This year felt like a roller coaster \u2014 abrupt climbs, sharp drops, and long stretches of holding on. On my way home one morning, after being robbed of almost everything the night before, I found myself thinking about Velma Pollard\u2019s Homestretch<\/em>. What lingered wasn\u2019t just the loss of possessions, but the feeling that even my dignity had been taken \u2014 carried away in the echo of threats meant to break my will if I didn\u2019t cooperate. As I walked, I kept wondering what I had to show for all the effort, all the persistence \u2014 and whether surviving could count as something earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that point, I was also thinking about how karma had failed me. Just a month earlier, I had been working for free, convincing myself that effort, patience, and doing the right thing would somehow count for something. I remember thinking \u2014 almost embarrassingly \u2014 that I had built up enough good karma to last me a while. The irony of that thought hit hard as I walked home with almost nothing left. It forced me to confront an uncomfortable truth: life doesn\u2019t always return what you give it, at least not on your timeline, and certainly not in the ways you expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life keeps proving just how unfair it can be. I remember calling someone out for always expecting me to show up for them, while never really being there for me in return. Their response? That I was acting from the \u201cprivilege of abundance,\u201d which supposedly explained why I always showed up. I couldn\u2019t help but laugh at the irony \u2014 here I was, struggling through my own chaos, and life still found ways to remind me that fairness isn\u2019t a guarantee, and that even good intentions can be read through the most unexpected lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, despite the unfairness, the losses, and the moments that left me questioning everything, I kept going. Life\u2019s roller coaster didn\u2019t pause for reflection or fairness; it just kept moving, and so did I. I learned to measure progress not by what the world returned to me, but by what I could still give, how I could still show up, and how I could still hold on to myself amid the chaos. Some days, survival felt like the only accomplishment \u2014 but survival, I realized, is its own kind of victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after, my daughter began school \u2014 a moment that felt like a victory amid the chaos. Seeing her take that step reminded me that not all milestones are tied to work, possessions, or external validation. Some wins are quieter, more personal, and infinitely more meaningful. In the middle of a year that felt so heavy, this felt like a reminder that life still offers moments of light, even when the ride is rough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were still navigating language delays, and some days it felt like progress would never come. Yet, I was so hopeful \u2014 holding on to the belief that time, patience, and persistence mattered. Looking back now, hearing the way she speaks, it\u2019s clear that most of the time, growth is just a matter of time. That quiet, gradual progress \u2014 unseen in the moment \u2014 felt like a living reminder of what Homestretch<\/em> is really about: endurance, patience, and faith in the unseen work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At work, the roller coaster didn\u2019t stop either. Projects stalled, deadlines shifted, and some months felt like I was running in place. I reminded myself often of the quiet lessons from this year: effort isn\u2019t always immediately rewarded, and persistence often looks invisible from the outside. Yet, just like my daughter\u2019s milestones, the progress was happening \u2014 slowly, unevenly, sometimes frustratingly. The key, I realized, was to keep showing up, to trust the process, and to recognize that endurance itself is a form of achievement, even when results feel delayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, this is the year I started several personal projects alongside other external ones \u2014 each one a small act of creation, learning, and commitment. Just starting, showing up, and seeing them through in whatever way I could feels like an accomplishment in itself. In a year marked by chaos, unfairness, and unexpected loss, these efforts \u2014 no matter how quiet or incomplete \u2014 make it all count. The roller coaster didn\u2019t pause, and life didn\u2019t hand me fairness on a silver platter, but the fact that I stayed in the ride, held on, and kept building is its own kind of victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, maybe that\u2019s what this year was really about: learning to endure, to keep moving forward even when the path is steep, the drops feel sharp, and the finish line is nowhere in sight. The losses, the threats, the unfair moments \u2014 they didn\u2019t define me. What defined this year was my persistence, my capacity to keep showing up, and the quiet victories that often went unseen. And as I step into the next year, I carry that with me: the knowledge that even in the longest stretches, we are still moving, still learning, and still growing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Ride Begins This year felt like a roller coaster \u2014 abrupt climbs, sharp drops, and long stretches of holding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winniemuriuki.co.ke\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When Karma Fails<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Life\u2019s Unfairness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Endurance in Motion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Small Wins, Big Meaning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Patience Pays Off<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Persistence in Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Quiet Accomplishments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reflections on the Ride<\/h2>\n\n\n\n