Back to good ‘ol tuna

By Danielle Brock (dangirl)

 

So, I just got off the phone with my mother after one of those ‘so what’s happening in your life’ conversations. Nothing new. But then that question popped up: ‘You’ve got your degree at the end of this year, what are you going to do next year?’ Woah! Wait a sec. I’m comfy in this little bubble they called Rhodes student life, I don’t want to have to think about stuff like that! However, I do.

The last three years here seemed to have frozen time. Yes, I am now three years older but I don’t really feel that I’m now an adult ready for the big ocean. I’m still the sponge at the bottom of the sea, absorbing any information and knowledge provided to me. I would have no idea what to do if I encountered a shark or which anemone I could safely house myself in. Now, there’s always the option of staying here, becoming a Gtown local and, as my dad likes to call it, ‘professional student’. But that’s not my plan, I need to get out of here, but where do I begin?

You see, we’ve all been in this position before, I don’t know what the fuss is about. Going to ‘big’ school, then on to high school and finally university we all experience that transition from big fish to little fish but moving into the working world, I think, is very different. Now you’re just a tuna fish. One of millions. Ordinary. And perhaps good with mayo. You spend your matric year slaving over exams to achieve marks that won’t even be looked at by future employers, and the same goes for university marks. All they wish to see is your race and gender and, if they’re really desperate, your degree. It’s sad really. And to think all these years of hard work and money to be told ‘sorry, you’re not previously disadvantaged, we don’t want you’. It is this factor that worries me a bit. Call me proudly South African if you wish but I have hope in this country, even if we can’t see it (ha ha), but I too will become a part of the brain drain just to secure a job position. Or will I? I’ve watched friend after friend, of all ages, scuttle off to the UK to do the usual two year stint. Earn pounds waitering, spend it at the pub and clubbing, then head back to SA broke and looking for a job. So, back to square one.

Still, I’m left pondering, where to next? Ever since I was a little girl I used to make plans for my future and by the time i’m ‘big’ I hope to have squeezed all these dreams in. But for now, I’ll stick to complaining about essays and tests because life is easier that way, believe it or not.