When will you graduate?

On my graduation, scores keep asking 'when will you graduate?' Photo credit @abdu

When will you graduate?

Even as universities warm to the last round of graduation ceremonies this calendar year, scores will keep their fingers on the list of graduands. 

Those who know that I am a Moi University alumnae will certainly be interested to see me graduate. Unfortunately, their anticipation will fade in askance, fertilizing the question ‘when will you graduate?’

To me, this question has become creepier than Utahama lini?, an adage on a popular real estate advert on Kenyan media. 

But then what other question, in my case, would have been more apt? None.

 I have been in college for the last 10 years. How could I just own up that I dropped out of college somewhere in between? I have been lying about it, albeit skimpily.

Currently, I am enrolled for a Masters program. Next year, I will be graduating with a second bachelor’s degree. I was among the handful of the University of Nairobi Bsc. Physics and Mathematics graduates who bagged a Second Class Upper Division. And all.

This would obviously attract congratulatory messages, and scorn, in equal measures.  “You are strong, man,” someone would go, parting on my shoulders, to a non-reciprocating self.

Prospective employers, in accord, have been instrumental in reminding me that I need to graduate ASAP. 


And friends, relatives who could not bear it all. Lets blame the ignominious embarrassment that comes with hanging around liars, losers. What else could explain the falling by the way side of at least 10 Twitter followers following the going live of this campaign?.  

But the concerns of this growing constituency, doubting my anomalous stay at the university, are understandable. They effectively magnify the despair in the air. 

When will you graduate?