David Matias

Every learner gets inspiration before writing their matric. It’s either friends from their town or villages went to university and just after one year, they come back with expensive phones, and their dressing code is of a different standard. Therefore, they work harder decisively that they want to reach that standard. At that stage, most of them display brilliant academic work. Parents will be thrilled by sending their kids to university, which is every parent’s objective. The teacher will be proud of their job well done by making sure that their knowledge was passed on.

Then during university life, parents consider you as grown enough to make your good decisions. Some students get accommodation in hostels, and because it’s not enough, some look for accommodation within walkable distances. The institution accommodates many students of different cultures, like foreigners who as a matter of fact face adjustment problems and hence, it can be hard to make new friends. Some students don’t know what it means to put in a strong academic effort and to sustain it for the length of a semester. They may have been successful in high school with little effort, good looks and native intelligence, to mention a few.

Students then test adulthood by getting involved in relationships, which is common in universities and captures their attention the most. They thus lose focus of their school work, which affects their grades in a bad way and may lead to an unexpected pregnancy, which heaps pressure on their parents back home. Drinking at colleges has also become a ritual that students often see as an integral part of their higher education experience. This is most common in male students, and as a result they experience academic difficulties such as missing classes or getting behind with school work. While parents are giving full support and thinking that their children are doing their best at universities, they sometimes receive shocking news of their children having been murdered or extinguishing others while under the influence of alcohol.

A majority of students likewise spend most of their time on social media, and likely demonstrate poor academic performance. This is because they spend time chatting online and making friends on social media sites, instead of reading books. Also, due to the influences they meet on social media, they turn universities into modelling or clothes’ show-off sites. Furthermore, social media promotes cyber bullying, which leads to serious criminal cases. By the time they come to realisation, they would have wasted a lot and it’s already late, which forces them to repeat modules and spend more years in university, while some end up vacating with halfway dreams.

Message of encouragement 

Dear students, understand the walls outside of the classroom, and think about them as a context for everything you do there. Whatever your parents or guardians do to keep you in school, don’t take it for granted because it’s not lifelong, just a matter of preparing you for the future. That chance is everyone’s objective, so handle it wisely because not everyone gets that, and count yourself as the lucky one. Making your parents smile for sending you to university instead of regretting must be your goal.