Staying who you are

Dear Nandi

I know your enthusiasm about coming to varsity but I also know how you value your principles, having been here for almost a year now I thought I should give you a few tips on my experiences.

I remember my very first day in Rhodes. We were all so happy to be in University at last. I felt a little bit out of place though because everyone seemed to be so wild and I was not.Later on that night our house-comm called us down to take us on an exploring trip around Grahamstown. What I had in mind was that they were going to take us around to show us shops, the cinema and other interesting stuff in Grahamstown. To my surprise they were taking us to Equilibrium, Rat and Parrot and all the other pubs around. Assumable that was what we needed to see in Grahamstown before seeing anything else and it seemed like such a normal thing everyone looked so comfortable I could almost swear I was the only one feeling uncomfortable. Before that day I had never been in a pub before so you can imagine what kind of an experience it was to me. Everyone was persuading me to have something to drink so that I can loosen up, but fortunately enough I am not easily influenced so instead I just asked one of the comm. Members to take me back to res.

When you come to university it is very important to know who you are and what you here for, because there will be many forces that comes to you and you must be ready to reject some and most of them and stick to your principles. People that you trust may lead you astray so you must be careful of the advices that you accept. I saw many people that got into stuff that they were not into and they ended up being hurt and confused because they cant live up to the new personality that they have adopted and it is also hard for them to go back into their original personality because then everyone will know that they were faking. You might think that peer pressure is a high school thing but take it from me, it is at its best in varsity. I won’t mislead you and say it is easy, it is very challenging to be your own person and do your own thing more especially if it is the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing. My advice to you would be to set yourself a set of principles and stick to them. Keep on reminding yourself who you are and what you want in life so that you may not lose your self identity. Put God first in everything you do, when temptations come only prayer can help you overcome them.

With Love

Ntombenkosi