Photo Guy Ackermans When I was asked to write a column about my AID, my initial idea was to write a sociocritical piece about the excessive consumption of alcohol in society. As an AID-baby (a ridiculous term), you are practically drowned in CH3CH2OH (ethanol), and that is appalling. And although I, as a later-year student, would love to take the moral high ground, something inside me says: who am I kidding?
It really was fantastic, the first time as an eighteen-year-old at student parties singing along with the worst possible songs with fellow students in exactly the same state. And perhaps this includes a drop or two. It is what it is. But go and see for yourself, is my advice. Before you know it, you may be making out with someone you have only just met.
Although I would love to take the moral high ground, something inside me says: who am I kidding?
And also, see for yourself what it is like when you get called out of bed the next morning at 08.20 hrs because you should be delivering a presentation in Orion in room 4041 right now (speaking from experience, luckily, the copious amounts of alcohol still present in my system helped me wheedle my way out it).
This is the moment you have the freedom to do as you please, so go ahead. But not just the things I described here, take the time to appreciate how lucky you are to be studying at such a university, that you are one of the happy few that doesn’t have to slave away for half a bowl of rice per day.
So don’t just pull an all-nighter at a techno party on pills, but also pull an all-nighter because it suddenly hit you how deeply in the shit we really are.
At least, that is what happened in my case. And, before you start fearing that your future includes glueing yourself to the tarmac, you realise that glue and mashed potatoes are really not the only ways you can make a difference.
But above all, see for yourself and enjoy. Believe me; I will run into you at that techno party.
Felix Landsman is ex-Resource student editor an last year graduated bachelor student in International Land & Water Management.
