Vicky - The Legend

I am supposed to meet my friend and neighbor Victoria Johnson (Vicky) at the Kaif one warm afternoon, and I hear her deep and throaty laugh long before I even turn the corner. When I arrive, I see her immediately, surrounded by a large group of people, her arms waving wildly and her lively laugh penetrating every member of the conversation. Her unique style, consisting of bright clothes and sunshine-yellow shoes, highlights her personality and allows her to stand out from the crowd. However, she still manages to fit perfectly into the Rhodes’ scene.

Strangely, it was never Vicky’s dream, nor desire, to come to Rhodes. Despite having family members previously attending Rhodes, it was not what Vicky wanted.

“I was going to take a gap year after matric,” she said. “I thought I would get a job, maybe rent a flat… you know, just arb around and live life.” The many brass bracelets cluttering her arm clank as she moves a strand of hair out of her face, and she smiles widely. “I wasn’t keen on the idea of university, not at that stage of my life anyway. My June matric marks weren’t that great, and I only applied to university because I needed an acceptance letter to get my visa, so I could travel to England.”

Vicky pauses to turn around and greet a group of newcomers to the Kaif, and sips a Crème Soda before continuing. “I applied to Rhodes because I thought it would be the only university that would accept me with the marks that I had. I was stoked when I got accepted and could get my travel visa.”

As it happens, Vicky’s travel partner turned out to be “pretty awful”, and she decided that she couldn’t travel with her, and so she cancelled the trip. With nothing else to make of her much-awaited gap year, Vicky decided to fall back on her only university option.

The Cape Town girl then packed her bags and downsized from her big-city lifestyle to the place of purple, where she enrolled as a Bachelor of Science student. She has never looked back.

This bubbly student has befriended as many people as she possibly could, all of them from different circles, and she is always ready to meet new people. Her friends describe her as “crazy”, “outgoing” and “an amazing friend”. One of her residence mates laughed when asked to describe Vicky, and declared that she is “spunky, always happy, full of energy and always keen to party”.

Vicky is passionate about her degree and her subjects, and while sitting at the Kaif, we study a bee hovering above her Crème Soda can. She gives a detailed analysis of this bee and its functions, in between arguing with a fellow BSc student about the definition of “diploblastic”. She plans to major in Zoology and Botany, and her love for both fields is evident in everything she does.

Her zest for life, love of people and enthusiasm for peace has helped this dynamo survive her first year at the university she was not planning on attending.

“First year at Rhodes has been the best year of my life and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I can’t wait to finish my degree here.”