Skip to main content

2022 READS - BOOK 4

‘Finding Me’ intrigued me. Not only did reading though Viola’s story give me a weirdly necessary assurance that I am doing better at things life and should learn to constantly pat myself on the back for a good job done but also took me waaay back to the days when life as is (currently) was once a blurry dream and out of possible human reach.

It so happened that as I was scrolling the last few chapters, her latest movie “The Woman King” premiered. The brave fighter, General Nanisca took the day! Her character and story in the movie comes close to what she’s generally experienced in life - a story of a young girl rising from nothing to something great; to the Woman King -Nanisca.

It’s crazy how we find it easy to judge some of these celebrities and think “….yup! They’re shining as they are now because they’ve had it easy!” The lenses with which I look at them was somewhat changed after reading Viola’s story; which she wrote with so much rawness, vulnerability and courage. She talks about her many instances and source of childhood insecurities as a result of the condition and environment her family had to live in back in the day; the ‘rat infested house with parents constantly warring’ stood out, being picked on in school and called ‘Ugly’ countless times till she believed it, carrying the black tax burden for years after she somehow makes it into Hollywood and much more.

Her journey to finding herself amidst the chaos that was, trying to heal from childhood trauma from Central Falls, Rhode Island and trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood are some of the things she couldn't imagine would ever be a thing of the past. She sits in big rooms with big people, cue Oprah, and still has to convince that little girl inside her that "You belong here! It's not a dream.' 

She finally made a name for herself alright and it’s been a journey of healing, learning, re-learning, unlearning and bucket loads of therapy, she says. In a number of ways I saw myself in her story and for moments, while lost in her words, it felt like I was reading a different version of my story: a story of resilience, redemption and constantly making progress despite life’s various punches.

Reading this to the end made me feel so accomplished; one of my best reads in the year actually and I’d recommend it to anyone that asks without batting an eye! Undoubtedly a 10/10 for sure!

Comments

Post a Comment

Leave a comment here...

Popular posts from this blog

QUORA 3: STAKI MKATE!

Q: Has a homeless/street person ever refused food you've offered them? If so, did they provide an explanation? Well, well, well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, my fellow repeat readers or repeat clients, if you may! Today I have a short story to bless your eyes and ears. Will it blow your mind? Maybe. Will it give you reason to come back here and check out more stories? Definitely!  I assume that most of you my readers are Nairobi residents and if not, you've been here at one point in your life. This is a notably great city with beautiful people, a people with a culture so rich everyone outside it wants to come have a taste. It is a hub of 'unity', or so they say. It's here that the assorted bunch of the various tribes come to link up, all forty two of them. Our relatives from the rurals are fascinated by this city, no wonder they gather around to hear tales of its craziness every time  Nairobians visit home for Christmas. The streets, as usual, are ever buz...
4 comments
Read more

ROOFTOP

After exactly 3 months and 11 days, today I went back up the stairs to the rooftop of the apartment we stay at. Trembling and shaking, I kept taking a step after the next hoping to get to the top. Several times I kept thinking, …why go? …but kept at it regardless. On this rooftop, I had set a very calm meeting place with my Father. For about 3 months leading to the delivery of my darling baby girl, I'd come up here, do some simple workouts but most importantly have a daily tete-a-tete with Him. I couldn't and still can't wrap my head around the fatigue that comes with the 3rd trimester and rightly so, many times I contemplated not going up there. What made me keep up with the routine was the fact that I knew He was waiting for me and was eager to talk about how far and smooth my pregnancy journey was.   We'd talk about my hopes, dreams and plans for baby in my tummy. We'd discuss my maternity leave plans and among other things mostly just sit in the silence of dawn ...
8 comments
Read more

What's success to you?

When I enrolled into University, my main goal was to succeed, that’s everyone’s goal at this point really. Time has passed by so quickly and the goal still remains the same. Many are times I tend to lose focus on this goal and I end up messing up big time. Life’s like a mountain, you’ve got to gather the strength to move up to the peak despite the strong wind that will try to block you from getting there. You might reach some point and get tired, or you lose the strength to move on but with your eyes fixed at the peak, all is gonna go smoother than you can imagine. But you've got to have the hunger to reach there, you’ve got to have the desire to acquire what’s at the peak, have fire in your belly, be proactive, strong-willed, optimistic and most of all prayerful. All that I think lies with what YOU think success is. There are gazillion definitions of success but I think every single person should have their own definition of this success we all very much want. What'...
2 comments
Read more