Twenty Years In The Making

The doctor’s wife told my mother that, if I turned out to be a girl, then they should call me Pulani, which means ‘She comes with the rain’. Twenty years later dry thunder clouds hung over the Cape for the entire day whilst the rest of the country mostly had rain. While this may have seemed an ominous start to the new school year, it also marked two decades of ‘me’. That’s right: the ‘ones’ column reset and the ‘tens’ column advanced one.

Yeah, it hard to believe – the other milestones feel like yesterday: eighteen, sixteen... But I won’t digress into the past. The future starts now and already past failures feel obsolete and achievements insignificant when I consider even the prospect of what may lie ahead.

The day itself was pretty quiet, but in the evening I took a few friends out for drinks. Many have already started with their ventures for the year and others are preparing and moving around (some even had exams already), but it was good to gather a few familiar faces. My birthday is at a somewhat awkward time – most of the time it coincided with the beginning of school. My classmates must have thought school is a great place when they were treated to cake on the very first day of grade one. But I still have a week before I even have to consider my responsibilities for the year, so it’s great to have a carefree birthday for a change. ;-)

Thursday I attended a Second Years’ (“sophomore”) function at the medical campus and had a chance to see that caucus again. Hehe, trust them to have a cheese and wine function without cheese. I was busy breaking ground; that was the second time this week I visited that campus. Last Sunday it was with another friend doing a brief tour of the Promised Land before he returned to London where he will reside for another year (Nev, if you read this, have a great year, enjoy everything and keep doing the good work, where ever you are).

Took the weekend a little slow. I see they made a few obvious changes the CS module I had last year. Figures they’d do it now. Anyway...

To all my friends and family (past and present), thank you for every thing! I appreciate each and every one of you and without you; the journey would have been somewhat a waste.