Being nominated for the People's Choice Awards did not feel like arriving

When the nomination for Male TikToker of the Year came through for the People's Choice Awards Kenya, the messages started before I had even fully processed it myself. Congratulations, screenshots, the whole performance of a milestone.

I appreciated every one of them. I also did not feel, in the moment, like I had arrived anywhere. A nomination is a nice sentence to put in a bio. It does not change what Monday's editorial meeting looks like, or whether the next story is any good.

I think that is the healthiest way I know to hold recognition: grateful, genuinely, and unmoved enough to keep working the next morning like nothing happened. The moment you let a nomination convince you the work is done, it usually is, in every sense that matters.

What actually stayed with me was smaller: a message from someone in Lugari, from near where I grew up, saying they had seen the nomination and it made the idea of leaving home for something bigger feel less impossible.

That is the version of the recognition I actually keep.