Dear Me (18 months ago)
It is you’re older and of course wiser self speaking… You are very happy at home and busy doing a film course. You believe that your life will only become better once you move away from home and walk on your own feet. You also seemed to believe being away from home would help you to curb and destroy that shyness attribute in you that you so hated.
You know you love to dance and in turn therefore love going out. Before making the decision of where you want to spend your university career, you should answer the following questions:
1) Are you sure in your choice of your degree?
2) Have you gone for career counselling to enable you have made a sound decision?
3) Is your particular choice of university the right choice for you?
4) Will the particular university help you to become your own person?
5) Does it allow for your particular brand of partying?
If you have one or more answers that begin with an “N” and end with an “O” then my dear little me you have not thought your decision through. If you have those answers and still choose not to heed your wiser self’s advice, then you are making a HUGE mistake. The place you are thinking about is not the place for you. You will have many bad nights where you will feel completely alone. Even though you will make your fair share of friends, it will still not help you to forget about home and all the people you love who you have left behind.
So therefore I am leaving you this letter to help in your decision making.
Your friend and foe
Tyreen
Dear 18 years, five months and 11days old Khatija:
As an eager grade 12 student presented with a variety of institutions, the time finally comes for you to take the first step – filling out the application forms, you wait… After a few weeks you get a response that declares, “Congratulations! You’ve been accepted to study towards a Bachelor of Journalism degree”. You get the handbook, the letters and the guide, what you don’t get beforehand is the exciting pile waiting on your desk as you arrive. It’s the student newspaper, society hotspot guide and University lingo you don’t get told, that you really want to know about.
It’s a wise idea to wait…before you launch into choosing societies that is. Why? Societies personified are like salespeople; they target newcomers, advertise their product everywhere and throw in a complimentary t-shirt to sweeten the deal on Societies Evening. Understandably universities offer so much more than what high school ever did so it’s easy to get carried away - but don’t end up joining 20 societies at once. At this point you may be wondering, “why the big deal about societies?” I’ll tell you, it’s September and I have dropped half the societies I joined because of the heavy workload (yes it does start in first year!). As fun as the societies are with all the fancy “cheese and wine evenings,” they demand a lot of your time. My seven-month-later-advice would be to wait at least a couple of weeks before choosing societies. This is because you’ll only know what’s potting with your timetable and what free time you’ll have much later in the year.
Don’t take the bait, wait, then participate.
Signing off with blessings
19 years and 24 days old Khatija
Journ 1
Letter to self
Dear Innocent,
Let me guess, you’re starting to put your things together, excited and anxious about beginning your first year at Rhodes. You’re probably trying to imagine exactly what it will be like in your new and exhilarating life. Well, don’t. Chances are it will be neither what you are expecting nor what you are hoping for. Shocked? So was I. Frankly speaking, the fact is your expectations will only make the reality of the situation both useless and disappointing. Why, you ask? Well, the list is endless really, but to spare your pitiful but admirable idealistic optimism, I will focus on one thing. The Plague of the Façade. What this means my naïve and gullible little friend, is that what you see is never what you get. This became apparent to me after a few months of being here, and unfortunately for me, I had had no previous warnings of this epidemic and had to as they say, learn from my own experience. Contrary to what you may so trustingly believe, people do not become friends merely on the basis of them sharing common interests. In fact, this is hardly the case. Simply put, varsity is merely a bigger high school with more fake people. I was taught this by a sad encounter with people in my tutorials who seemed to like to make conversation during the tutorials but as soon as we were out of it could neither remember my name nor recognize my face. I say this not to scare you, but to prepare you. Do not pay any attention to people who try to change you but focus on those who want to accept you. Life is so much easier that way. So enjoy it little one, and pack an umbrella!
Your older, learned self.
Von
I’m sure by now the reality of your situation has hit you and that you’re terrified…Bags not packed, so much to do, leaving everyone - WAIT! Stop thinking about all this. I wish I could really come back in time and tell you all these things. You would be a lot less stressed.
Thinking about what to advise you on was very difficult. Telling you about something like heartbreak seemed ludicrous, as my experiences of that particularly charming aspect of life are the same as yours. So, after much head-scratching and deliberation, I decided to give you some tips on alcohol. Yes, I did write “alcohol”. Never thought you would need advice on THAT, of all things, did you? Well, fear not, you are not an alcoholic, but you drink a fair amount more than you used to. Okay, that’s an understatement. Let’s just say that drinking twice a year is a thing of the past. Or rather, a thing of your present. I won’t preach. Basically, what I want to say is BE RESPONSIBLE! You had a drunken escapade in June that DID NOT end well and I would like to avoid a repeat performance, understand? Don’t drink anything that u KNOW makes you mindless (think about the Lupini episode - I think you get the point). Another reason to not drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol is the consequential weight gain. You might think it’s not possible for you to put on weight…believe me, sweetie, you are wrong. Also, like Mummy always says, “Drinking gives you wrinkles!”. I cannot prove or disprove this, but it is better to be cautious, right?
I hope u take some of this to heart (especially the weight thing). Enjoy your year. Take it from me, you have NEVER had this much fun.
Lots of love,
