40 Floors Up: 4 truths per decade.

So apparently, I am turning 40.
Four-Zero. Forty.
The age I used to imagine meant high heels and high bank balances.
Reality? I own crocs in two colors, countless pair of sneakers and I check price tags like they’re crime scenes😏

I thought by now I’d have it all figured out — career, family, finances, skincare. But let me tell you, I still Google things like “can you get grey hairs on your eyebrows?” and “how to say no without guilt.”

So here is to 40.
Not just a number. A milestone. A monument.
To every version of me that walked the path-I see you. I honour you.
I’m standing here with a cocktail of emotions: awe, relief, laughter, and a slightly panicked "Wait… how did we get here?!"

So, in honour of this milestone, I give you: 4 truths per decade — the lessons, the bruises, the beauty, and the bafflement — as gathered from each floor I’ve climbed.

Floors 0–10: The Obvious and Not-So-Obvious Climb
I was 8, going on 9. Quite short, barely able to carry my oversized bag.
From a good home to boarding school — it seemed like an upgrade.
But very quickly, I lost my name and became a number. 709.

1. I learned to make my bed before I understood why I cried myself to sleep.

2. Independence wasn’t a choice — it was survival. Fear was the tool of control, and indeed, we complied.

3. Loneliness has a taste: endless githeri and those huge, tasteless cabbage slices.

4. “For my future I toil” made evening preps feel less tedious, less torturous. But damn… the struggle was real.

Floors 11–20: Puberty, Pain & Prayers
I entered high school already tired.
Tired from stomach pain attacks. From crying loudly in the dorm, in the sanatorium, in hospitals.
Too many injections. Too many questions.
The gallbladder was on the brink of bursting — like everything else inside me.

1. Illness can show up just as you begin to find yourself.

2. Our bodies carry battles even we struggle to name, fathom, or fight.

3. Illness doesn’t just steal your joy — it steals your family’s peace too.

4. That girl hospitalised in KNH for over a month — with stitches and scars — was already fighting for her future.

Floors 21–30: The Defining Decade
Campus came with a breath of freedom — and a mirror. I saw myself anew.
Then came choices. Some wise. Some wild.

1. Campus life was a whirlwind of freedom and self-discovery.

2. I deferred a whole year, chasing what I thought was a better course. Graduated, wide-eyed, with big dreams.

3. Settled into the “professional” life… and quickly discovered that cubicles can also be cages.

4. Dating was fun — until it got real. Then it got complicated.
   Love came. Love left. And left a little human behind — the best part of me.

Floors 31–40: Love, Loss & Comebacks
Motherhood entered like a tidal wave: beautiful and overwhelming.
I was everything to one tiny person, and yet, often felt like nothing to myself.

1. Motherhood is love multiplied by exhaustion. Having someone depend on you 100% is equal parts joy and terror.

2. Job loss? Check. Business collapse? Double check. Unpaid bills? Triple check. Career growth? Let’s just say it came slow — not the glamorous leaps I imagined.
   Somewhere between payslips and pep talks, i started wondering, is this it?

3. Family stands with you without a flinch when everything goes to hell. True friends don't need daily calls, they just show up-timely.

4. But comebacks? Those came too. Peace became my new currency. Quietly, stubbornly, beautifully. I rose — still rising. 

What 40 Feels Like:
I used to think 40 was old. Now I know it’s golden. Not perfect, but polished by experience.
Not fearless, but braver. Not without baggage, but better at carrying it.

I've stopped sprinting. I’m pacing myself.
The view ahead excites me more than the climb behind ever scared me.