Health Science Reviews

by Lutho Daza

As an individual who was born in the eastern cape, grew up and studied in the eastern cape I was very excited to move to another province, especially to pursue my postgrad studies. BUT WHAT A JOURNEY IN THE CAPE….

Initially, a move from WSU in Mthatha to UCT in Cape Town was exciting, I’m moving to the mother city, ‘The cape of good ‘as youngstaCPT once said. A career in Clinical anatomy sounded fun and exciting, so I thought, all I was met with were challenges, I couldn’t adapt, the workload from day 1 was crazy. After the 1 st week we wrote a test, ‘I mean it’s the 1 st week of February, what’s the rush..’ but that was just the beginning of what was to come. I had to adapt immediately because if I couldn’t there was no way I was going to survive.

I’m someone who prefers to be alone but all that had to change because you can’t walk alone in honours. I met a friend from res luckily, we were doing the same course which made it easier because I had someone to communicate with, someone to help me adapt and adopt the UCT life. I was out of my comfort zone, everything was moving fast, the workload was pilling up the course was strenuous. Through dissection I had to network and socialize with people in my group. Slowly I started to adapt and things started moving. The lecturers were assisting where they could so that made academia endurable.

The journey was difficult, challenging, it had its ups and downs but it is endurable when you are surrounded by others who are facing the same challenge as you. Honours is no child’s play but with the correct mindset, supervision from a supervisor that understands the challenges we face and lecturers that are supportive, all that makes it possible to endure the course. I’m grateful but the journey is miles from being over.