Alice Mckay nicknamed “Gran” by her roommate, lights a Dunhill Light at her desk. Inhaling deeply, she hums along to Counting Crows, her favourite band. Alice came to Rhodes an outspoken, irreverent and amusing ANC supporter, and has remained the same person since. While many other people have transformed themselves into the people they supposedly wish to be, Alice has never compromised herself in order to “conform to the boxed-in version of a typical Rhodent”.
“I feel sorry for those people, the ones who feel they have to change or have to become something just because they’re in varsity. Ok sure, I’m one for self development but I’m not here to improve my image or anything”. Clad in All Stars and a Sex Pistols t-shirt, Alice feels that there is more to university life than trying to “bungee or poppie it up”. She ashes in a pink coffee mug and laughs loudly when her roommate chastises her for it, quickly putting on a straight face when her roommate threatens to throw the mug at her. “Sometimes I just couldn’t be bothered with the small things, the details; life is about bigger things than where I smoke my cigarette”
Although she is not completely outrageous, in either dress or conduct, Alice has remained true to herself, not compromising her moral standards at all in first year, an achievement that is impressive in a world where naps and cane train are seen as more important than lectures. “I just made this decision in O-week, I saw so many people just throwing name and although mine wasn’t a completely sober one either, I wanted to remain the same person that I’d arrived here as”. So while an endless parade of new first years painted New Street with Cane-coloured coolness, Alice kept her dignity intact. Although she had a good time, she made a promise to herself that she would never lose herself amidst the Union-worshipping crowd. “I just want to care about more than getting pissed on a Friday night; I want my life to mean something”.
Alice picks up ‘Country of My Skull’ by Antjie Krog, and turns the book over in her hands, carefully studying the cover illustration. “I don’t want to live a lie and live within constructs that are not my own” she says, while discussing her political views and religious beliefs. “I have always been an open minded person, that’s the one thing I cannot stand- these BCOM students who just study for a well paying job one day. They’re capitalist monsters who are all jumping off the same bridge”.
She is politically incorrect, sometimes rude, but most times she is honest, straightforward and a rebel who stands up for what she believes in. Alice walks through campus a true Rhodent, one who embodies the spirit of forward thinking and humanitarian views. She is a leader in her own right, a red wine-loving African who is defiant in her views on life. She will never give herself up to “the slaughter of open minds” that many others do, and expresses her anger at the political apathy of the students who did not register to vote in the IEC elections next year. “Those too lazy to get a sticker in their ids should just immigrate to Canada and New Zealand- South Africa doesn’t need a whole bunch of idiots living here”.
It is this combination of her wicked sense of humour and anti-establishment attitude that smashes boldly through the Rhodes student cliché, placing her indefinitely among the minority of students who have managed to scrape through first year with their personalities and standards unscathed by negative influence. Laughing, she tells me she wants to be an English teacher, and does not care about the salary issue. “Life is not about money, and if we all just realised that, people would be a lot happier. I want to teach and love and learn, not gloat over my new BMW and a mock-Tuscan ‘villa’”.
“I feel sorry for those people, the ones who feel they have to change or have to become something just because they’re in varsity. Ok sure, I’m one for self development but I’m not here to improve my image or anything”. Clad in All Stars and a Sex Pistols t-shirt, Alice feels that there is more to university life than trying to “bungee or poppie it up”. She ashes in a pink coffee mug and laughs loudly when her roommate chastises her for it, quickly putting on a straight face when her roommate threatens to throw the mug at her. “Sometimes I just couldn’t be bothered with the small things, the details; life is about bigger things than where I smoke my cigarette”
Although she is not completely outrageous, in either dress or conduct, Alice has remained true to herself, not compromising her moral standards at all in first year, an achievement that is impressive in a world where naps and cane train are seen as more important than lectures. “I just made this decision in O-week, I saw so many people just throwing name and although mine wasn’t a completely sober one either, I wanted to remain the same person that I’d arrived here as”. So while an endless parade of new first years painted New Street with Cane-coloured coolness, Alice kept her dignity intact. Although she had a good time, she made a promise to herself that she would never lose herself amidst the Union-worshipping crowd. “I just want to care about more than getting pissed on a Friday night; I want my life to mean something”.
Alice picks up ‘Country of My Skull’ by Antjie Krog, and turns the book over in her hands, carefully studying the cover illustration. “I don’t want to live a lie and live within constructs that are not my own” she says, while discussing her political views and religious beliefs. “I have always been an open minded person, that’s the one thing I cannot stand- these BCOM students who just study for a well paying job one day. They’re capitalist monsters who are all jumping off the same bridge”.
She is politically incorrect, sometimes rude, but most times she is honest, straightforward and a rebel who stands up for what she believes in. Alice walks through campus a true Rhodent, one who embodies the spirit of forward thinking and humanitarian views. She is a leader in her own right, a red wine-loving African who is defiant in her views on life. She will never give herself up to “the slaughter of open minds” that many others do, and expresses her anger at the political apathy of the students who did not register to vote in the IEC elections next year. “Those too lazy to get a sticker in their ids should just immigrate to Canada and New Zealand- South Africa doesn’t need a whole bunch of idiots living here”.
It is this combination of her wicked sense of humour and anti-establishment attitude that smashes boldly through the Rhodes student cliché, placing her indefinitely among the minority of students who have managed to scrape through first year with their personalities and standards unscathed by negative influence. Laughing, she tells me she wants to be an English teacher, and does not care about the salary issue. “Life is not about money, and if we all just realised that, people would be a lot happier. I want to teach and love and learn, not gloat over my new BMW and a mock-Tuscan ‘villa’”.
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