This book is in diary form. Here I intend to reveal myself and lay naked before the world as I reveal the secrets and wisdom I have gathered this far.

This wisdom will be passed down to our daughters in their teenage years right through women in their twenties as a guiding torch so they can walk armed with the tools they need to sail successfully through this budding stage. The path of this realm is treacherous, steep, confusing and wildly maddening.

It needs a discerning eye and an intuitive spirit at best. Otherwise, it will swallow you whole, and you will be swayed to follow the crowd, and thus get engulfed in a world not meant for you.

Your feet will find it foreign, your palate will find it repugnant at first. Your soul will cringe and gnaw at you as it sends whispers in your dreams and churns your gut to lean in, remember who you are and then gift the world with your unique essence.

Your soul will try to guide you, and if you listen, with delight it will bestow wisdom and inner glee within you. There will be a bounce to your step, a joy that glows you up and a peace that radiates you within, with an aura that draws people to you.

I write this for my mom Arosy, for my uncle Bob, for my brother Jicha, for my sister Nyathure the showstopper, my cousins Job and Fortune, together with Kevin, Nandwa, Christabel, and Alfred. You are the closest people I have.

I write this for my husband, as a map into my inner intricacies because I am that complicated. Or maybe not.

I write from my soul. Most especially though, I write this for my niece, who is now four months old.

Amali Lisa Juma, I welcome you to this realm. I desire to have a daughter too.

Your cousin, with whom this book will resonate. There is much to unpack.

So please join me on this journey. .