Sjoe, I meant to blog on this subject daily but life just got rollercoaster-like and I never did.  Only realized I had this on here when I wanted to start a new blog on my life in Greensboro, NC.  So I made it! Hubby and I graduated together on 12 Dec 2019.  I was in the second-week post rotator cuff repair and calcium removal from my left arm operation, so still in a sling.  Melisizwe, one of my classmates had to help me when things fell or I needed to put on my cloak as John had to sit with the Honors students.  He graduated with Honors cum laude which was not surprising as he had worked really hard at it.  I missed cum by 2 percentage points!!

What a year from hell this was for me.  I struggled with aural the most, my practical, classical guitar wasn't doing much better.  At the end of the first semester, I was in the dumps as I thought I had failed dismally. When I got my results I was pleasantly surprised that I had actually passed and not too shabbily either. The same happened with second semester and I had nightmares about me in tears cause I hadn't made it, but I did, despite all the dramas of being a student, mother, housewife and businesswoman which really took its toll and I never want to repeat another year like this. John helped me a lot and I would not have been able to do this without him.  He encouraged me and kept me going when I felt like just giving up.

I now am the proud owner of a Higher Certificate in Music!!!!

Well-done me.

What have I done!!!!

Last year after doing only 2 practical subjects, I auditioned for Higher Certificate in music.  My thinking was that either something catastrophic would happen nature-wise and we'd all be dead by the  time the new academic year started on 4 Feb or we'd be travelling and I would have to say "sorry, can't study this year" but none of that happened and 4 Feb arrived and I started classes at Stellenbosch University.

Now I've never had the opportunity to be a university student as I left school midyear standard nine.  I got my matric through night school in an Afrikaans medium school after I had all my 5 kids and a full-time job. That was a challenge and I made it so university would be a piece of cake, right?

I guess all university students will know of that first week timetable madness. My whole initiation was made a tad worse by the fact that somehow I could not see my University emails or load printing credits or see my extra class timetable.  So hubby and I, he so lovingly volunteered to sit with me, tackled Ithub not once, but 3 times.