The right moves on Campus

By Simon

The fruits of your hard work finally paid off — you are going to the campus of your dreams. The days seem to be dragging but it is because of your excitement.

You can’t help but wonder how life is on that side; will the guys like you? Will you get a cool roommate? What about the dreaded exams that stress people to death? You want nothing less than that coveted First Class Honours, how do you get it?

It starts like this for everyone enrolling in a college. High ambitions and dreams, strong personal promises. To scoop all the big prizes for outstanding performance and net a full scholarship for your Masters degree, among other things.

This is all happening in your thought processes and several months after setting foot on campus, the reality smacks right on your face — a reality you did not envisage.

You will encounter them by their numbers; exam cheats who don’t see the inside of the lecture halls all semester then show up in the exam room with stashed notes mwakenya, playboys who have affairs with more girls than they can count, criminals, perennial alcoholics and drug peddlers among others.

Not to say that campus is nothing but a rotten hell, no; these are some of the realities you will find on the ground; there are just as many good people and positive things about campus as there are bad ones.

It is no surprise, therefore, that more than 30 per cent of your year mates will not graduate with you. Some will get regular referrals (repeat exams), others suspended. Some will die of natural causes others from crime, drug and alcohol-related incidences (including drunken driving) and HIV. The thing is that campus is the battle zone that separates the men from the boys. So how do you emerge victorious?

Right decisions: Campus is nothing like high school; no one hovers around waiting to catch you on the wrong to reprimand you, no one will ring a bell to help you manage your time.

You will have demanding assignments and term papers to hand in by a certain date on one hand, and the guys who want to go raving every night of the week. Some students get so caught up in the flurry of campus life that they start missing assignment/term paper deadlines in their first semester.

There you have the privilege of freedom but privileges always come at a cost – responsibility. You have to manage your freedom wisely. Your decisions will be the key determinant to what you get out of campus. If you choose to spend all your time chasing girls and drinking liquor – you will reap the fruits accordingly. Campus is where people get invaluable skills and experiences that help them through their lives. It is also the same place where people pick up negative habits.

Social skills: You will meet people of different backgrounds, nationalities, tribes, social and economic status in campus. It is not all about books; go out, meet people, learn to communicate, and by building a good social life, you will be preparing yourself for greater success in life. Establish and maintain good relations with your fellow students as more often than not, the friends you make while in campus play pivotal roles in your career development.

Hard work: Many people work hard in primary and secondary school but relax when they get to campus. This is because there is not much supervision. Students, therefore, tend to relax and download materials from the Internet at the last minute and submit them as their work.

In addition to committing the crime of plagiarism, this instills the undesirable culture of always looking for the easy way out of tough circumstances. This explains why some high scoring college graduates cannot keep a job despite the credentials because in the real life, there is no such thing as the easy way out.