OPINION PIECE...

When it comes to complaining this is done best at Rhodes University. Towards the end of second term there was a huge uncertainty and disapproval about journalism and media studies courses by most first years. This was said to be brought about by not being able or rather not being given the chance to do practical assignments rather than conducting mediocre interviews and constructing articles with no depth. Second semester, blogging is the practical game here, this is fun, exciting and unprecedented for most of us. Instead of taking this opportunity and making means to try and get to know this a bit more and view it as a learning, we argue against this and this only makes life more difficult for us. After all we are intertwined in the South African culture and so it goes without saying that the struggle continues. Now we are hanging at the last straws of JMS1 and we have all come a long way, this is meant at its literal self. The saddest part is that only a select few will make into the JMS 2 class.
Rhodes University is not what its made out be, I say this in terms of its notorious reputations for alcohol consumption, language barriers, the work that never gets done and about being a tight knit family. Those who force themselves to act a certain way will behave in that way. The big query here is re we really forced to speak English at all times instead of our mother tongue languages? This is supposedly so but I think that this is shameful because we have the right to express ourselves which ever way that suits us best, this to me is just another form of showing struggles that we bring upon ourselves. The truth is that one becomes what they are if they want to be, for instance I have been surrounded by friends that drink and have not been compelled to do so at any point in time, until that time comes it will be a choice that I will chose to take.
You might see people going to the pubs and clubs from Wednesday to Sunday, this is not a true indication of what is being produced work wise. It is called being able to manage your time correctly, it may so happen that those people who go out at night are the ones most likely to finish their work on time. Instead of watching an episode of Isidingo or Generations, some people are busy working so that when it hits 22:30 they get ready to take a break and chill out at a pub instead of downloading the entire world of movies on DC. Before coming to Rhodes I was always told that it was like a family and not like any other university. I am here no and have been wondering about the tight knit family that I always hear about? I shall tell you where it is, there is no tight knit family around here, it doesn’t kill to acknowledge that everyone does things for themselves, we can take something so simple as residence, there all I care and worry about the most is the well being of those i know, better yet those who are close friends. So there is no tight knit family here, Rhodes is as big as you want it to be. At times I want to kick myself for making the choice of coming to Grahamstown. There are just so many faults that I keep finding but to be honest enough it would rather be here than anywhere else. This is called conforming at its simplest form, which I must add is practiced very much here at Rhodes.