HOW COLLEGE LIFE OPENS UP A SHY GUY.

By  Anthony Kiprotich.

You probably have seen this kind of a guy in your life.

That one who never looks at you in the eye and always keeps to himself all the time as if allergic to conversations.

Some are fashion handicapped and most are the skinny types.

Either you find them huddled together in a game café or they are the lone ranger types but when they step into campus, they change.

In a moment, I will show you how.

Let’s use Sam as an example.

Sam is an eighteen year old who is just out of school.

You can tell by the acne riddled face that, after a few months away from those horrible cosmetics, he has a semblance to a worn out sandpaper.

Now some traces of beard sprout from his once smooth chin.

He wants to be a film producer, that career full of the most extroverted souls and why not? For after four years of intense study and good old luck, he scores impressive grades that surprise his parents and friends alike.

That’s one reason why the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication [KIMC] didn’t hesitate to admit him come September a few months later.

Upon admission, he gets the big break of his late teenage life with KIMC becoming an eye opener for him.

It is here where he comes face to face with the next crop of media personalities.

Already, he has developed a liking to a Nubian beauty with that fine piece of artwork behind her.

Just then, another one sashays past him.

This one leaves him confused and awestruck.

Was that Huddah Monroe? He wonders.

Eventually at the end of the second week of orientation at the preview theatre, he already has friends and not just his three roomies, but a beauty who is also a fresher like him.

Lady luck seems to be smiling at him. Chemistry develops between them but note, not the type which you can quantify like some titration experiment while using the mole concept.

The attraction is made even sweeter by his fat pocket, courtesy of that village fundraising ceremony that catapulted him to KIMC.

Our boy Sam takes her out to sample the streets of South B.

Mind you, Sam is not dumb. How he chooses Gwen (his love) is no rocket science.

He knows he can’t get one of those outspoken town born and raised brats who speak with clipped accents and wear dresses with shorter hemlines.

He also can’t understand why they take too much selfies everywhere and every time he walks past them, he wonders if KIMC is really a construction site judging by the heavy application of foundation on their faces.

Sam knows that the competition for such ladies is cut throat.

He also won’t go for the ‘plain Jane’ type of girls, which unfortunately are the majority here.

Teenegers partying.

No need of bringing back the memories of that painful rejection he had suffered under a similar girl back in the village.

So he settles for the seemingly shy and demure girl who only opens up to a trusted group only, which he now belongs to.

So come October, Sam will have cracked the cherry with Gwen while his roommates dance the night away at club Piccolina during Fresher’s night.

His dressing also changes. Out with the safari bots and the funny looking shirts.

Now he wears the latest timbaland and Gucci shoes.

His once accent- riddled English is now polished and peppered with the latest quotes from the books he has read from the KIMC library and as a result has landed him a show at the institute’s famed ECN radio.

By now, Gwen is a distant memory to him. So whenever she goes home to relax, our confident Sam makes passes at her friends.

Of course ladies are a smart lot. Gwen will know of double dealing ways courtesy of her loyal best friend who Sam had made a tactical blunder when he made a silly pass at her.

As I said before, lady luck was and still is smiling at him.

Sam is spared that tongue lashing by Gwen, since, by now, she is seeing that hunk from Kenyatta University and by coincidence, that responsible dude with a nice job at the Bank in the central business district.

So she will just adopt a ‘hear no evil, see no evil’ attitude and that is how Sam will get away with it.

When November gets midway, Sam has already discovered his old friends from High school.

He has now known the owner of that neat row of wholesale shops, his communication skills lecturer, a homeboy!

Even at the KIMC mess will notice his change.

Now he has a new crew that share similar interests with him. The once shy guy will be seen hovering around ‘lovers’ corner’ chatting with anybody who gives him attention.

Sam will return home a changed person as soon as the institute closes for the December holiday and in the process will make new friends and enemies, who will loathe him for his new status.

In addition, he will be a hot prospect to those high school girls who simply can’t get enough of him.

The local music scene will also get a taste of his KIMC- acquired skills as well as the inside story of how life in the best media training institute feels like.