Interview with a Dropout

It’s graduation season. The light at the end of the tunnel, the culmination of years of blood, sweat and tears. The time for the all-nighters and breakdowns to finally be vindicated. For those of us who aren’t there yet, it’s a chance to admire and celebrate our peers, and it serves as a motivation for us to keep on grinding. But as we know, not all of us make it to this moment. We’ve all thought about it at least once: knee-deep in assignments, 3 tests in 3 days, and compulsory 8am classes cutting into the already nonexistent sleep time. Or maybe it was the night before an exam for that one course you hate and you’re still completely unprepared,. then you log onto social media and see people our age and even younger living their absolute best lives. I once had a friend tell me with a straight face that they had been researching, if I remember correctly, jobs on a yacht that required little to no experience. And we’ve all heard the “dropout and strip” a million times, and it still sounds appealing.

But for the most part, people stick with university and try to finish their degree. Not everyone though. In 2016, 2871 out of 29200 students dropped out of UCT. Our first instinct is to think about how we’ve been through, and how we’re still here. “They couldn’t handle university” or “they didn’t work hard enough” comes racing from our lips. Even when we sympathize, it’s very easy to label that person a failure and see everything they do after as a consolation prize. This is especially if they don’t plan to return later. There’s less of a stigma attached to someone taking a break for a semester or two, or sick leave. We don’t consider the thought processes they went through, and factors that were out of their control (such as finances). So, we decided to sit down with a dropout and find out what led to it, what they’re up to, and their plans for the future. The interview has been lightly edited.

When did you drop out?

I guess the official date of deregistration was May 2018.

How long were you in university before things started getting difficult?

I would say, Day 1 (laughs) to be honest. It was rough [from] day 1 but I guess I stayed afloat until two and a half years in., so I guess in my third year of studying, that’s when it became rough.

Was there a big moment when you knew that you couldn’t be there anymore? Or were there little moments over a long period of time?

I think it was little moments over a period of time. I can’t really specify which ones, but I remember there were certain points where I was like…I didn’t see the means to an end of the whole process. I wasn’t necessarily in university for a job, so there was no time limit or constraint for me with regards to that, so I knew that whatever it is that I wanted to do definitely didn’t require this degree or the emotional trauma that came with the degree. So, it was basically little bits of things over time.

How long did you wait to tell your family?

Uhm, yoh, a day or two. The minute I knew I went to straight to them and was like “yeah guys it’s not happening”.

How did they react?

I guess there was a bit of division regarding this. Dad was very upset, mom was very supportive, and my sister is lowkey like “he knows what he’s doing” so they kind of trusted the decision. My dad was quite upset about that.

I think we all think of this like as someone leaving and just never coming back. But what was the process you had to take? What did you have to do?

So basically, UCT has this thing called a deregistration form. It’s a very simple form. It asks you for your details and then asks you to motivate [why you’re leaving]. You submit the form and in a couple of weeks or so they let you know that it was successful. Then after that, they send you an update with regards to outstanding fees that you need to cover…yeah, that’s basically it.

And how were the first few months afterwards? What did you do with all that free time?

I think the first three to four months at home was recovery I’m not going to lie. It was hectic, I felt tired way after leaving university. So that cloud of pressure was still there, and it took a couple of months to fully shake out of it.

What are you up to now?

At the moment, I’m working for an e-commerce company that does online shopping. I work in the company’s billing department as a fraud investigator and that basically just comes with us just making sure that all the transactions on the company’s website are in good order or you know legal. So yeah that’s my job.

Would you return to university? Is this something you knew when you walked away the first time or a decision you came to later?

Not for full-time studying. Part-time. I always knew – when I left I knew when I would return. I say “when” because I knew id obviously go back to finish the degree. When I do return it will be part-time.

Are you happy with the decision you made, or do you have some regrets?

No regrets at all if I’m being completely honest.

And, this is the important question, do you know how to use UCTGuest?

(laughs) Not at all.