If you’ve watched The Originals, you’ll remember Klaus tossing a coin to the floor. Whoever picked it up pledged allegiance. Marcel picked that coin. And it wasn’t because he was weak. It was because he was wise. He knew Klaus wasn’t done. Not until the house was burned down. So, Marcel waited. He bent, not to break, but to survive. He knew what I now believe: you don’t fight until you’re ready to win.

Being ready to win is a mindset, not really a physical strength, though it could still be that, physical, mental, and spiritual strength, as well as related other strengths. However, sometimes, you pick the coin, not because you are weak, but because you are wise enough to know that you’re not ready to win!

I, personally, have picked many coins in my life, and still am picking some. But when it comes to storytelling? I pledge no allegiance to no one! Each coin is a story, and through storytelling, the weight of this coin, and others, gets less and less!

Stories are how you arrive; here or wherever place you are going

Yes, that place could be understanding, or yourself. Becoming your true self. Stories hold our complexity, our fear, and even our fire. They let us speak even when we’re not ready to shout.

I’ve started editorial and web admin work at Narrive Media because there are stories, I must tell myself. And many I’ve spent years carrying, quietly. I am also more than happy, to tell those of others, as well as help in editing to offer clarity. And what an excellent way of doing so while making sure that Narrive’s website is all set to amplify our stories’ meanings? Magical, need not to say more!

I understand that some stories are personal. Some are communal. But all better be true. Not true in the perfect-fact way, but in the weight-of-the-heart way.

I believe deeply in the power of stories to reflect, emancipate, and sometimes, to simply survive. Writing stories and the stories themselves have been my breath when I couldn’t find air. They’ve been my structure in moments of collapse.

As I began a journey into PhD studies, and as I look back on the path that brought me here, to the PhD, I know this: the world does not only need facts. It needs feeling. It needs remembering. It needs reclamation.

Let me explain, simply

This might feel to be about a past life. Maybe it is. Or about PhD studies. You could be right. Some might say it’s about loss or winning. I couldn’t agree more. Even at that, I will tell you, that it’s more about storytelling than anything else!

When I name shows like The Originals, where you find places like New Orleans, Mystic Falls, or Tennessee, I’m not playing nostalgia games. I’m referencing mythic homes, spaces of exile, return, and reckoning. They shaped characters who mirrored us: those who carry grief like oxygen, those who retreat not to hide but to heal, those who fight not to dominate but to restore. This is more about storytelling, and the many out there who need it, than it is anything else.

And if you’re someone, someone like me, who grew up watching those stories as a young African, a young Kenyan, trying to make sense of power, love, betrayal, and return, then you know what I mean. Now imagine as we have grown, and still face inefficiencies in systems that aren’t even our fault. The faults of failed political systems etc.… Yes, of course, the world around us is indeed political!

Yes, the world around us is political

It’s personal. And it’s constantly asking: Who do you serve? Whose story do you tell?

For me, storytelling is not just expression, it’s strategy. It’s healing. It’s a way of telling you that you aren’t alone. That you can win. Yes, You Can! I know, in our current social media world, algorithms love emotional resonance. These are messing us up. But it’s also a sacred act, for me to use these same systems to reach you. Klaus, Marcel, shows, movies, etc., ring a bell?

It should ring a bell. Because to remember is to resist silence. To write is to rise. Thus, over the next few years, I’ll be sharing pieces of my journey while I also tell your stories at Narrive Media. I hope to also reflect on the following:

– My life before the PhD including the failures, repeats, and broken math scores.
– The PhD itself, much of the becoming, the breakdowns, and the breakthroughs.
– And beyond that, whatever comes after. The re-imagined life, the re-written future.

Because I know I’m not alone. And because maybe, if I tell these stories right, someone else might remember the coin they picked, and when they’re ready, reflect on it too.

Welcome to Narrive Media.
This is my arrival. The first of many.

Let’s walk it together.

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