Letter to my younger self

My innocent self,

It is now, with both regret and wisdom that I feel the need to write to you as you embark on the next chapter of your life-University. This, my dear is a tough, yet amazing institution where the most wonderful and disastrous memories will be made. I write today to give you advise on one of the most difficult challenges you will have to overcome-staying who you are.

Arriving at university is filled with a lot of emotional turmoil and the desire to fit in the most powerful clichés and to generally be accepted. This can be difficult seeing you come from a staunch Christian family that has always emphasised the vitality to lead a pure and righteous life that glorifies God. It shouldn’t be such an issue, but it will be mainly because the most popular lifestyles in University are those of notorious partying, consuming ridiculous amounts of alcohol and sexual experimentation. Can you take the time to drink from my well of wisdom?

With your spiritual knowledge and faith, please be open-minded. Engage with different people of different belief systems, don’t be morally superior and most importantly don’t compromise on your principles and moral standing. Be free, but don’t be loose. Represent your faith by avoiding the things your God deems as unholy. Don’t be a people pleaser, stand up for your faith and don’t apologise for living a healthy lifestyle. Don’t even contemplate participating in activities that will bring Christianity’s name into disrepute, it’s not worth it. The last thing you want to be called is a hypocrite or a fallen angel. As much as you’ll be surrounded by versatile people, keep grounded by continuing to meditate in the word and engaging in intense prayer sessions. Most of your time should be dedicated to your studies and socially, a party once in a while won’t hurt, but joining societies such as SCO(Student Christian Organisation) will add more value to your life. Surround yourself with people who add to your spiritual growth, who will mould you into a better person.

Yours in the spirit of righteousness,
Your older self

a letter to my younger self

Hey man

I am so glad you have finally decided what course you want to do next year and I am cheerful that you got accepted at Rhodes. All you have to do now is to just break a leg on final exams in order to secure you place. But I don’t doubt you man as you always do your best. What I’m certain you will love are the girls, damn the girls are hot but don’t get side stepped now as you need to focus on your studies. The school is persistent on rules, they do not play around man, you miss a tutorial, or you do not submit your assignment, you get kicked out. But I am sure you will be fine, just to give you a tip from my own experience, if you manage your time meaning stay away from the girls, that is till Friday anyway and prepare your work in advance and you will be cruising. So you better learn to keep away from trouble and I know that is like taking candy from a baby but you will need to try. I am proud to say this from far because I am safe from being slapped. Oh! by the way, I was happy when I received that sms telling me that you quitted alcohol. Thumbs up man! You know here people bath and swim in it. Remember that joke u made about me being ’30 cent’ because I am trying to dress like 50 cent? Yeah, here you get along with different people from different backgrounds with different lifestyles; you choose what goes with you. Almost forgot man, another that you will love is the food, there is lots and lots of food even though sometimes it’s horrible but that’ s not an issue for you as your mouth accepts everything.
Till we meet bro.

Letter to my younger self

My sweet Andy

I know you are probably excited about coming to university and that your parents may have already told one or two things about university life but I thought now would be the perfect time for me to share my first year experiences with you. I know my parents warned me about a lot of things that happen at varsity but I still wish that they could have at least told me about staying who I am.

It was approximately two weeks after Orientation Week when I actually got head-to-head with peer pressure. I had already made friends or at least I thought they were my friends. We were enjoying ourselves and we had decided to go out one night, just to have a good time while we could because at the end of the day we had to bear in mind what we came to varsity for, and that was to get our degree.

I had never touched alcohol in my entire life and had never planned to. All of my friends drank and I was the only who was not into alcohol. They all thought that I was not “cool” and that I defeated the purpose of us calling ourselves the Cool Chicks as I did not want to drink alcohol. They asked me try it and to be honest, I was tempted to as they all claimed “it was not that bad”.

I started looking at myself and remembering the promise I had not only to my mother but to myself as well. I have seen how people, girls in particular, end up losing their dignities because they are so trying hard to fit in. I knew I had to break it up with them because friends look out for each other and respect one another’s decisions and sadly, they were none of that, all they wanted to do was to drag me to their level.

I wish my mother had cautioned about misleading friends because I though we were going to have a valuable friendship but unfortunately, they were not friends enough to value my decision. So all I wanted to let you know that there are misleaders everywhere and it’s you who knows who you are and staying who you are will benefit no one but you.

Yours Lovingly
Philisiwe.

Letter to Self

Dear George,
My young friend, this year will open up countless doors, opportunities and experiences for you, far surpassed anything which you could have previously imagined or experienced. This year will be about learning, loving, making friends and having fun. You will lose your liver and learn to drink Crackling at a rapid rate, and in the process you will throw your name away nearly twice a week every week. What matters though is that you have an amazing time throughout. Bad times are few and far between, and you will stretch your wings further than you could have imagined.
My only advice to you is that you must fight the urge to stop gyming in the second term. Work will become near insurmountable and the parties will be way too much fun, if you follow the road I did first year spread will hit you hard and it will take the entire third term for you to get rid of it again.
Try stick to drinking half bottles and not full bottles of brandy or whisky, at the Kenton party, the trance party and “the dress to get laid party” you will find out exactly why.
The time will come when you have to get over yourself and let your guard down, don’t be afraid to let go and let it happen. Lots of your best happiness stems from outside of your comfort zone and at the worst you get hurt and get over it.
You won’t struggle to adapt to the new environment, you’ll fit right into the party life style and don’t worry you’ll fit right in with the people as well. You probably will only miss home once after being in Grahamstown for 2 months, and the 14 hour drive back in the old beetle doesn’t make it any easier.
On that note take the car and get out of Grahamstown as often as you can. You will get cabin fever if you don’t!
Other than that there is not much advice I can give you, I know you and I know you’ll figure out any problems you have.
Tell we next speak, yours sincerely My Dear Friend
George