Thenjiwe Stemela – Theater major, University of Cape Town
The Matric year is hardly without a bit of anxiety for any driven student. Adding to this is the confusion as to what to study at varsity. For me, the year 2007 saw various academic achievements; artistic growth and success as a leader in my school culminate into my first true milestone in my education – Matriculation. The privilege of having received a well rounded education meant that I was lucky enough to be able to choose which ever degree I wanted to pursue at varsity. With this great privilege also came the distressing issue of choosing between two vastly different degrees at varsity. My interests and strengths were divided; my passion was deeply invested in the dramatic arts while I also showcased strength and inclination towards commerce. I had to decide whether to choose a Beam or a BA degree in the arts. The looming choice promised to be difficult. A recollection of the process towards making the decision may illustrate how I have grown from it today, as I found the quotation that “the right to challenge and the expectation of being challenged raises the quality of decision making” to be true.
I immediately saw that it would be short sighted to decide without adequate, extensive research. I sought the help of career counselors at school and at a varsity in order to know more about the relative unknowns of the two differing degrees and thereafter consider the pros and cons of each in terms of quality of study, available opportunities for work and success after varsity. I asked for guidance and advice from several mentors, my SSP mentor Rachel Lobelo, a teacher Mrs Huysamer and a renowned South African poet•musician Tumi Molekane whom I had interviewed for a school event and chosen to keep touch with for such situations where I would need to ask for the help of those who have more experience behind them in their respective fields. Their advice was realistic, positive and truthful: commerce would offer me more immediate financial security and scholarship opportunities for SA degrees were scarce, but when passion drives ambition, even with the arts, success would be possible and to ensure happiness in the long run, it would be ill advised to suppress such passion. This advice incited my next bit of action. As I would have to undergo in-depth self introspection in order to understand what it was I really wanted. As I wanted to make an informed decision, I would spend the year learning about myself but I still wanted to ensure that when I decided I would have the best available opportunities to study. To do this I pursued scholarships in both fields wherever it was possible. I applied to the prestigious Allan Gray Orbis foundation scholarship and with the valued help of SSP I was also able to apply for a scholarship to Amherst University in America. I also auditioned for UCT’s Theatre and Performance course in the theatre making stream. The results of these actions were inspiring.
The first results amounted in my being accepted into the Allan Gray Scholarship after a grueling interview and camp process. After a long application process I was finally accepted into Amherst, and as a result from my performance with my Matric results, I was awarded fee discounts from the varsities at which I applied. I was also accepted into the Theatre Making stream which only accepts ten people country-wide. These results were a strong indication of my abilities and a show as to what kind of opportunity was available to me when hard work was done especially on the academic front and with a strong will for perseverance. Having grappled with the issue of which course to take, I had resolved upon doing the SA Theatre and Performance course as I wanted to pursue a path of truth, following my stronger passion and letting my entrepreneurial side thrive through taking the road less traveled, which would also challenge my creativity more instead of being too safe and yet uncertain of what could have been, and unfulfilled as a result. As a compromise I planned do Marketing as a post-graduate course. This choice meant that I had to open myself up to the world to learn from it and extend my learning to every experience of life. Taking risks was a significant result of this choice as well as part of the challenge, as taking risks is a great part of being an entrepreneur as well. Another result of my actions was disappointment. I was disappointed that I could not do both my interests concurrently, and I leaned that this type of situation would probably often occur in future and had to learn to deal with disappointment in a dignified way. I feel the benefit of this personal choice to others is layered. At first I have inspired cousins, younger girls at my old school and other peers to follow what their hearts yearn for, I often give advice and extra help when needed so that they too can have a myriad of opportunity opened to them and also that they may grant themselves the boldness to trust in their talents. Secondly, I feel that while commerce may have lost valuable talent, I do feel that the art industry which is still relatively small and somewhat unsupported in South Africa has gained a powerful mind which will in some way uplift and contribute meaningfully towards it, as I am adamant to see growth happen in the support and boundaries of South African art.
The most striking sense of right and wrong that I experienced was that of maintaining integrity even at the cost of opportunity. I learnt it was in keeping with my personal values to follow my passion than to compromise that which forms a great part of me in favour of money. I have always maintained that one should be the master of money and not allow money to be one’s master. My sense of integrity is that what I think and feel should be in accordance with what I do and in making this choice I had not strayed from this set of values.
Finally, the person I am today as a result of my decision making is that 1am more hungry to make success happen and to prove my critics wrong. I strive, as always, to excel academically and artistically. I am sensitive to people who would need similar advice and I offer it freely as I now know how valuable it is to have the help of others in this regard. I am more aware of the world I live in and how difficult it is to get by. I know well that much is expected from me as much has been so generously given to me. The entire process defines the type of leader I want to be in future, as Thomas J. Watson best asserted that “Nothing so conclusively proves a [woman's] ability to lead others as what she does from day to day to lead [her]self.”
