Health Science Reviews

By: Sphumelele Gcaba

Firstly, I would want to thank my self for making it this far. Trust me when I say I
thought about deregistering countless times because of the academic stress,
depression and pressure but at some point, I had a self-introspection and told myself
that I am not going to give up because that is not who I am. As the saying goes
“Rome wasn’t built in a day “, so I guess it reminded me that great things take time
also that I should keep pushing no matter how hard it is in order to secure this
degree.

Moving from Durban to Cape Town also contributed to my depression and anxiety
because it was first time being this far away from home and I was having a hard time
adjusting to Cape Town lifestyle. It was hard also adapting to University of Cape
Town since I did my undergraduate studies at a university that is in a rural area.
It was not an easy process transitioning from undergraduate to post graduate level.
The honours workload was very overwhelming especially at the beginning of the
program. I couldn’t catch my breath because it was assignments due dates, tests,
attending classes all at once. I also struggles a lot with doing presentations because
I am naturally a shy person and I have social anxiety. But right after the first 6 weeks
things got better, I even started to understand what was really going on
academically. I started getting used to my classmates and asking them for help in
topics that I did not understand, and I even started booking consultations with
lecturers; I can say that my life started falling into place.

Then exam season approached, and my depression started creeping back because
of exam fever. I was pulling all-nighters every day and energy drinks became an
addiction to a point where I got admitted to hospital because of high blood pressure
caused by not allowing my body to rest and also caused by drinking energy drinks
excessively. I was in a very dark space because I was overthinking about
consequences that might occur when I don’t do well in my exams. On the brighter
side, I wrote my exams very well and I didn’t encounter any problems.

I also found my passion in human genetics. I really enjoyed studying for human
genetics test and exams. I was so sad when I had to go back to doing bioinformatics
because I am registered for BMedSc (Hons) in Bioinformatics but I will definitely
apply for Master of Science in Human Genetics.

This Honors program have been full of challenges, but I am glad that I was able over
come those obstacles and I have learned a lot and I’m still looking forward to gaining
more knowledge.