A New Adventure in the Motherland

4:30 am. Now, that’s not when it dawned upon me that I hadn’t updated my blog in a long while! Actually that’s when I woke up on Tuesday to hit the road to Will Rogers International Airport - Oklahoma City. After months of careful analysis and critical deliberations, I decided to just do it, Nike style! Do what? You may ask. I am embarking on a truly adventurous journey this next year.

Here’s the main plot. I decided to take a year off school (please, don’t panic. I’m not dropping out, okay?) right after my junior (third) year at the University of Oklahoma, to be fully present in Uganda and lay down some important groundwork on several projects. One of those projects is an internship I’ll be working on this next year. Yes, an internship is a project too: an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim.

I then secured a one way flight to the Pearl of Africa and this blog post was written into existence at Cafe Rio Mexican Grill at Salt Lake City Airport in Utah. Shall I digress a bit? Since I’m on my way to Uganda, this slight digression is absolutely necessary. Also, it’s about food - of course!

We flew to SLC from OKC on Delta and it was a good two and a quarter hours flight. You just read my mind - a light snack (14 smoked almonds) with a few ounces of apple juice didn’t quite impress the central government (what else could that be if it’s not the stomach?). So I decided to sketch for something to appease the “board of enzymes” and ended up ordering a roasted chicken quesadilla. You can tell I’m a big fun of Mexican food though there’s nothing like actual Mexican food in Mexico (I had the tacos of a lifetime in Tijuana Mexico). The reason for this digression is to say I have finally reaffirmed why I have this fondness for “la comida de mis amigos mexicanos”.

Haven’t had a quesadilla yet? Had a chapati or better yet, a Rolex? They’re are in essence siblings from the same food family. Cafe Rio served me a chapati, with grilled chicken, sour cream, and some guacamole! It tasted the same, looked the same, just had a different name! This transition to Ugandan cuisines couldn’t have started any better.

Now back to the main subject of this blog! I am a firm believer that he future belongs to those who fully understand the value of the present. When an opportunity presents itself, lucky is he who is ready, willing and able to make hay while the sun shines. There are numerous opportunities lingering in my domain at the moment upon which my action has been way overdue. Now is the time to strike. I will be venturing into several entrepreneurial pursuits over the course of this year besides my internship. Entrepreneurship is all about problem solving. That’s exactly what most of this next year will be about.

As Winston Churchill once alluded, “Success isn’t final, failure isn’t fatal. All that matters is having the courage to carry on.” In embracing this new adventure, I fully acknowledge the many opportunities for failure that lie ahead. I also understand that failure and success are not diabolically opposed but rather complementary to each other. I am prepared to give myself as many opportunities to fail at doing new and daring things as reasonably possible and to diligently learn exhaustively from such mistakes.

Growth only happens outside of our comfort zone. This next year is about me bravely diving into the unknown sea and figuring how to swim in the storm. Lucky for me, there are those out there who have already swam in the storms, those who have travelled the uncharted routes before, and those who discovered they had wings to fly after jumping off board from whom I can borrow a plethora of knowledge, wisdom and insight. I will commit to conquering as much territory outside my comfort zone as is possible in a year’s time by associating myself with such individuals.

To have knowledge is to have a good foundation to build on. But the value of knowledge is derived from what we do with it. In this next adventure, I will be acting on my dreams and putting the knowledge i have amassed thus far to great use. This will take shape in many forms: working on startup ideas, inspiring others to take action on their dreams through workshops, conferences, and or seminars, and through collective actions towards common causes that I deeply believe in. I will be deeply devoted to the creation of life changing opportunities for others across Uganda.

May I therefore invite you to join me on this journey of growth. It is going to be a truly adventurous year and I hope to keep everyone who cares to know up to speed with my endeavors. So, let the adventures begin!