Friday, October 24, 2008
live and let live
Opinion Piece
First year’s all about finding your feet, making mistakes and growing up, so why so many people have concerned themselves with alcohol and drug abuse on campus is beyond me. It’s been said again and again, you are at University to study not to drink away your parent’s money. Believe me, your parents would prefer you get it out of your system when you are 19 then to start at 39.
Anyway, who cares? If you want to drink then drink, if you want to smoke a hallucinogenic substance then smoke it, it’s your life and it’s your choice. You’re at university to discover the person you are going to become. If you have to get drunk and stumble around in a gutter with writing on your forehead to realise that nothing good comes from excessive alcohol consumption then do it. If you drink so much that you fight with your best friend and hurt them but it makes you realise how special they really are then do it .If you smoke too much weed and you can’t study and you end up failing a test but it makes your realise that smoking weed maybe isn’t such a good idea then do it. If you can realise all of these things without abusing addictive substances then give yourself a pat on the back and leave the people who can’t alone.
As you experience things you will find that you - hopefully - start to develop some principles, e.g. I can’t go out tonight, Hannah, I am writing a law test tomorrow morning and you know what happened last time. If you are lucky enough to have some principles then you stand by them, whether or not people accept them. I am sorry if I sound like I’m standing on a pedestal shouting down at the ignorant masses, but let it be known that I am a second year, that I made all of the aforementioned horrific mistakes but that I came out relatively unscathed.
All I’m saying is that first year is one of turmoil, of bad decisions, of awkward moments, of hilarity and above all of growing up. The only way you can ever know what makes you truly happy is by experimenting with everything you have at your disposal. It’s not anyone’s place to judge you or tell you what you are doing is wrong. If you want to pimp around in 90s get up then do it, if you want to scrape past on 50% that’s your choice, if you want to avoid Friars and alcohol and find other ways of making yourself happy then good for you.
Just remember that there is no other time in your life when you can act as selfishly as when you are young. Before you realise it responsibility will come knocking and that knock will send your youth fleeting through the window. So reserve your judgement and give your peers an equal opportunity to make horrific mistakes. If you never make them then you will never learn.
Labels: drinking, drugs, first year
Posted by opinionplease at 1:49 PM
Friday, September 26, 2008
molo mfo wethu
Lukhanyo Luzipho – 608l3374
JMS 1 – Blogging
Assignment – writing a blogg letter
Words : 415
Molo mfo wethu (hello my brother)
So you want to spend you tertiary education at Rhodes, I see? Now where I should start? By congratulating you for making the worst decision of your life? Well, it may be one of the best should you pass and graduate with a degree from one of the world’s renown universities, but throughout the process of being here it will surely feel like you didn’t know what you were thinking when you decided on coming. Now hey, I’m not trying to burst you bobble or anything, but since I know you for being an admirer of honesty, this is just the thing I want to offer you. Just as Rhodes’s logo “where leaders learn” suggests, for you to have an all-round successful first year you’ll have to take a lead over many aspects of varsity life, but at least regarding your academics, here’s how…
With regards to choosing a degree, choose anything you want, really. They’re all equally difficult. Nothing is simpler than the other. Nope. No easy way out unfortunately. You find the same B.Com. student drooling over the same failed test as that of a B.A. student, law student, pharmacy or whatever. My best advice is choosing something that at least closely resembles what you want, because even when times hit harder than the dollar to the rand, you’ll have the willpower to persevere. If you want accounting, count , if its Fine Arts then paint till your first name changes to Plascon. That’s it man!
Being the open-minded person you are, I’d fancy you do a degree under the Humanities Faculty. The subjects they offer are the kind that’ll broaden your perspectives of the world and life generally in very remarkable ways. It’s very interesting indeed. Also, start watching every news broadcast on television without forgetting the latest stock market updates (yes, even if you’re majoring in ethnomusicology), and read newspapers and news related magazines as if your second breath depended on it. Trust me, journalism and media studies won’t be the only course requiring you to be current. Start practising essay writing today, because it will involuntarily become one of your favourite hobbies.
There’s much more, but one of the things you’ll probably learn is that too much time spent doing something means that you should be doing something else that’s important, so therefore I cannot spend the whole night writing you this letter. Having said that, welcome to Rhodes, and I dare you to become the leader that (actually) learns!
Yours truly,
Lukhanyo.
Labels: first year
Posted by opinionplease at 6:42 AM