"Just do as you please"

Leaving home at the age of seventeen and coming to Rhodes Universitywas a terrifying and scary experience for me at first, just like many other first years who came to Grahmstown from a sheltered urban home environment. I got handed freedom, independence and a platinum credit card on a silver platter. There were no parents around to watch my every move, and no one to monitor how many lectures I attended and what time I return home at nights. So staying out late and partying up a storm became a habit for me in the first semester. Wednesday nights consisted of pre drinks in the sly in our res rooms, followed by one blast of a part at the Rhodes Union Club. After the four to five hours of pure partying, dancing and one too many shots, my friends and I would make that all too long walk into town to have post drinks and further partying at Friars tuck.Thursdays consisted of waking up with a banging hangover or even a bit drunk still, stumbling to dawnie lectures and tutorials were a mission and a half. Fridays and Saturdays were a complete repeat of Wednesday’s agenda. The entertainment in this quiet by day, yet thriving at night town is pretty limited. The partying plans became a routine and slowly we became tired of the same old places and what it had to offer. Alcohol is so cheap and easily accessible to underage students like myself, the thrill of being able to buy unimaginable amount of alcohol and entering a club without being bounced got to me. I felt so cool, and the more I felt like this, the more I wanted to keep on doing it.Yes Grahmstown is the ideal student town but seeing the same faces day in and day out can get all too frustrating at times. Being in such an isolated environment with nothing else to entertain us other than alcohol and local pubs, the temptation of going to Port Elizabeth and East London just to meet new people and try out new things was too much of a temptation. The academic standards set out by this institution a high standard from their students. In the Bcom facility alone, the stats show that those students consume the most amount of alcohol on campus... With their hectic lecture timetable and double economics tut by the time Wednesday arrives its time to party and let loose, it can be said that the Rhodes students know how to do that best. So yes one can ultimately say that us Rhodent students are left to “do as we please”. So ultimately all Rhodes students do leave Grahmstown with a bachelor of Alcohol degree. Some even with their masters and PhD’s.

By: Sivani Pillay