Exposing life at ‘Campus’

By Susan Wamuyu
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sunday_life/Exposing_life_at_Campus_76788.shtml
When joining the university, I had a lot of expectations. I had listened to a million stories from friends who were there before, from teachers who were students there once, and even from people who have never been there!

I remember my mother, teachers, uncles and brothers encouraging me to complete my high school education for all the fun was yet to come if I joined the university. This was a great inspiration to me as I looked forward to the day I would join “Campus”. I fantasised I would be free like a bird aiming to fly as far as my wings could carry me.

Little did I know I was just fantasising. They told me that at the university, no one forced you to attend classes, or sit for exams. Nevertheless, they hardly told me that at the end of it all, it was a must for me to pass exams in order to graduate.

I was told that at university, I could go out to nightclubs as much as I wanted but they did not tell me that I would need money to do that. My little pocket money could not take care of as many outings as I would have wished. Everything was left for me to learn; it was an examination of its own.

The day I joined Makerere University, I was in for a big surprise. Settling down was hard. Making friends was harder, for most of them preferred someone as rich as them if not more.

At ‘A’ level, everything was done for me. My breakfast, lunch and supper were ever on time. Any delay from the kitchen could provoke a protest from students. All students ate the same type of food, slept on the same type of beds, and dressed uniformly. An attempt to find out who was richer than the other was futile.

At Makerere, where I expected joy, total independence and peace, I found the opposite. I had to prepare my own meals, buy my own unique and modern outfits to fit in society and to avoid students talking behind my back. I also had to attend classes without anyone reminding me that I needed to do so. Really, somebody should have told me that this is what I had worked hard for.

At the university, ‘sugar daddies’ come to search for the young, beautiful and desperate campus ladies. Sugar mummies are not left behind either as they search for young men for the fun of their moments. It is just like the scramble and partition of immorality. Girls and boys need money to survive the Campus expectations and sugar daddies and sugar mummies are ready to provide the money as they exploit them.

I was told to be wary of such acts but never that university life was so demanding. God, I wish someone could come up and expose university life as the root of many evils; where people don’t work but spend more than their pocket money, and those who work spend more than they earn.

However, Campus life is all about who has and who does not have; discrimination here is at its highest peak. This is where every man is for himself and God is for us all. It is a matter of survival of the fittest. No one really cares what life holds for others and no one takes time to educate us before letting us out to partake of this tough examination.

We are only left to learn from our failures and live with regrets, wishing somebody who really cared had warned us. We are never safe from the constant blame from our families and the fingers pointed at us by the society.

I realise now that at the university, to have a decent and comfortable life, one has to look for friends who are genuine and good in all ways, not really the rich and financially well off, go for outings rarely, attend classes often, sit for exams and dress to your best, not for their best. Life at Campus is not a bed of roses. It is riddled with ups and downs.