In 8 hours, family and friends will gather at our home to celebrate my graduation. It’s a big deal - I left Kenya for Princeton, graduated and now work at Microsoft. I’ll probably need to say something at some point. Here’s that thing.
I’m humbled, not because I’m striving to be virtuous, but from realizing that my current state is a series of non-deterministic yet compounding luck [TRoL] , [Housel] . In my time counselling Kenyan students applying to US universities, I haven’t been able to reliably help them gain admission [KAtUS] .
I’m conflicted when people attribute my state to God’s favor. Many people (in more urgent situations) have unfruitfully beseeched God’s favor. Be it plain favoritism or unfathomable infinite-dimensional chess, I’m not at peace with His favor being the determining factor [MVoG] .
Granted, I worked hard and smart, but the thing is, so did others. Grit is a necessary but not sufficient condition for maxing out one’s success. And I still have a long way to go ahead of me. I can’t yet be CTO of a large company - I couldn’t even configure a LevelDB database last week!
The ugly thing with luck is its lack of repeatability, which implies that I was not in full control of my own ship. It sucks to feel powerless. Humbling, but sucks all the same.
My thanksgiving lunch is pegged on the wrong variable. As long as we’re celebrating events that are in our control, then my work ethic and outside support are the real deal. Graduating from Princeton is a fortuitous occurrence. There are many instances of grit and support that don’t have any to show for it. Those too deserve celebration.
[TRoL]: Where do I begin on the lucky events that have led me here?
- W. went to the same primary school as me and was a year ahead of me. I followed in his footsteps - to Mang’u High School and to university abroad.
- S. transferred back to my primary school two years before the national exam. He challenged my academic position, riling me to work harder.
- B., Mang’u and Yale alumni, introduced the idea of studying abroad. The event was optional - I might as well not have attended it or dozed off in the back.
- I was close to K., the de-facto college counsellor at Mang’u. I felt comfortable reaching out to her. She never taught me in class, but she trained me on performing solo-verses for music festivals.
- I was a prefect in high school. Prefects tended to be high performers. Somehow, I found my footing in Mang’u to get into student leadership. Once there, positive peer pressure. The School Captain went to Stanford and his Deputy went to Sciences Po.
- On graduating, I had a copy of Equity Leader’s Program’s guide for applying to US universities. I also had time on my hands - first working at the family farm and then teaching at Mitahato Secondary School. I delved into the application guide and had W. to guide me.
- J. from the East African Scholars Education Program replied to my email and invited me to the Nandi Hills college bootcamp. Prof. W. knew the bootcamp runners, and convinced my parents to let me put the local university on hold.
- Boom, 2390 and perfect subject scores. J. heard about me, and facilitated me to attend the Freshman Scholars Institute, where I had a sneak peek of the Princeton’s demanding nature.
Not to say that this was the only way that I’d have gotten to Princeton. As far as I recall, the above events were crucial turning points in my journey.
[Housel]: One of my favorite articles on luck is Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money . I’m particularly fond of this part:
Some people are born into families that encourage education; others are against it. Some are born into flourishing economies encouraging of entrepreneurship; others are born into war and destitution. Dear Son, I want you to be successful, and I want you to earn it. But realize that not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness. Keep this in mind when judging people, including yourself.
[KAtUS]: I help run https://kenyansapplyingtousuniversities.com . KCSE graduates usually reach out for help in applying to undergrad programs in the US. I help to the best of my ability. Ultimately, it’s a here’s-what-worked-for-me-and-might-generalize-to-you game. I’ve had applicants who I thought for sure would get in, but they didn’t. Still, I don’t want to dedicate my life to figuring out how to gain admission to US undergrad programs. In the land of the blind, I’m king.
[MVoG]: If anyone is handing out labels, I’ll gladly take on ‘deist’: God exists but doesn’t intervene. That is my reconciliation between science and being raised Christian. I cede that I’ve not analyzed arguments for and against religion for my stand to be foolproof, but I don’t think digging deeper is worth my time.