A improved future through education for the "born free" generation

I am the offspring of the current generation of South Africa's domestic workers and gardeners, mine workers, security guards, waitresses and cashiers. We are generally referred to as the "born free" - children post-apartheid grew up.

Our parents worked to free us from the harsh sociology-economic conditions they suffered were nurturing hope for a better future for us by the higher education.

After the first year of the university - a moment that made me feel like a proud war veteran - I believe that the struggle my generation faces is not only a lack of access to higher education, but even more, lack of knowledge about how to get educated.

I am one of three daughters of a single-parent home help. I went to a fairly good school in Johannesburg, but faced very painful regarding tuition payments, which are resolved later by a scholarship I was awarded for my academics.

The prospect of tertiary education seemed unrealistic.

I feel trapped in terms of career choices and did not know the range of options. The Career Fair I attended featured large companies looking for young academic potential and focused on Utopian careers in accounting, science, mathematics and engineering.

There was never a student loan or exchange booths to explain how careers outside these sectors could be financed. Then my career choice based on probability, I have a better chance of scholarships and employment as I studied accounting. Doubts about whether I wanted to be an accountant disbanded at the thought of an improved life standard.

I school subjects chosen accordingly and were on their way to study for a Boom Accounting at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). I applied for some accounting scholarships and has been shortlisted for a subject to my final metric (-school leaving exam) results.

Disaster struck

Unfortunately, I'm sick just before my accounting exam, but refused to be hospitalized so I can write it. I endured the exam, but was admitted to hospital the following day with a burst appendix. While my last business studies paper wrote I was in the ICU, much more concerned with the business of staying alive.

Partially restored the next month - January 2011 - I was at UJ bright and early on the first day and for three days endure long queues. I was due to a supplementary examination in March. I've got a distinction in business studies obtained in Prelims and also in my favor were that I had already five points above the required entry - even without my seventh subject.

Nevertheless my efforts were in vain and I was a city refused. The big expansion in applications means that universities will only consider complete metric results.

I was forced to take a gap year in which I had to travel the opportunity and work, and through this experience began to think of careers outside accounting, such as journalism, diplomacy and law, which I have a genuine interest in . A National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) loan would be a way for me to have a career that I enjoy following.

The deceptively attractive salary of a call center job had me reconsider studying full-time as an income was much more attractive than the debt of a student loan. This financial security me forget, for a while, the importance of an enabling and sustainable employment.

Finally, with advice and mentoring, I applied and was accepted for a law degree at the University of the Western Cape, and set off to finally start my studies. But on the way to the airport, the day before I was due to first-year students starting orientation, I had an email from the university stating that my application has been refused, with no explanation.

It felt like a nightmare re-enactment of the previous year at UJ. I passed from person to person on the phone. With no clear explanation for the sudden rejection, I decided to leave for the Western Cape anyway, fully determined to fight my way in.

It seems that the law faculty full by the time reached my application. This led to the rejection although my results far exceeded the requirements. It took nearly two weeks of emails, phone calls constant of my mentors to the faculty and my plea to several people before I accepted and began the four-year course.

Get in is just the beginning

It was the beginning of an even bigger battle - NSFAS loan application. After days of 12 hours and long queues application forms, navigating I in securing a loan. The problem was, it was not enough food, transportation or accommodation to cover, because I have not been accepted for residence.

Worst of all, the money was just released in cash in May. The deficit was all in one way or another to pay me. But with great help of my mentor, and personal loans by my mother, and do promotional work part-time, I succeeded. This went on for a tense relationship with the owner, and nearly a semester tests and assignments with no textbooks.

Nevertheless I improvised, for a busy, high pressure and exciting first year of university. I'm juggling promotion work, lectures, studies and little sleep, with just enough room for a social life.

Squeezing in both the university and the work was a challenge, especially during exam times when I had to rush through an exam to make it to work on time. But ultimately, it taught me time management skills essential.

I have a pretty effective routine will start late morning lectures, followed by an exhausting 40 minutes to two hours train ride from campus and a three-hour nap. I would relax a little, cook and then studied in the early hours of the morning.

It was difficult to find a routine because I am so used to being told what to do at school with my mother. But as I grew, the nagging my own voice of reason, that self-discipline required. I could not afford to fail or satisfied with mediocrity in my academics because I was on the scout for scholarships.

Keep sane was necessary amid confusion over how to refer academic work, or seek foreign testing sites at least two days before to be on time. Roosters have a complex process of alternately departments to sort out conflicts between lectures and confusing together a schedule that allowed me to sleep. The workload was enormous.

A journey of self-discovery

I was growing in who I am, outside the person my old friends thought I was the daughter of my parents expect to be, and far beyond the borders of my comfort zone. It was the breeding ground for self-discovery.

Know who I am also attracted the right type of business to see me through the loneliness of being so far from home and the struggle of the student's budget. Emptying my piggy bank looking R3 (US $ 0.35) to buy a packet of noodles for dinner and eats only were disappointing - until the right friends together.

Together we rewarded ourselves with trips to the beach, excursions and take-outs when we could, and noodles taste so bad when sharing laughs. My friends are my support, additional voices of reason and a homely feeling of belonging.

Although my trip to university peppered with more dragons, witches and evil stepsisters than the average fairy tale, I would not have any of the experiences of. They taught me holistic, empirical lessons that will enable me, if a graduate in one day watching my mother and her on vacation for the first time in her career.

Education as ammunition

I cannot emphasize enough how powerful education is to fight as ammunition to the new struggle of our generation. We know that our struggle is not that of the previous generation, our future fall into the hands of the hungry and illiteracy. In fact, many young South Africans are starving of hope, is blinded by disadvantaged circumstances.

We do not illiterate and become unemployed due to a lack of education. We suffer from a lack of knowledge about how educated. Access to this information is crucial barrier growing an educated youth.

Some young disadvantaged South Africans know that higher education is attainable by a NSFAS loan, even if they are orphaned or simply cannot afford. Growth through education delayed this - but it can easily be prevented by distributing leaflets NSFAS in high schools and publish information on career days.

If our parents what they have done with so few can achieve, just think that my generation can achieve with education.

* Just after writing this article, Kits Ratio heard that she was a Allan Gray Fellowship, an initiative aimed won on the development of future leaders in Southern Africa. The community includes financial support with exposure to thought leaders, mentoring and entrepreneurial mindset development. There is also access to postgraduate funding.