School is Still Cool

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.