A first year living life to the fullest

By: Zandile Mavuso

Born and butted in the Mpumalanga providence, Nontobeko Mkhathwa has made her way to the Eastern Cape. A first year at Rhodes University who has come from sitting in a class room with other students who had English as a second language to sharing a row with English first language students at lecture theatres at Rhodes.
“I did not want to come to Rhodes, I did not want to be far from home”, she said while lying on her bed, flat on her stomach, suffocating the pillow with her arms. After passing matric, Wits University was the only university on her mind. She wanted to study drama at Wits but all did not work out as she had hoped it would. Being two weeks late for her drama audition was what turned her whole life’s plan around as the dreams and ambitions of studying at Wits in 2008 slowly but surely slipped out of her hands. Coming to Rhodes was like having a back up Christmas present list if you do not get what you initially asked for. When she got to Rhodes, she was impressed by the level of studying, the curriculum and how people took tutorials and lectures seriously.
Though she made friends when she got here, she still felt that she was yet to find people who understood her and who wanted to live the kind of lifestyle that she wanted to practice at University. Being a person who was raised in a strict family where she was never allowed to go out, except for days like Christmas, Nontobeko came to Rhodes wanting to experience that which she never was familiar with when she was home. “I struggled to make friends with people who were like me in the first semester”, she said “but things got better in the second semester”. Mother luck was on her side and she finally came in contact with people who were a reflection of who she is and had the same ideas of what life at varsity should really be like.
Partying, loud music, singing along with some of that is being played are things that she enjoys and believes that they are an extension of who she is. “I work hard during the week and make sure that all my work is up to date so that I can go out during the weekend”. Partying is and extra mural activity for Nontobeko. If someone were to take it away from her, it would be like stealing an inhaler from someone who is asthmatic. Believing that partying is a reward for working hard during the week, Nontobeko takes her work seriously and makes sure that it is all done before she could ‘drop it like it’s hot’ on the dance floor.
Drinking and partying has proven to be fun and entertaining for Nontobeko but also fascinating for other people as well. She shares a moment when she was out partying and was a bit tipsy, she asked a random guy to massage her feet. Hiding her face while telling me, she giggles underneath her breath. She keeps quiet for a moment, stares into space as she reminisces on that moment of craziness that she experienced.
Nontobeko believes that it is all part of being a first year and that you must enjoy the present while planning for the future. Working hard for her is one of the key aspects that allow her to juggle her academics and her social life. It balances her life as she believes that if you want to do something, you must do it without guilt and do it because you want to do it. If you are happy when you go out and party or going to church, then do not feel ashamed of doing it. That being her advice to future first years, she ends of by saying: “Coming to Rhodes was the best decision ever”.