It was 3rd of February, 2008. Thousands of eager and fresh matriculants entered Eden Grove on the warm Sunday afternoon unaware of what drastic changes lay beyond the friendly SRC faces and parents hustling to ensure their angels make it in varsity safely. Ah, it was a beautiful day in Sobriety-Ville; birds singing, heads clear, hands ready to write a thousand essays… until of course, the very first cheese and wine evening. It suddenly became clear to these innocents that they were adults, and with that came a free pass to any pub, bar and cocktail club Grahamstown had to offer – without failing! First year is the time and place where learning is a key element and growing takes a front seat to any of the academics you thought you were going to dedicate your precious time and energy to. For some reason we all arrived at Rhodes University expecting to be first class students living at the library and not even becoming victim to the ‘bottled’ stereotype Rhodents were ever so infamous for. Wow, we were wrong. It is now second semester and we’re lazier and more liver-strong than before. The troops have gathered in masses in the dingy corners of Olde 65 and The Rat (we like to keep things marsupial) from Wednesday evenings, ladies dressed to kill on Thursday Ladies Nights and, of course, EQ’s never-failing vibe keeps the Rhodents scratching their pockets for cheese to quench their thirsts. Fear not, for some reason we still manage to achieve relatively healthy marks; but don’t ever think (even for a moment) that we slave away at the books, hungrily searching for knowledge… we don’t. Most of us didn’t even know where the library was until Babalwa Sishuta (Sociology 1 Lecturer) ensured that we were given no lecture slides, no notes, and only book titles so we could read on Deviance by ourselves (thank you ma’am). My point is, first year is the year of regrets, thrills, shots, spins, storms, draughts, tears, smiles and oh yes, a whole lot of work that, for some reason, always manages to get itself done. This is definitely not a negative thing; it’s absolutely detrimental that we experience everything varsity has to offer so we can get it out of our systems in get our systems geared for the remainder of our degrees. The drinking? Not a problem. Viv and her squad of admission gurus have carefully handpicked the most liver-strong, intelligent and die hard South Africans to be part of the RU family. So basically, any fears of not coping lie solely with your ability to balance ‘le good life’ and the hard work that will never leave your plate. Balance is uber important, it’s so easy to get left behind thinking you were having a good time along with everyone else when everyone else… has finished their work. It’s kind of like survival of the fittest without appearing uncool and nerd-like – believe it or not, Rhodes is small enough to maintain the labels that were assigned in high school, but it’s big enough to get lost in the rush of too much responsibility for your own life. Get rowdy, get delirious, get a little lost but always find your way back so you can get educated.