So, this
year I gave up Twitter for lent and believe me it’s been quite a sacrifice. I’m
no longer getting my current affairs update from the source. It’s like I’m back
in the 90’s. I mean I had to read about our former president floating like a
butterfly and stinging like a bee from an online news source! However, one
thing I’m glad I didn’t miss were the videos from the UKZN 2019 graduation
ceremony! What a treat! I literally cried like I lost the cat that I’ve never
owned. It was just so beautiful to watch the pride of parents oozing from their
sweat glands. It made me realize just how much our parents sacrifice to give us
that priceless opportunity: education.
It’s when I
look back at my own life that I truly appreciate these sacrifices. All my
mother wanted was to get us into multiracial schools and get a good education
and I was the first to make it in my family: Class One in Empangeni Preparatory
School. However, there was a little problem. Because the
school fees were so expensive for my parents, my mom had to be very creative in
making ends meet for everything else, like sewing my school uniform. For the
life of her, my poor mother could never quite get the right blue material of
the formal school uniform so mine was always either too dark or too bright…and
I hated it! I stuck out like a saw thumb – a seven-year-old’s worse nightmare!
Anyway, after endless complaining, my mom trekked to the school’s second-hand
shop and got me the formal school uniform. I was finally wearing the correct
shade of blue! Problem was, I only had one of these. I wore it so much that it
quickly faded, and I was back to being the sore thumb! Being a kid, I never
really appreciated the bigger picture, that my mom was, in all her power,
pushing to get me an education she never had!
High school
was a little better. I got a partial bursary in grade 8 for being named Head
Girl in grade 7 and so my parents could at least afford me decent uniform. There
were many other sacrifices that my parents continued to make until I finally
graduated, first for undergrad and then my honours. There has been nothing more
liberating than getting these qualifications. It’s given me opportunities that
my parents could have never dreamed of, taken me to places that I could have
never imagined; me, a young black girl from eNgwelezane Township!
Sure, the
education landscape is changing and so are career choices but one thing that
remains is that knowledge is power and education is still the key to success.
So, continue investing in yourself; sign up for that course you’ve been mulling
over, go back to school, upgrade your matric results, it’s never too late. More
importantly, remember the sacrifices that were made by those who came before
you. Sacrifices that have given you opportunities that some may never live to
see. Don’t take that for granted.
