By Hilma David
Last weekend was a special one to me; I officially became a graduate (Yes, B Hons Clinical Psychology graduate).
I was not so excited about the whole initiation process because I have heard that it is a long day, form traffic jam to a programme that lasts eight hours. It came and it passed, it was actually good to me (thousands of people in graduation gowns, what is not to love). But I was specifically excited to see my classmates. We always have get-togethers before and after holidays so this time it was going to be the last supper. I was however nervous about one thing: the part where we had to share what we have been up to since we last saw each other in last November. Some left for their home countries, some for their villages and some stayed in Windhoek, each one with their own business. People find themselves in different situations after university. I actually believe that life begins after varsity. Some people get their dream jobs right away, some start working for themselves, some get jobs they never thought they will do in a millions years and finally those that are yet to get jobs and right now they just have faith that they will one day. So if you are sitting at a table and someone is talking about how wonderful their work place is, the next one is talking about how he or she is about to give up because of all the call backs they did not receive, you are going to be uncomfortable.
Yes our conversation at the table went exactly that way, some had horrible bosses, some were grateful that they are employed; some shared their future plans and so on. But one story stood out for me; one of my classmates lost his father a few days after we finished our exams in November. Last year he had everything planned out, he was an intern at a good company and things were looking good for the future. But after his dad passed on, everything changed in a blink of an eye. His entire father’s responsibility fell on him including managing a farm. It was difficult because he had not for once thought that he will be a farm boy after university. He thought he will be wearing a suit to work instead of an overall, seeing colleagues in suits and not animals first thing in the morning. But he said it has taught him something: you can never be too sure.
You can have everything planned out but things come up and you will have to go three steps back. Life is a mystery and some situations are out of our power but we must never lose faith. My friends still have dreams of wearing a suit to work, and when the right time comes, it will happen. When you are going through hard times, just know that it is part of a story that you will tell one day.