She leans over her book shelve in front of a wall filled with posters of every young and handsome celebrity guy you can think of dressed in a short jean mini skirt and a pink sassy top. She smiles and looks at me with her big eyes, “So, you want to know about me and my ways of living?” she asks. She has never had some approach her and ask her to tell them about her untamed life in university. This is a story she has always been eager to tell someone for months.
Sivuyisiwe Brigette Ngcaba grew up in the big city of Johannesburg, and for years she has never been faced with the need to work for any thing. In high school all she did were the things her friends would do; never did anything that seemed to be out of the ordinary. This all was to gain the approval of her friends and every one around her. Sivuyisiwe grew up living with her mother, but occasionally visited her father in Pretoria. “My mother was very strict on me, the only time you would see me out with friends would be at the mall or a day time party which had parents around.” she says with an attitude of someone who really does not care. “In my high school years I have never had the opportunity to smell freedom,” at home or at school; having to please every one every where she went.
Her first encounter with Rhodes University, she explains with so much excitement in her voice and a lit up face. She comes closer and jumps onto the bed, where I was seated as if she was about to tell me news that she has been dying to tell someone in a very long time but was suppressed from telling anyone. “A BLAST OF FREEDOM” that is how she explains her first week in Grahamstown; “It was something I had never experienced in my life before,” she says. Except for the freedom, Sivuyisiwe was still the same girl she was back in high school; she still did things to gain the approval of friends. But the only difference now is that she started to party a lot and drink excessively. She said this affected her academic performance causing her to fail a couple of her subjects. This was not only a weakness but also a habit she felt she needed to change. It took a great deal of time, a full term, till she discovered a book called The Secret. This book helped her realize that “All power is from within and therefore under our control,” (Robert Collier). This is when she decided she was going to live for herself and no one else, and realized that this is all going to need a lot of discipline.
With the combination of independence Sivuyisiwe started making the most of her every day life count. She was the life of every party she attended; and by just being herself, she made a lot of friends. “Rhodes helped me discover my capabilities and this helped me survive the torture of being some one who is dull and boring” she said with a lot of enthusiasm. Sivuyisiwe is now one of the most spoken about first year students in Rhodes University, not every thing they say about her is good yet she lives her life with so much charm and cheerfulness; also doing well academically.
5 comments:
I’M A SURVIVOR!
Prof Vodka has made an excellent attempt at capturing the true essence of Sivuyisiwe Brigette Ngcaba life. This is a touching story of a young female from the big city who finds freedom only when she reaches Grahamstown. She began to stop living life for her pleasure but for the sake of others as she tries to please those around her by often drinking and clubbing. This had detrimental consequences as it disrupted her academia. A motivational book became the agent that helped this character recognise her weakness and work towards a constructive and positive solution. It is through this that Sivuyisiwe becomes the hero of her own story which is a motivation to all first years that you can still be in control of your life and make a success of it… only if you are determined enough to want it!
This is ermteekay
This is a very nice story and I like the way you described your interviewee in the first paragraph. Almost one noticeable thing at the University is freedom, so I appreciate the angle that this story is taken. Referring to Propp’s view of a narrative, I see Sivuyisiwe as a hero who managed to overcome this “freedom” that was affecting her academic performance. The profile is well detailed, it shows that you asked relevant questions and took useful notes on your interview. I don’t mean to criticise, but the story was going to be more interesting if you have let Sivuyisiwe tell the story, because it seems as if you are asking her and then tell us. But well done man, I really enjoyed reading this peace.
The profile done on Sivusiwe on http://www.phola101.blogspot.com/ portrays a life of a hero who struggled to achieve due to the fact that she was having too much freedom and she was struggling to control it. She was a restricted person at home who did what the parents and her friends wanted her to do. She defines her first week in Grahamstown as a blast of freedom. The hero in this profile is struggling to balance work with her freedom.
The disruption in our hero’s life is the amount of freedom she is exposed to at university. She is failing her subjects because of this. Like Todorov the interviewee portrays the parents of the hero and her friends as villains and she also creates binaries between good and bad, villains and the hero. The binary structure is derived from Levi Strauss.
The writer is concerned with balancing work with fun and he or she is not hostile to old Rhodes traditions. Our hero returns to normality after she has realised what was causing a disruption in her life. She started doing well in her studies after realising what was causing the disruption even though it was not mentioned directly in the profile.
By Sam Raboroko of: http://www.sofru.blogspot.com
Professor Vodka
I would like to congratulate you in writing an interesting profile. When I was reading the profile you wrote about Sivuyisiwe Bridgette Ngcaba I was impressed. I have to say I like your writing style and I would also say you fitted exactly to the narrative style of many narrative scholars. In your profile article you are simple and clear about your interviewee. You followed exactly Todorov’s model of narrative by giving us an initial equilibrium- where you told us about the setting of the interview, description of your interviewee and then you told us about how Sivuyiswe grew up. Disruption- where Sivuyisiwe’s mother was strict. And finally the new equilibrium about whom the new Sivuyisiwe is at Rhodes and how she’s performing academically. You made a good analysis on Vladimir Propp’s narrative structure about the family member who is Sivuyisiwe leaving home and becoming a hero at Rhodes but her enemy villain which is excessive party and drinking is after her in destructing her life. You had a good flow in this profile the start, middle and end; nice picture too. Her mother as a helper and donor, and Rhodes as her dispatcher. It is a good profile indeed.
By Asanda Maki
Link:www.mirrormiglactic.blogspot.com
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