marcusolang.substack.com/p/adulthood-...

It's a read that may need you to pace yourself. Writing it definitely demanded as much for me.

We give a person 6 days of bereavement leave, or meet them one year later and ask if things are better - all in good faith, of course - but are we expecting them to one day simply suddenly step out in praise and thanksgiving and announce to the world that the grief is complete?

I've been working on this one for a while.

We're all grieving. All the time. We're just not calling it that.

marcusolang.substack.com/p/adulthood-...

I just realised that adulthood is a never-ending exercise in grief management. And nobody put that in the brochure. False advertising everywhere.

Adulthood is a constant state of learning and discovery. Such as learning that a core untaught (and unrecognised) skill is constantly managing grief in all its different forms.

This one may need pacing on your part. Definitely needed it on mine.

marcusolang.substack.com/p/adulthood-...

I think I hate content. I know, I know, and no: I'm neither old, nor yelling at a cloud. (I think.)

And with that, a confession: I may have grown a genuine, deep-seated revulsion for the word "content" - which I explore in my latest piece, "I think I hate content."
marcusolang.substack.com/p/i-think-i-...

Then I went down a rabbit-hole, and arrived at a not-too-revolutionary-yet-still-oft-overlooked idea: That at some point, we need to stop asking what the platform prefers, and go back to asking what the work is for.

It was an earnest suggestion, seeing as LinkedIn is rife with the sort of language it seems to reward: A very specific, slightly breathless cadence. Experiences are "privileges," failures are "pivot-learning-opportunities," and our work... Well, our work is "content."

Once upon a LinkedIn post, I made a comment - in jest - around how someone mentioned that I need to learn to speak "the language of the platform".

In focus: Johnstone Oltetia, CEO & MD - Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC).

Location: KMRC Headquarters, Nairobi (Kenya).

Photography: Marcus Olang' / Stills by Marcus.

Select stills from an Executive Portraiture session commissioned by KMRC.

"Go to your branch, ask them about the KMRC facility. Then you'll share with me about what they tell you."

I should get back to him so that we have another cup of tea.

"Do you live in your own home?" He asked me this earlier, in his own tone of reassuring curiosity, as we had tea before fully getting into the shoot.

I chuckle. "No, I rent. Loans and mortgages are way too expensive."

His passion was sparked. This is what kicked off our whole conversation.

"And making it easier means someone has to give people the runway they need to make their repayments, and that they can still repay at more affordable rates. So that's what we're here to do. This is our work, and my assignment is to find ways to bridge that gap."

"We have to make it easier for people to buy or build," says Johnstone. He's folding his sleeves, as though preparing to get into his day. Which, to be fair, he was. He had decided that our session would serve as the start to his day.

Us types tend to subsist on Fuliza / Mshwari, while relying heavily on our sacco account borrowing to build that place we want to call home. The banks will look at us and politely offer us a 25+% facility. Risk profile, they'll tell you.

There's a saying in Kiswahili: Akufukuzaye hakuambii 'Toka'.

But the "risky" profile isn't limited to consulting or freelancing types - it extends incredibly far and wide, from the newly-employed in one of those Westlands towers, to the mjengo person on site in Ahero, to the chapati meister in Malindi, to you reading this, if statistics are to be trusted.

You could say he was preaching, and you could also say that I was the choir.

See, lenders consider my type "risky": People that don't have the typical 9-to-5.

"Even when you watch TV, you'll see that most programmes on real estate are targeted at the upper market." We were talking about his work as we went about this portraiture session. "There's very little about middle- or low-income families. It's the same with loans, especially home loans."

Having a conversation with Johnstone Oltetia gives you the distinct impression of a person whose every waking moment revolves around solving one very specific puzzle - and no intention of letting it go.

In focus: Johnstone Oltetia, CEO & MD - Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC).

Location: KMRC Headquarters, Nairobi (Kenya).

Photography: Marcus Olang' / Stills by Marcus.

Select stills from an Executive Portraiture session commissioned by KMRC.

"Go to your branch, ask them about the KMRC facility. Then you'll share with me about what they tell you."

I should get back to him so that we have another cup of tea.

"Do you live in your own home?" He asked me this earlier, in his own tone of reassuring curiosity, as we had tea before fully getting into the shoot.

I chuckle. "No, I rent. Loans and mortgages are way too expensive."

His passion was sparked. This is what kicked off our whole conversation.

"And making it easier means someone has to give people the runway they need to make their repayments, and that they can still repay at more affordable rates. So that's what we're here to do. This is our work, and my assignment is to find ways to bridge that gap."

"We have to make it easier for people to buy or build," says Johnstone. He's folding his sleeves, as though preparing to get into his day. Which, to be fair, he was. He had decided that our session would serve as the start to his day.

Us types tend to subsist on Fuliza / Mshwari, while relying heavily on our sacco account borrowing to build that place we want to call home. The banks will look at us and politely offer us a 25+% facility. Risk profile, they'll tell you.

There's a saying in Kiswahili: Akufukuzaye hakuambii 'Toka'.

But the "risky" profile isn't limited to consulting or freelancing types - it extends incredibly far and wide, from the newly-employed in one of those Westlands towers, to the mjengo person on site in Ahero, to the chapati meister in Malindi, to you reading this, if statistics are to be trusted.

You could say he was preaching, and you could also say that I was the choir.

See, lenders consider my type "risky": People that don't have the typical 9-to-5.

"Even when you watch TV, you'll see that most programmes on real estate are targeted at the upper market." We were talking about his work as we went about this portraiture session. "There's very little about middle- or low-income families. It's the same with loans, especially home loans."

Having a conversation with Johnstone Oltetia gives you the distinct impression of a person whose every waking moment revolves around solving one very specific puzzle - and no intention of letting it go.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but don't lie to your nurses and doctors. Even on that one thing you're embarrassed about. Your continued heartbeat may literally hinge upon that one thing you're withholding from them.

DON'T LIE TO YOUR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS.

Grief has no manners. Whenever you start to think you're OK, at the very moment you close your eyes to take in a deep breath, it seizes the opportunity: appears out of nowhere, licks its right hand, pauses a bit, then lands the sloppiest slap to your left cheek.

So mannerless.