threats intra-, extra- and juxtaterrestrial

[extemporanea]

Yayness! herne_kzn and his Lovely Companion are returning to Cape Town in the near future! The LC apparently has a job in Gardens, and the Dynamic Duo are looking for a flat in that approximate vicinity. Please would Capetonians keep their ears to the ground for likely opportunities? You can leave (non-lewd) suggestions on herne_kzn's blog or litter the comments

Comments

[tngr_spacecadet]

Some friends just sent out an email ad for their flat, so I forwarded it to you to pass on.

[extemporanea]

The incredible power of Teh Internets! thank you, much appreciated.

[bend_gules]

The grad list went up this week, and I've thereafter seen a small, sad trickle of students who, in blissful ignorance of the giant gaping holes in their curriculum choice, fondly imagined they were graduating.

I have a recurring dream/nightmare in which I'm back in university, and have somehow both left out a required course until my last year, AND neglected to attend for the first six weeks of term.

Details vary - sometimes it's an essay-per-week course, and so now I'm several essays behind; other times I have to visit the most soulless and humourless prof I encountered in university to beg permission to join the course.

Sometimes I've forgotten to take a course at all, and cannot graduate.

I'm not sure how I feel to find out that this actually happens.

[extemporanea]

I fear it does. Unacceptably often, even. You would be amazed at the extent to which students wilfully resist absorbing basic, vital information. I've taking to emailing the entire undergraduate cohort in the faculty on important deadlines, but they ignore that too. Sigh. I'm sure you were far more organised.

[veratiny]

I always have these dream of having to go back to high school and re take my matric--including the afrikaanse exam. I was smarter at exams back then so it is not a good dream!

I missed my graduation the first time around thanks to huge gaping holes in my transcript (I must have had one of those human advisors). Still it ended up being for the best as I realised that I had done a history major backwards (3rd year in 2nd, 2nd year in 3rd). So six months later doing two cushy first year subjects I had a double major. Sometimes these things are for the best--part of the reason I got my current job (which I love) is thanks to that history major.

So when they cry and gnash their teeth...you can know that for at least some of them it will be the best thing that could have happened!

[extemporanea]

The difficulty is in persuading a 22-year old that in fact one extra year is nothing in the greater scheme of things, and will offer, as you say, all sorts of lovely extra opportunities. When you're under 25 a year is apparently several decades and not to be borne.