“Through my path of personal development I have encountered a lot of distractions, but the moment you find your peace, joy and happiness, nothing ever compromises that.
“I faced personal challenges, for example I would always found myself making the wrong choices. I was never cautious with the decisions I made, because I always believed in taking risks but I’ve learnt that not all risks are worth your time and heart.
That’s one of the things that social media does to us as youngsters. We see our peers living life through the crystal glass and want that for ourselves so many times we chase that and those are the struggles I endured. I stopped watching social media and started doing what I had to do to be a difference maker, I stopped making stupid decisions and put self-worth on me,” says Katjizendu Murangi.
Born in Omauezonjanda in the Epukiro Constituency in the Omaheke region, Murangi is a young woman, who used her experience of pain to change her life. She started primary school in her home village and moved to Windhoek in 1998 to further her primary education at Namibia Primary School.
She continued her school at Concordia College until Grade 9, which she failed and had to repeat the grade. Murangi had 12 siblings, but lost her brother last year. Coming to Windhoek she lived with her uncle Charles and aunt Ukarapo Tjijenda.
They later moved to Mariental, where she completed her Grade 12 in 2007. After Grade 12 she tried to better her grades and went to do Computer Science in Cape Town, South Africa, which she did only half a year before moving back to Windhoek.
Later she started studying accounting and auditing at the University of Namibia (Unam) and obtained a certificate for it. While busy with her higher diploma, she dropped out of Unam, because that was not what she wanted to do.
“I felt like I was in school, because it’s the right thing to do. I was not passionate about what I was doing not, because I was stupid. I felt limited. I felt dead ion the inside, in my mind and as a person. I don’t discourage people from going to school. I just encourage a passion for your career and life. You can be the chief executive officer of anything you put your heart into. We all have our destinies, just never limit your mind to think bigger, just do it,” she says.
Murangi was very outgoing as a teenager. Nothing was ever impossible for her, she also admits to being a bully at that stage. The turning point in her brawls came last year when all the wrong choices she made returned to haunt her.
“I sat there alone (or at least I felt like was I was alone). It felt so heavy, like a storm the Earth never experienced. Losing my brother was so devastating. Through the toxic life I had and the pain of losing my brother made me change. I stopped drinking alcohol, stopped dating, I stopped partying and I hardly go out,” Murangi says. She started slowly finding herself again, tapped into her inner child and found peace after reading I Declare, a book by Joel Osteens.
“I found me. I feel whole again. I feel the joy, the freedom and through it all I found my self-worth. I stopped making all these wrong decisions. My life is no longer about me, it’s about me serving others selflessly and being difference maker.”
Murangi currently runs a nutritional club, where she puts people on a healthy active lifestyle programme, to achieve health goals by losing weight, gaining muscle mass and getting extra energy, which is in line with her passion to help people.
“I find so much joy, peace and happiness in being a health coach and all this started when I helped my mom right after my dad passed on. She was so weak. I looked at her and I didn’t see the loving, protecting and giving mother and I decided to I help her get her smile back, her love and joy. I realised that this is what I wanted to see in people’s lives, the transition process is so rewarding,” she says.
She encourages fellow youth to use their time wisely and not to find themselves in the wrong places.
“Don’t waste your time on things that are not between you and your God-given destiny. You only have one life to live. Model excellence, integrity and honour. Don’t be in the wrong places. Find your sweet place and catch your blessings, change your current situation to a new fulfilled life.”