Article July 28, 2003 Issue

College . . . then what

By Verity Sell

I had finished high school in South Africa with high hopes: I'd go to college to study theater and becomes an actress. I had done plenty of professional work in the theater while growing up, and I was convinced that was my calling.

Halfway through college, though, I became very disillusioned. I still enjoyed acting, but didn't like everything I was being taught in my drama classes. And I was starting to think I didn't want to spend my whole life performing, preparing for performances, and associating only with other actors. But this was my dream. This was what I wanted . . . wasn't it? How could I walk away from it?

At the same time, I was also starting to enjoy the other subjects I was studying—English literature and art history. But this was postapartheid South Africa — a time when the emphasis was on the practical skills you had, rather than on the academic degree you held. There was little chance that with a degree in English literature I would get any kind of job after college. Besides, I didn't even know what kind of job I wanted! So, here I was, like so many of my friends, not knowing what to do with my life and feeling a use-lessness and lack of purpose that was new to me.