🍹 Catch-Up

Watching Prison Break recently took me back to 2011, when I rewatched it for the 2nd time while I was home sick with amoebic dysentery. I was one of those ultra-focused kids in primary school, so being absent from school even in the face of this debilitating illness was mostly my parents’ idea.

If I had it my way, I’d have missed out on:

1. falling back in love with the gorgeous, brilliant Michael Scofield (and getting heartbroken that Wentworth is actually gay, like I stood a chance),

2. learning about Utah, the first United state to sear itself into my mind, and

3. wondering if monsters like T-Bag really existed irl, but somehow not clocking that he was also the trailblazer of many a White supremacy group during his several stints in prisons. (BTW, it’s generally accepted that we should capitalize “Black” when referring to race, but should our Caucasian counterparts enjoy the same petty privilege? Discuss.)

Hello, and welcome back to Kessentials. We’ve kind of given up on being your “regularly scheduled programming” here, but every once in a while, I’ll take a break from my increasingly busy life to attend to this mostly independent child of mine. I like to tell myself that these spaces between posts are the natural, measured order of things, unlike a Prison Break that went on for three seasons too long. But if I’m being honest, I just often don’t have much to share publicly nowadays. (Please don’t check my X.)

Since we last spoke, I’ve experienced several monumental life changes:

1. a graduation (mine and several others’)

2. the loss of a friend

3. an introduction to AliExpress and all the joys it holds

4. YouTube foolishly thinking it wise to “criminalize” ad blockers

5. an engagement (JK, unless we mean social media engagement, which is also a JK)

I also participated in a literary competition that required us to submit some fictive manuscripts for consideration to be included and possibly sponsored to some writing seminars in Nairobi and Lamu.

Kitumbua kiliingia mchanga. My writing was good enough to earn me a spot but not enough to open their purses. I don’t have $2K lying around; my duffel bag with ~$4 mill fell into a Panamanian water body as I tried not to get shot by Mr. Kim. (If you get this reference, I literally need us to be best friends yesterday.)

Anyway, I think they were pretty solid pieces, especially considering I wrote them on a time crunch, and as seasoned Kessentials readers know, I don’t really do fiction. I’ll post chapter by chapter of the two manuscripts I cooked up on here till they’re fully “published,” and y’all can sponsor my attendance of the seminars let me know what you think of them.

The first story, My Girl, is a bit sadistic, kidogo tu, so I don’t expect unsubscribes. And the second, Aftertaste, is a tasty tale of resilience and hope (the abstract noun). If you’re among the few guinea pigs I sent the stories to, do me the favor of

over the next couple of weeks like it’s your first time seeing them. The Company thanks you.

Afterward, tunaweza nyamaziana mpaka one of us sees something cool on the other’s story or timeline, then we’ll get back in touch—the circle of life. ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

See you Monday.