Posted on by Maseteditshego

Am I different? I am a post-grad student but also just a young person

I know a lot of you think that post-graduate students have it all figured out. They have everything under control. I used to think the same thing as well. But it is not the case. We do not have it all under control. I know for sure that I do not have it all figured out. My life is not as perfect as you would think. I don’t think anybody has a perfect life. I go through the motions of everyday life like any other 26-year-old guy. I would like to believe I grapple with all sorts of issues, problems, or challenges that other people my age have. These include issues with romance, economic independence, and so forth.  Today I am just going to share in passing my romance journey.

I have a grandmother who is in her late 70s. She is a typical grandmother with typical elderly comments every time I give a call or visit her. I last saw her recently during the Easter holidays and she asked me two questions that I did not know how to answer. The first was “where is your wife, or at least a lady friend”. The second was “and what about kids”.  These are the two most annoying questions, and I just cannot bring myself to tell her that romance-wise it is just not working out for me. I know if I say that she would probably say “it is because of the big books you are always reading and that computer you treasure so much”.

And that is the problem, romance is not working out for me. I do not think it is my fault though. I buy roses and chocolates, open the door for her, hold her hand in public and I always text “good morning/night”. I think of myself as modern gentleman, if there is such of course.  However, it seems there is always something I do wrong or just cannot get right. I am not sure if it’s the fact that I am 26-year-old man who sill watches WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) or there is something else. But then come to think of it, no woman can stand a 26-year-old man who still watches WWE and gets sad when his favourite wrestler loses a match. I am not sporty and WWE bridges that gap for me, but it is just a lot for her to understand.

My point is, there is nothing “different” when you are an academic. The truth is we are all still human. I feel what others feel. I do what others do. Do I go partying? Yeah, I do.  I also like paintball shooting and quad bike riding, it is super nice. Most of the time I enjoy the company of those who are not academics. It is in this company that I get to take off my academic helmet and engage in debates about what really affects us and how can our societal problems be addressed.  Most importantly I get in touch with the truth. Those who are not guided by academic code of conducts but are yet still morally upright always remind me that at the end of the day, I belong to a community of different people with different hopes, dreams, and aspirations. It reminds me that there is more to life than sitting on my laptop the whole day and thinking about academic conferences, journal publications and critical theories. It keeps me in touch with the fact that not everything can be solved through academic research and approaches and not everything is taught and theorised. All these reminds me that, we are all human at the end of the day.

Posted on by mauro95cesar

I may be a student, but I love the nostalgia of my childhood.

I often watch a show on the History Channel called American Pickers – two guys that travel around America picking (buying) up old treasures from memorabilia to bicycle parts, old toys, collectables, signs and so on. They often resonate strongly with the items that they remember from their childhood as it gives them a sense of nostalgia. The people who they purchase these items from, often collected these from their childhood years. If a collector did not have money growing up, they would go looking for those items they only dreamt of having as a kid much later in life, when they could finally afford it.

The Nash Statesman Super in front of the Antique Archaeology building in Le Claire, Iowa, home of the American Pickers.

The period in which you grew up is likely to have a deep impact on what you enjoy in life. I grew up in the early 2000s, so have been influenced by TV shows, cartoons, books, and collectables of that time. If you grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, you may have been influenced by the Space Race. You would have loved rocket ships, space-related comic books and probably wanted to work for NASA and become an astronaut. If I look at my younger cousins growing up today, they are mainly influenced by YouTube, social media, and applications such as TikTok.

One of my favourite memories growing up was my 6th birthday. I was in grade one and my birthday is in June and happened to be on a school day. I remember I woke up early and it was still dark. My parents wished me a happy birthday and my dad walked me to the kitchen for breakfast. As if it were yesterday, on my way back to my room I can still distinctly picture it all, seeing a VHS tape of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on top of my large clothing cupboard in the corner of my room. My parents had placed it there whilst I ate. It was a movie that I had been begging to go and see and I would now finally get my chance. Needless to say, I could not wait to get back home from school to put that tape in the VHS and press play. I absolutely adored the movie and have been a fan of Harry Potter or a Potterhead ever since. If I ever get my Hogwarts letter, I will not hesitate to leave the studying all behind.

Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Growing up, I somehow managed to borrow the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) series from my neighbours. The LOTR trilogy is not exactly scary, but I would watch the monstrous character Gollum, giant trolls, ugly looking orcs and Sauron, the creator of the ring, fly around on a terrifying creature called a Fellbeast that created an awful screeching sound. I was unphased by the frightening characters of the fantasy world and I could not get enough. By contrast, as an adult, I do not enjoy scary films at all.

Gollem, a monstrous fictional character from the Lord of the Rings.

If anyone was in school during the early 2000s in South Africa, they would probably have watched SABC 2 at 4 PM every weekday. The anime series of Pokémon, Beyblade, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh were faithfully followed and supported, click here for a link describing each.  At my afterschool care, we would sit in front of the tiny TV, with the antenna perfectly adjusted and watch in silence. You were forbidden to speak, only until the adverts played. If someone’s parent arrived during the show, they would have to wait until the show was over to leave because we did not have the luxury of recording and downloadable content. These anime series defined South African childhoods, and anyone who grew up during that period would agree that those were some of the best memories.

Goku, the main protagonist of Dragon Ball Z.
Pokémon Indigo League

I was exposed to Star Wars much later, one of my friends knew everything there was to know about the series and encouraged me to watch the older films before going to watch Episode VII – The Force Awakens in theatres (2015). I had missed out on so much, but after a couple of days of binge-watching, I had caught up on the previous six episodes. The Star Wars Universe that started a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away is just incredible to me. I love the adventures, characters, stories, space travel, planets, and The Force. The creativity and imagination of the creator George Lucas are absolutely mind-boggling.

During the beginning of the lockdown, I – like most people – watched a lot of Netflix and movies. I enjoy watching new releases, but almost always watch something I saw during my childhood. I have no problem watching a movie that came out in 2004 such as The Incredibles, where I can be my 9-year-old self again. I like to watch an old movie to remember the way things were and get exposed to the feelings I had when I first watched them, using entertainment as a time machine.

I am currently trying to finish off my unfinished Pokémon collection, buying cards that are 20 years old from a dedicated South African Pokémon Facebook group and putting them into my original Pokémon collector binder. The value of such items has grown exponentially since they were released, and especially now during the lockdown. An original First Edition booster originally priced at $2 per pack, now costs over $2,000 if unopened. People want to feel and see the things of their childhood that were once so dear to them, and relive that somehow, a term called regressive re-consumption. I guess it was easy for us all to revisit happy memories of our past during the lockdown as we really had nothing to look forward to, other than uncertainty. You often hear people say: “Yeah, those were in the good old days”. They are most probably referring to a time in their childhood.

Pokémon card collection.