LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

Dear Kate

The time has come for you to spread your wings and fly away, to create a future that no one can create for you, but yourself. When I spoke to you on the phone last weekend you had such a distinct sound in your voice-of the grown, mature young women that you have become. I know that you are excited and very thrilled to be going of to university in a few months time. During your path to a new life always remember who you are and to stay true to yourself, never let anyone tell you anything different because only you know where you are coming from and where you are going to. This is the one life advice that a first year needs to know.

The experience of first year at university can not be described in one word. I truly can not say that they is one particular incident that I remember which stands out form the rest about compromising myself, but I know that they are too many of them to forget. I had done it for friends, guys, and because of other influential things I came across, till I reached a point in my life were I changed so much that I could not recognise the person I had become to the person I really was. But through the beautiful mind that God gave me I came to realise my life purpose which is to achieve the unachievable. Nothing is as powerful as your thoughts, what ever you think of yourself will become.

Dearest Kate, I know that you will learn from my mistake and become a better person than the one I was in my first year. Appreciate and respect yourself as a person and others will do the same.

Love
Nkuli

Dear little friend
I hope you are great and having a fabulous time. I’m writing to you about ways of making friends. You were always a lonely child at home and school never gotten exposed to people around you.” Remember that day when my friends from school came to visit and then mom said I had a headache even though I avoided them.” You were shy, anti-social and scared to talk to people. Self confidence was never one of your strongest points and you were a quiet person but you were good in terms school work. You were a top student in the class but not at making friends.

Its not that you are not a beautiful person but what lacked was confidence and trusting yourself. That made thing difficult for you and what was worse was not having a relationship with your mother. She was supposed to be the first person that was your friend. You were afraid to approach her and she was also very strict so you could not talk to her about anything. Mothers really do help a lot, they know you better than anyone they can tell when you are troubled by something and when you need money. Having a relationship with your mother is a good foundation it means that you won’t have trouble making friends.

Friends are very important to someone’s life they are always there for you whether you don’t want them to be there. What I want to tell you is that you can make friends there is no need to be scared of people. All you need to do is just is start by smiling and then you talk to the person, and you develop a friendship. A smile says a lot to someone like a smile can tell that you are a kind, loving, amicable and beautiful person.

First you must love, respect and appreciate yourself before people love, respect and appreciate you.

Your loving friend
Babalwa

A shared sense of a FRESHER!!!!

Dear Former Motlagae (Me)
I write this letter to tell you how excited I am that you are finally coming to Rhodes after all, I hope that the preparation of your tertiary arrival is going well.

It was at the café on campus where a couple of first year students and I were talking about how first year is so complex and challenging. The most challenging aspect of coming to Rhodes is homesickness, homesickness can be a very cruel feeling that makes you feel like packing all your stuff and getting on the first plane to Johannesburg. I must tell you that coming to a foreign province that is miles and miles away from home, where you know no one but yourself at least you think you know yourself at that time before getting challenged with all the freshmen obstacles. Homesickness is one of the obstacles that you will face in first year, feeling like not seeing anyone, not getting out of bed and all that runs through your mind is getting home and staying there – not coming back to the foreign province where everything seem so nice but actually not nice if it is 16 hours away from home.

I must say when you first arrive at Rhodes you are overwhelmed by everyone trying to make you feel home the new environment where you start all over again and become whoever you want to be and what people already know you to be, but when homesickness strikes in your world becomes cold, lonely and feeling depressed. However you are a free spirited and outgoing person who adapts very easily to new places and makes friends quickly. We will be together far away from home just like we always imagined that we would study far away from home.

xoxoxo
LoveMolly

Life as a Rhodent...

My innocent friend Struan, My first year experience has been an absolute blast so far, filled with parties, forgotten nights and laughter. Every day is packed with work, excitement and a new adventure which could either end in complete work, partying or sleeping. You know we find it hard to plan our lives properly, when it comes to departments such as money, time, work and friends, cause that’s where I struggle and I know you will too. I know you like to party a lot and enjoy your social life, but start balancing your work with your social life now because right now I can only focus on one or the other, I’m really struggling to create a balance, and at the end of the day it starts affecting our academics. Leaving our work for the last night was alright back in the school days, but this nasty habit has followed me on and I can’t get rid of it.
We both know how much we enjoy an ice-cold draught, well, then you can imagine how often I get distracted from my studies with the Rat ‘n’ Parrot just down the road from res, at the end of the day I’m more likely to end up at the rat with an ice-cold draught in my hand than to be studying for a psychology test. So even though we have a reputation to look after, choose your friends at varsity wisely because they play a large contributing factor towards us getting a degree or not, and you know how much we need that degree. I wish that we concentrated more on serious issues in life rather than partying, because it always seems to slow us down in life. I’m not saying that I regret having a good time, I just wish that I could balance the two a bit better.

The Path to Destiny.

Dear my younger and truant self,
At this moment in time, thinking on what to write to you and stating valuable information that you might need to possess and go into the right direction and path that will become your future. The path that you are upon is fruitful and entertaining, but toned with an informative and fun filled lifestyle that is destined upon through university and the upbringings of education, so find and balance it from social encounters and the reason you should be at university. Therefore, coming to the next state of my business, calm down on the drinking before it puts a never-ending hole into your future, as sometimes seems to cause a little ounce of trouble, which would avoid progression and install failure by decreasing your potential. Also, realise that going to lectures is an important part of your course and education, which you seem to lack now, so pick up your standard and create a different routine when it comes to this.
On a lighter note, never change whom you are and never get put down by anyone else because this is by far the most formidable and pronounced factor on what makes you who you are. The spontaneity in your life is what keeps you going, so just go with the flow and enjoy what is ahead of you. The friends you have now are all you need and you know how to define who is true to you, so you have no problems in deciding who will be there when it matters most. Remember that the future ahead of you is not just black and white like in high school but the life that is coming also contains shades of grey.
Keep safe and out of danger,
Warwick a.k.a Sparrow.