DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN NEEDS AND WANTS
When I was in college, there are so many things that I loved about being there. There are also some things that I missed from high school. I enjoyed the fact that in college we were considered adults who were fully responsible for their lives. It was good. All students felt grown up. Meal times had ranges. There was not a fixed time for any particular meal. Unlike boarding school where there would be people following you up if you did not go to a meal, at college, there was no one who played that role.
By Fadzai Maposah (ZNFPC Mash East Province)
Article published in The Herald newspaper
When meal times began, the canteen staff opened the doors and they simply closed the doors at the end of the meal times. I missed Matron Rose, our Sisi Rose. She took care of us when we were in high school. When we were in boarding school, we loved her, but at times we thought that she was too tough on us. She drilled some things into us and at times we ended up doing things without much thought to it because it had become routine. As I started college, I missed Sisi Rose switching off the lights and saying, “ndini Rose ndadzima” loosely translated to: “Rose has switched off the lights.” The rooms in Hostel A where I stayed at Harare Polytechnic had a wall that demarcated the room.
On either side each student had two lights, one that lighted the whole side and another at the study area. One had to make sure that the lights were switched off and on at the appropriate times. Some went away and left their lights on and there was no Sisi Rose who would follow up to ensure that the lights were off. From the outside at night, one would see lights on, it could have been that someone was studying or had forgotten to switch them off. With time most new students learnt that there was no one who would do things for them. There were no bells to signal free time, when one could do their laundry, one simply had to manage their time. The stairs linked the students to one another. One had to go up or down the stairs if they wanted something.
There were students who knocked on their friends` doors early in the mornings, waking up not only their friends as they called out the friend`s name but all those nearby. There were those students who disturbed peaceful and adventurous dreams through their knocking. Being at college, especially in college accommodation, is really good for preparing one for life in so many ways. As students in the initial days, most of us did not have bank accounts. Our parents and guardians would send us money through registered mail and we would collect our money from the old Causeway Post Office. We would walk from the Harare Polytechnic quickly to get the money. The walk back to college was fraught with many challenges.
The challenges and temptations were because of the money in the purse or the wallet. Suddenly one could easily pick up the aroma of French fries sizzling in hot fat. Easily picked too were the muffins newly baked and cooling on some rack. Having walked quickly to the Causeway Post Office one was determined to get the money and put it to very good use after sitting and budgeting. Money and temptations were like unlike poles that attract. I am so sure that many students who went to collect their money did not always use that money as they had initially planned. In some ways one always then had a justification as to why they had spent the money.
There were so many ice cream vendors that seemed not to have sold much the day that one collected their money so buying an ice cream was not selfish, no way! It was good in that by buying the ice cream one had assisted the vendor! The consequences of ill spending were always there. Some consequences were `silent`. Some were visible to others. The visible consequences were the worst. These were worse because even those who had done worse budgetary mistakes would be busy judging those whose sins had been uncovered. Female students would go up or down the stairs in Hostel A to request sanitary ware after noting that they were having the `it` experience and they had not prepared for it. Depending on the person that one was asking for help from, what one had to go through before getting the sanitary ware varied? Some would reprimand and quickly give the sanitary pads. Such people did not want to have `early` or `late` visitors who took much of their time.
Another group of people would be the ones who would not quickly open the door but would instead be interrogating from the inside why they should open the door. The questions if one was not near the door would be muffled and because one making the request wanted to avoid being heard by many people, she would be whispering the answers back. Such instances were common. And if one was on their way to their bathroom, it was possible to witness such incidents. And the one on the outside always looked embarrassed that others were witnessing them at their lowest. Asking for help is never easy and it is more difficult when it becomes a public spectacle. Many occasions I witnessed those on the outside having sanitary ware being pushed through a small space through the door with such comments such as `Make sure that next time when you go to town, you don’t treat yourself before you buy what is important.` This statement should be accompanied by two emoji’s, a sad face and a broken heart. Some things never change. It is important to take care of the needs and then entertain the wants.
https://www.herald.co.zw/differentiate-between-needs-and-wants/