Life is a jungle gym.

jungleSince time immemorial, the law has always intrigued me both as a career path and as an academic field. So it took me by surprise when I learned that by Thursday last week, out of the 14 candidates who had vied for the post of Chief Justice in Kenya, only two among them were women. One, two…yes, only two. Now before I am dubbed a feminist, I shall get on with the intricacies of my post today.

The Ladder.

We grew up learning that life is a ladder, you know, you climb one step then the next. It was a theory passed on that line. (Remember Primary math book 1-8? that boy and girl who used to climb that staircase and every new year you would so often look at the picture as if you aren’t sure which step you were climbing next). I am convinced that the concept of life being a ladder is a myth, it’s a fallacy.

Along the way, we stop going upwards, we go downwards, at times trials come and we are thrown off guard. You suddenly lose that job, you suddenly get that bad grade, you suddenly lose that soulmate and that point it feels so easy to give up, to let go, to lift that anchor off the water.


Because we lie to ourselves that life will become better tomorrow, then we sit back and wait for life to unfold somehow hope that the next day will take that next step up. (We never do). Perhaps this is why we are always afraid to get to the top, to be in the limelight. We feel it’s a shame to be up there, we feel we don’t deserve it, we feel it’s hard.

The jungle gym.

A jungle gym has no rules, you fight for what you want, you start from nowhere, you start with nothing, you only trust your journey and your path. You see, in the quest for going up a smooth ladder we often miss the most amazing things; we miss observing the beauty of life because we are afraid to try. Honor yourself and your gifts and stop misunderstanding success. Success never comes because you fear failure. Success never comes because you are doing things right neither does it happen overnight. Dirt those hands and make yourself productive. Stop pleasing people, please your God and your conscience and redefine success and happiness for yourself.

Stop confusing that voice of ego with the voice of intuition. Write down that proposal you’ve been holding back today, take that French class you’ve been postponing, vie for that political seat. Go out there and make that business project work, go out there and sing your heart out there, go and tell that girl you have a crush on her, go out there and performing arts to us; the random audience and notice that the spark of brilliance often comes out of the unexpected.

Above all value growth and learning in the jungle.



P.S. I still don’t understand why those lady justices are all rammed up vying to be Deputy Chief justice. what is scary about being at the top? I hope you all read this.

Jerioth Muthoni .-Thank you so much for allowing me to use your photo. I hope it drives the jungle gym analogy home. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

21 thoughts on “Life is a jungle gym.

  1. My dear….Am so proud of you and the work you are doing…Am challenged to be the best version of myself

    1. Thank you Mutetei.
      You did mentor me into this and I do appreciate.

      Asanti sana for your kind words.

      And happy belated birthday
      Nakupenda sana.

    2. Thank you Mutetei.
      You did mentor me into this and I do appreciate.

      Asanti sana for your kind words.

      And happy belated birthday
      Nakupenda sana.

  2. Susan I also don’t get why they decided to vie for deputy CJ yet they had better CVS than some of the men who had vied for the main position. Honestly…smh…

    Good article Susan..😊

  3. Well put Sue, 👊,there are different weights in this gym…. only your effort will build you. 💪💪

  4. Ok, this is such an inspirational piece and it kinda made me reminisce on some of the examples you’ve shared and I can speak about them from experience but I’ve learnt that if its good its great. If it’s bad, its experience.

    1. Maria…

      Wisdom is such a vital part of life..and yes we never hit the I am now wise mark….but we keep on striving..and that is what trying to make ourselves better….

      I totally do agree with your words..
      Thank you for taking time to read

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