The Road to UCT

Greetings to everyone! I feel like 90% of all blog posts begin with an apology to the readers for having such infrequent blog posts. So I'm not sure if it'll be worse for me to apologize and contribute negatively to the statistic, or not apologize and sound unappreciative of my readership. I suppose I'll compromise by just talking about apologizing without actually doing so. There you go.

I think you all deserve the whole story. The whole truth. It's been a journey, my friends, and I will try to capture the essence of each important moment on the Road to UCT. Stay with me, here.

I send in my application online on April 11th, 2011. I was young, I was innocent, I had already gotten into three respectable Canadian universities, but not too deep down I wanted to go somewhere exciting, somewhere different. So the University of Cape Town it was. I've been asked a few times why I decided to go for UCT and not somewhere else. Yes, it was the urge for adventure that motivated me primarily, but there was some reason that went into the decision as well. It's a school taught in English, first of all; it has a really, really good reputation, both from people who have gone here and from studies done on the world's educational institutions; it had programs that were interesting to me; the price was not exorbitant; and the campus is unbelievably beautiful. And look, they've already taught me how to use a semi-colon! Okay, so in April, my hopeful self applied.

Many of you were with me for phase two of the application process. By phase two, I mean the phase where I didn't know what was happening and I was floating around like an aimless plastic bag on a highway. I had deferred my acceptance to Carleton University, and shipped myself off to Calgary after camp in the summer to get a job and save up for this elusive education I was planning for.

Now, phase two lasted a while, let's not lie. The number of vague answers I gave in those months would probably knock you off your chair. Thanks to much support from all of you, I managed to make those months beneficial, more than just financially. I had a good job, good home, good church, made a bunch of friends, did a bunch of paperwork for school and everything else... It was good.

Then, the "conditional offer" was made on my online account. We'll call this phase three. This conditional offer was supposed to be followed by a letter. The letter never came, the email was supposed to have been sent, it never was. And then I flew to Tanzania for Christmas.

Two weeks went by, beach and safari and sleeeeeeep, and still no letter. So, another few phone calls later, and I actually had my acceptance. Which signalled the panic of getting a visa in two weeks or less, in order for me to make it here on time. Miracle of miracles, the South African High Commission can get a Canadian kid's visa done in a week! Amazing! Hey, why not call this phase four? It lasted about four days, so it's an appropriate name.

Now, I welcome you to Friday night, Friday the 27th of January. Saturday was the day we would fly to Cape Town as a family, to do all the fun starting-university-in-a-new-city things. Oh, Friday.
We got home from dinner on Friday, I checked my email. Waiting for me was an email from UCT. It was a short email, and to make it shorter, it said that my final examination results had not been received, and my acceptance had been withdrawn. Have a good day.

Phase five wasn't a particularly pleasant phase. It was horrible. I mean, I had sent in my final examination results. I knew that. I knew that it wasn't my fault, and that the university should technically let me in, because it was their mistake. But that wasn't very reassuring. I had already packed and everything, and we were ready to go, and that night was basically a night of wondering bad things.
I won't really go into details, but I kind of feel like I wrestled with God that night. He won. His winning, though, involved me giving up things I was clinging to, and resting in the assurance that He's got it under control. It was beautiful. Oh my goodness, it wasn't a fun night, but it was a good night.

Then suddenly we were in Cape Town. Doing tourist things, negotiating with Humanities administrators, trying to find me a place to live, going to the International Students' orientation despite not being a student yet... One of the weirdest weeks of my life. I was just swimming in uncertainty.

And then BAM. Phase six. As I'm listening to somebody or other's address at the International Students' reception, my Dad's fiddling with his Blackberry, and gets onto the website to check my application status. Bu-yah, I'm in. Suddenly, it all comes together. Suddenly, we spring into action and get me a place and a phone and I can actually make friends and go to orientation and unpack and let all the past five phases go. Some of you will say, "Finally!", but I take none of it for granted.

So, here I am. I've started classes now. I survived O-Week. I'm learning about religion, history, philosophy, and writing in the media. I'm loving it. It's been a little hard making my brain start learning again, but I'll get back into the groove. I'll let you all know about other stuff I've been up to here, but I think this is plenty long for now.

Thanks for reading, thanks for praying and worrying and asking. I'm taking sign-ups for anyone who wants to come visit me. I have a really convenient spot on the floor that would be perfect for an air mattress, if you catch my drift.

And I will have internet soon, and I can Skype with all of you a hundred times a day. I promise.