Nomzamo, a young ambitious girl from a township called KwaNokuthula in the Western Cape, has always dreamt of a life beyond the one she lives right now. She has always dreamt of helping the people of her community get the help they need at the clinic, faster. The local clinic had a shortage of registered nurses so that meant people would have to wait for hours before they get assistance. This pained her, she worked hard towards fixing it.
During her matric year, 2020, she applied at a nursing college two hours away from her home, in the hopes of not spending too much money travelling to school and coming back on the holidays. Everything looked like it would go well, she received an email telling her she was provisionally accepted at the college of her dreams. She started envisioning herself walking up and down the library stairs of the college and the class halls. But nothing ever works out the way we want.
February 23 2020, the much anticipated day of matric results came. The excitement and nervousness that filled her heart could never be explained in words. Fixing herself up, she thought of all the good news awaiting her, she went to school to collect her results. It wasn’t what she expected, yes it was a Bachelor’s pass but her mathematics was a level 1 instead of the 3 expected at the college. When she saw that she knew immediately that there’s no nursing college for her.
Having to go back home to explain all of this to her mother felt like a heavy burden on her, but she had to do it. On the way home she wondered if anyone else was going through what she was, because to her that would give her courage and motivation.
Her mother was supportive. All the doubt and worries that Nomzamo had about being a disappointment to her mother vanished. Her mother and her spoke about other options. Together, they decided that a rewrite of the mathematics was the best way. Her mother was concerned that if she pushed her to use her current results and do something else she would be angered. Her only wish was for her child to do what she is passionate about so that she could live a happy life.
Try again, she did. She had registered for her matric rewrite and she is currently focused on practising her mathematics so that she can go over and above what is expected at the college. Life is not going well for her right now because she is jobless and even going to school but she is hopeful that things will work out on this try. Life is always like that, ngu Mzamo – a try effort.
Anyone can be in this position, but it is up to you what you do. People will always talk and criticise but if you’re confident in your abilities then everything is possible. All might seem impossible now but, it will work out in the end!
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Tell us: What do you think about her will to not give up?
