My Story: How did I end up here? (Part 3)

In my previous posts, My Story: How did I end up here? (Part 1) and My Story: How did I end up here? (Part 2), I spoke about my life experiences from primary school up to graduating from high school. I used the analogy of a roller coaster ride to explain how my experiences felt like.

It is January 2003. I am a few weeks away from starting my tertiary education at University of Pretoria. I am excited and cannot wait for “freedom” – a feeling many high school graduates have when they have completed high school. What is this freedom exactly? It means different things for each person, but for me it meant being away from home, and staying at my own place.

Let me rewind a bit. While in my final year of high school, I decided I was going to study at a university that was far from home. Far enough to justify my parents renting out student accommodation for me. At that time my family was living in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Therefore, I chose to study at the University of Pretoria (UP), in Pretoria. Duh. This “trick” worked and my parents rented out a student commune for me in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

I believe that my love for Pretoria – compared to Johannesburg (a.k.a Jozi) – was formed in my tertiary years of schooling. Even in present times, my wish is to have my retirement mansion in Pretoria. I love Pretoria: less crime, more peaceful, and a lot of wonderful memories.

Continuing with my interest in Information Technology (IT) during my high school years, I successfully applied to study Computer Science at UP. I imagined myself living up to the success of my role model, Bill Gates. I saw myself starting a successful IT company someday and making myself rich. It’s good to dream.

My first year at UP was a breeze. I made some good friends and the studies were going well. I recall even scoring distinctions in some subjects. Half my time in the first year was probably spent at the campus Steers restaurant, watching MTV. “Wacky Wednesday” at Steers made Wednesdays one of my favourite days, apart from Fridays of course. The burgers were so delicious. Oh my.

Saving money has always been important to me, from the time I was a kid. Which is why I used to walk to the campus every morning just to save money. The walk was roughly 45 minutes, from Sunnyside to Hatfield. I only took the bus on my way to the student commune after finishing with lectures. This meant I saved half the money from my transport budget every month.

A life changing event happened in my first month while living in Sunnyside. It was in late February 2003. One evening, one of my friends from the student commune knocked off late from campus. Since it was late evening, he walked from the campus with one of his lecturers. As my friend approached the commune, he called me asking if we can escort the lecturer, who stayed further in town. I remember, I owned a Nokia 3310 then. I agreed to escort my friend and the lecturer. I left my room to join them. It was around 19:00. After a 30 minute walk, we said goodbye to the lecturer as he had reached his destination. As we were about to walk back, three men approached us, and one of them pointed a gun at us and cocked it. We instantly put our hands up (thanks to the countless cop movies we watched before). The other two men searched us and took my friend’s phone and wallet. They took R20 from my pocket. Fortunately I had left my precious phone in my room. I remember my friend pleading with the men to give him his phone SIM card. They were kind enough to oblige. Kindness in theft.

My friend and I were so calm during the ordeal. My theory is our brains were protecting us from doing something dumb, or fainting from fear. Am sure there is some scientific or psychological explanation to the calmness during such an experience.

It was only the following morning after the robbery, that I started feeling traumatised. Keep in mind, it was the first time I experienced crime. The first time I saw a gun in real life. To make matters worse, that same morning (after robbery from previous night), some guy tried to rob me with a knife, as I walked to the campus. Braveness took over me and I knocked the knife from the guy’s hand to the floor, looked at him in the eyes, and I continued walking. I never looked back. I must have been thinking, “dude, I just got robbed at gunpoint last night, and here you are with a knife?”. What doesn’t kill you can make you stronger.

Unfortunately, due to the trauma of the two incidents of crime, I started taking the bus in the mornings as well. The roller coaster of my life just got rough here. Later that year in November, my first year of university life was done. I passed my subjects. I was looking forward to my second year. One more year towards getting a job and earning the big bucks. So I thought.

The story continues in my next post. Until then, cheers.