By Okelo Sejo KANERE contributor, April 2019
With all due respect
Am not a failure
Failure is an event
Not a person in fact
To be precise its a line
Of graduation right below pass
And its not a virtue I sat down in that class
Trying to recollect my body
And give you my medulla oblangata
In order to focus and listen
But thunder answered the noise
You make right into my ear drums
And lightning struck me
You talk to me about my future
Ask me to think of it
And focus on what to do with it
But you are not preparing me for that
Instead you focus on multiple quizzes
And argue me to pass with flying colors
I wonder if these colors have wings
That’s how I lost the focus
You see …. Am trying to stay sharp
And lean on my abilities
Coz I can’t compete with artificial intelligence
No one can do a robotic job
Better than a robot
Even Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba
Attest to that coz he is a human
Very soon we will graduate in numbers
But many straight to line of unemployment
For no one will be hired on papers
But with what they can do
With their knowledge and not straight A’s
Even the 1500 scholars agreed that
Creativity is the most important leadership skill
You barely pass in my class
And with grades like these
What kind of future awaits you
Is what you told me but
If careers in future will be automated
Then you will need my curiosity, innovation and resilience
In order to adapt to the inevitable changes
And mum, if am mad at you
It’s because you never gave me room
Instead you want me to be a medic
Maybe if we share the same table
We can understand each other better
Coz even that delicious pizza
Cannot salivate more than a family
Which we never had one.