Taylor P's week of many lessons

Last week I finally got scuba certified! During one of the qualification dives I sat down and had a really interesting talk with one of the scuba instructors. She told me about how in high school she thought physiotherapy was 100% what she wanted to do with her life. She applied to UWC and got accepted as a regular student so she tried for nursing and was accepted! Although it was her backup plan she thought it was still a good choice for her. However, a few days after hearing about her acceptance, she was contacted again and told that she was no longer accepted because the nursing programs student dynamics had to match the outside of the surrounding area. Basically she took it as not being accepted because she was white and there were probably already too many white students accepted. I understand her logic and the way they told her was unprofessional. However, if being rejected from something that was her second choice led her to find her passion, I count it as a win. She quickly dropped out and eventually discovered her passion for scuba diving. She told me how much she loves diving and is currently training to further advance and become a dive master. It’s really amazing to hear about how she wakes up and just knows her day will be filled with what she loves. Her story is really inspiring to me because recently I have been struggling with what I want to do after I graduate and the instructor and other people I have encountered are showing me that passion trumps any sum of money that could be made. I should focus on doing something that I love and that makes me happy rather than something that will possibly lead to a high-paying but miserable future.

On Thursday Taylor and I went to a comedy show at the Waterfront. We figured going in that a few of the jokes would go over our head because we aren’t locals but the show wasn’t exactly what we expected. The first comedian was a 31-year-old white local Capetonian. Her entire set was based on racist comments that couldn’t even be considered jokes because they weren’t funny in the slightest. We weren’t the only ones that felt this way because you could tell by the audience’s reaction that they were rather uncomfortable. I do realize that comedians frequently use race as a source of jokes but she just took it too far. The audience was mixed races and when I looked around no one really knew how to react, there were only a few chuckles here and there. It got me thinking about being a bystander in racist situations, which I definitely was in this case. Now I probably couldn’t have exactly told her to stop but I could have gotten up and left but I was really just too shocked and wasn’t sure what to do. It really shows that not everyone finds racist jokes funny, even in a comedic setting. In some ways it gives me hope that South Africa is moving slowly but surely away from its racist past.