A glimpse into the lighter side of my book...

The previous year, Sam had been part of a ‘foundation-year-programme’ that was like an overview of the various courses. Now, depending on his marks, he could branch off into whichever field of study he wanted.

‘I’ve moved to Groenkloof campus, I’m doing B-Ed.’

My heart sank to my ankles. B-Ed? Had he just said B-Ed, as in Bachelor of Education?

In the hierachy of Tuks this is how things worked: At the top there were the medical students who lived on Med campus in Gezina. They were closely followed by the Actuarial studies students, apparently if you were anything less than a genius, medicine and actuarial sciences weren’t for you.
Then there were the engineering students. They always carried heavy back-packs and wore serious looks as if they were the next Isaac Newton. I once saw an engineering student with the t-shirt: ‘Engineering Department: We will B-Com your managers’, I thought that was quite witty.
Below the arrogant engineers were the B-com & Law students, the smart-ish kids who spent more time drinking at the square than they did at the library, but would still be something one day. Well some of them...
Then there were the BA (arts, literature etc.) students. Their course was accurately dubbed ‘Bugger All’ because these were the rich kids who studied things like art just because it fascinated them. My mother would slap me for entertaining something so crazy! Her first question would be: Does it put food on the table? Of course it doesn’t! So, forget this passion thing and get a proper job! But at the absolute bottom of the food chain were the B-Ed students. B-Ed was the one course that didn’t have minimum requirements. All you needed was a matric exemption, and then you qualified. Everybody knew this and it was the butt of many jokes on campus.

‘That’s nice!’
I smiled, hiding my great dissapointment. It would have been better if he’d told me he’d got a job as one of the security guards, at least they had guns and you were forced to respect them.