Expectations and Fears!

Some may say that you have to go to university because you will not find a decent job without a degree. Some may say that you have to go to university because it’s the place where you will truly find yourself. Some may say that you should go to university because it will be the biggest party of your life! The point is that to so many people university represents so many different things. So what should the point of it all be? Is there a point, or are the next few years just an excuse to waste more time on parties and friends?

Well, as far as I can tell university is meant to be the culmination of all that you could hope for, and all that you are afraid of. It is a place where you can study things that interest you, that open your mind and challenge your views. But it can be a place where studying new and different things, on a more intense scale, becomes unmanageable. It seems to be the kind of environment where you are encouraged to be the real you, free from the world’s judgement. While simultaneously being the place where trying to find yourself becomes a tricky, sometimes dangerous path. Regardless of all these contradictions though, one thing reigns true… university is an experience, the type of experience that once missed, can never be retrieved; which ultimately makes it a once-in-a-lifetime chance to grab hold of life and let it take you for a ride!

Marianne Williamson so famously said once, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”, and while this statement may hold true to many situations in any person’s life, it may not suffice for the life of a first year student at Rhodes University. I say this because arriving at University, faced with the chance to finally gain independence and live a life that is entirely your own, is both unbelievably exhilarating and paralysingly scary at the same time. Your family, the support system that has helped you build your life thus far, lead you into your ‘new home’, unpack your new lifestyle, and then turn their backs and leave you to the world of Grahamstown, the town that will throw you through the rollercoaster that is first year.

The famous trio of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll’ will follow you in all the steps along the way. The pressure of having sex as apart of your ‘varsity experience’ could lead you into a whirlwind of self-doubt and misbelief; drugs, if they weren’t already, could become a new way of life, a typical habit to make it through each day; and when you realise how many friends you’ve made, how many parties you’re hitting, you will feel like rock ‘n roll’s number one hit!
But I guarantee that this false sense of belonging and importance will be the very reasons you come crumbling down at some point. No, it’s not about being pessimistic, it’s about knowing that nothing that appears to be perfect is real, and when reality does sink in, it is highly unlikely that it will be idyllic.

So here’s what you have to do…
You have to realise that your deepest fear is that you are powerful beyond measure and that the secret lies in whether or not you embrace that fear, realise you are worth that power and that you have every right to find it in yourself. University is an experience, it is important to achieve a degree, and it is important to embrace the freedom of the party life while we’re still so young! The reason it’s an experience is because as you struggle through all the aspects of life at varsity, life will be teaching you valuable lessons. You may realise the lessons straight away, and you may only realise them much later on in life. Either way, as long as you remember that our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, you will find the person you’ve always wanted to be, and that person will grow to achieve every dream you desire.