Ending university is very similar to an ending a three
weeks long revivals. You begin to ask open-ended questions like, ‘are they
really over?”. Then come the sporadic tears, anger and nights filled with
joyful nostalgia of every moment you’ve ever had all the week of revivals. You
can’t escape the memories. Over the weeks
you’ve become so blessed that it seems unfathomable to go a day without
a song of praise and worship. But reality hits you like a ton of bricks, and it
feels as if someone has just stolen your identity and took off with your life
leaving you homeless, empty and confused to the point where you wouldn’t know
which way were up or down. When you listen to worship songs, you can’t help but
relate the sound the to the love you feel towards your university and the
relationship you have with it. This all sounds silly, but in reality the love
affair you have with university will be one of the best revivals of your
lifetime.

University is where you first have your
purse stolen learning that not all people are worth trusting because many
people don’t have your best interest at heart. It’s where you have your first
heartbreak, leaving you hurting deep inside your heart, wondering how you got
so pathetic, how did you get that F in the course. It’s where you learn that
sometimes things fall apart and things may never always go the way you’ve
planned/want them to . And it’s where you learn to get up again and recover
from bad situations and have them make you better rather than bitter.

University is where you begin to
understand that home is not a place, that sometimes blood isn’t always thicker
than water and that change is the only constant. It’s where you’re first able
to introduce yourself independently to the world, allowing yourself to be whoever
you want to be. It’s where you learn to love yourself and embrace all the parts
you used to hate about yourself little by little.

Leaving university is a bizarre and sad
experience and something I’m surely struggling with, but at the same time I’m
also undeniably happy because I can’t ignore the overwhelming fact that I was
lucky enough to have such an amazing experience. I am sad to say goodbye to the
wonderful life I’ve created at university over my four years but I find
calmness knowing that I be taking a piece of my university with me wherever I
go, in lessons I’ve learned, the relationships I’ll keep and the memories I’ll
cherish forever.

So to my university experience, I say ‘I
will love you Atlantic International University and I will miss you forever’
and that doesn’t feel the least bit out of context because like I said before,
leaving university is whole lot similar to ending a three weeks revivals and
also because I really really really whole-heartedly mean it.

Sincerely,

George Nkambule