Do you ever think back to your choices and personal patterns that played out during an earlier phase of your life?

Though the lens of reflection may not be one of regret, I still frequently pull on those memories. While flipping through my mental album fondly, I wonder what may have been different if I saw my university life as a feature film.

It could have been my overwhelm with re-engaging my mind into calculus algorithms and learning about DNA replication machinery for the first time, but I found it really challenging to maximize my “first-year experience”. It was only during my academic third year that I felt like I had figured out how to do what I needed to do and balance what I wanted to do. Now that I’m a few years further in my learning, I realize there is precedent for consistency over perfection. For any future “firsts” – for me, or for you reading this right now – I want to reimagine life as a movie, drawing on these themes…

The Stage: Your mental health is more important than good marks. Be brave. Seek help.

The Protagonist: Participation is “so totally in right now”. It may be overwhelming at first, but you are likely judging yourself more than anyone else in the class is judging you. This falls away when you participate unashamedly.

The Antagonist: You’re here because you want to be, right? Be excited. Your course work isn’t a chore; it’s a choice. Attend every extra class, tutorial, workshop, or Q&A session that is available to you. If you still feel stuck, ask for more! Your success is in your hands.

The Set-Design: The library is your friend and your greatest resource. An unimaginable number of people have sat where you are now; reading the books on the shelf and soaking in the privilege of knowledge acquisition.

The Producer: There is always more work to get through, so try your best to stay on top of it. Do preparatory reading from the textbook or supplementary materials; consolidate with your given lecture notes. It almost never pays off to be writing furiously while you learn, so (vaguely) understanding the topic before you even enter the classroom will help you grasp where you get lost on the content.

The Director: You are a human being, not a productivity machine. Prioritize your rest, and rest well. Play frisbee with your friends on the weekend or join a mid-week poetry slam. Take up your interests! Join the society and attend the meetings. Want to rock climb? *Send it! Curious about ballroom dancing? Step into your salsa-self! Do the fun things that you convince yourself are less important than punishing yourself for not working 24/7.

The Distribution: Time waits for no human. You have enough time if you plan well and prioritize your tasks. Centralizing your resources and your to-do’s will be helpful, so that you know you don’t have to look around to find the hand-written paper notes from that lecture on Friday. I should have downloaded all my lecture notes onto one online- or hard-copy drive and used a task-management app to set more specific daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

The Hall of Fame: Be curious with your lecturers. They are primarily people with an intrigue so great that they committed to teaching younger people about it. Ask, “How did you get to this position in the faculty? What are your interests in this field and what advice can you give me for reaching these personal goals?”.

The Supporting Acts: Make friends with people outside of your course! The field you have chosen to study makes up a tiny portion of the student body. Challenges your views and your interests by dissolving boundaries between faculty niches; to encourage interdisciplinary thinking from an early stage of your “career”. Build a broad community that nourishes itself.

The Film: These years spent at university come with the full range of human emotions. Document these years – in journal-writings, or in photographs, or in a playful short-film made with your friends. There’s nothing like a little nostalgia to redirect your perspective. Rewatch the movie. Release an even better sequel. 

Ultimately, though, what wins the category for “Best Personal Project” is a project that I have poured myself into wholeheartedly.  Will we look back and say that for whatever we’re working on now?

*To “send it” is a rock climbing (and other extreme sport) reference that encourages someone to follow through on the next move, regardless of how daunting it may seem.

Photos of some “firsts”, from top left to bottom right: University of Cape Town from the field, in my first year; my first night out at The Waiting Room in Cape Town; my first lab coat, painted on by my friends; my first time rock climbing in 2018; my first visit to Wits Education Library; my first day as a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours) in Neuroscience student