root - the fabric of our thought.

Writing good letters - communicating on the deeper level of thoughts, feelings, and ideas rather than on the shallow, superficial level of events - also affects our ability to think clearly, to reason accurately and to be understood effectively."

~ from "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People".

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Also check out "A Dose of Peale's Positivity".
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