“There are six billion people in the world, you are just but a number” says a face with large brown eyes full of intensity. This is Mandee Uku a survivor of a first year at Rhodes, a survivor of a first year of experiences and a survivor of a year of disappointments.
Mandee came to Rhodes because she had an “Oprah moment” and like Oprah she wanted to change the world and what better way to do that than by getting a Journalism degree from Rhodes University. However she was not prepared for the sudden freedom she was exposed to considering she lived a fairly sheltered life in Nelspruit with her loving and sometimes overprotective mother and father. “In high school I was abit of a lameo” she laughs a deep and uninhibited laugh as she explains her extra long skirt that she eventually convinced her mother to hem and her excellent top 10 marks.
She nearly didn’t make it to Rhodes as her father was positive his daughter was meant to be a lawyer, studying at Wits. However Wits did not have accommodation and her parents did not want their daughter stranded in the big city. Amanda got her wish and was off to Rhodes to become Oprah.
When she got to Rhodes things changed and between boys and crazy nights out things hit a low. Rumours are a dangerous thing Mandee explains, her words spew out over each as if they were in a rush to get to the dinning hall on time. Having this new social life meant that she was subject to some nasty and hurtful rumours about her love life.
When she got to Rhodes things changed and between boys and crazy nights out things hit a low. Rumours are a dangerous thing Mandee explains, her words spew out over each as if they were in a rush to get to the dinning hall on time. Having this new social life meant that she was subject to some nasty and hurtful rumours about her love life.
Who did these people think they were assuming and divulging details of her dating life to the masses, when in reality all of these stories were false. She touches her elegantly braided hair that’s pulled back in a scrunchie when talking about her less than friendly boyfriend, who is now and ex-boyfriend after he partook in some rumours himself. Mandee throws her arms up in the air trying to explain the jealous nature of most of the girls that were spreading the rumours that made her lie in bed for days unable to move.
Things weren’t going Mandee’s way and the cherry on top were her less than satisfactory marks from the July exams. However she realised something when she was low and missing her mother and that was “you are unstoppable and no one can stop you but yourself”. Mandee loves her residence Dingemans, where she feels at home with the people and spends many a late night chatting to friends, sipping 2 minute noodles mixed with Melrose cheese.
Yes there are “6 billion people in the world and you are only a number but that just means you have to prove yourself, I wouldn’t change a thing,” Mandee announces giving a crooked smile. This is Mandee Uku a future multi million empire builder as she likes to say and one “opinionated, well rounded and sometimes rude” Rhodent.
Things weren’t going Mandee’s way and the cherry on top were her less than satisfactory marks from the July exams. However she realised something when she was low and missing her mother and that was “you are unstoppable and no one can stop you but yourself”. Mandee loves her residence Dingemans, where she feels at home with the people and spends many a late night chatting to friends, sipping 2 minute noodles mixed with Melrose cheese.
Yes there are “6 billion people in the world and you are only a number but that just means you have to prove yourself, I wouldn’t change a thing,” Mandee announces giving a crooked smile. This is Mandee Uku a future multi million empire builder as she likes to say and one “opinionated, well rounded and sometimes rude” Rhodent.
4 comments:
yeah we've all been through the jealous girls at Rhodes.. i mean really why can't they just let a sister be happy??? the best you can do is just ignore them and i know sometimes the things they say are really hurtful but you know words will never kill you... they are just lonely b***hes!!!!
The writer did a profile on a student that always wanted to come to Rhodes and fought for it as it almost did not happen, who is outgoing and likes the night life; spending time with friends and of course had a lot of bad experiences and disappointments in her first year. Personal experiences in terms of boyfriends and her social life seems to be the disruption in her life; as she had to always listen to her name being dragged down the drain by people spreading nasty rumours about her love life which put her in bed for days unable to move. As writer Gillian Rennie says you must show and not tell; that is exactly what the writer did in the profile by describing the how the person looks like which gave us a picture of the hero. The writer tells what she sees it not try and assume what kind of person the hero is.
In the profile we are introduced to our hero Amanda. Amanda is the hero of her own journey to Rhodes. She is a student at Rhodes who came with a cause and determination to achieve a dream. Todorov´s model of the characteristics of a narrative demonstrate what happens in the story of our young hero; Amanda. There is a state of normalcy as Amanda is set out to make a difference and get her degree in journalism, but then there is a disruption when it is not all that it was made out to be. Our hero got caught up in the social world at Rhodes and the student networking made life harder as she became a victim to gossip. Finally, Amanda overcame the politics of the student network and survived first year by taking her own advice and returned to the normalcy of her determination to do good. To see another first year survivor go to my profile!
http://my1stime.blogspot.com/2008/10/small-town-syndrome.html
Girls go through a lot in there life time, meeting boys and trying new things comes as a shock to those of us who grew up in almost a sheltered “bubble like environment” back home. When times are rough in my life my mother always tells me “pretend this is just a bad dream, tomorrow holds another day”. Mandee Uku is a true survivor in her own special way, I feel the pain and suffering she felt, with a bad break up and an abundance of freedom which was never accessible back home, and it was actually never an option to even request such freedom from my parents. Her state of normalcy was the sheltered loving environment which was disrupted with the whole Rhodent environment Grahamstown seems to offer the students of Rhodes University. Our heroin got caught up in a vicious cycle of gossip which the girls pride themselves on here. She overcame her Politics when her July exam results showed her that academics are more important than that she learnt that boys are like boomerangs. They can fly away but always come back, even if they are not wanted. Somerset Maugham: says
“It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” And Mandee Uku has proven this to us.
By Sivani Pillay.
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