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12 December 2018 | Story Mothepane Lebopo

The door closed. My eyes opened.

My dreams were halted as I sat up. She was already outside my window, the midnight moonlight lit her skin and erasing my fingertips on her arms. I opened the window… cold truth blew in. It stung my heart. She was going.

“Seriously? After four months this is how you are going to leave?”

Silence.

She was trying to control her breathing, to keep it as flat as possible. She had a unique, annoying gift of being able to compose herself in such situations, especially when she knew it was needed.

She stared at me.

My heart was pounding against my chest. In anger. In desperation. It had settled on her, but clearly she wouldn’t let me get close to hers.

I felt the first tear roll down my cheek. I quickly wiped away the second one. She just stared…

She could have been looking at me, thinking of other things. With her you never knew. She turned.

“Wait, please wait. Did you ever love me?”

She stuck her tongue out and left.

And I knew that was it: we were over. Thinking back, I might have known for a while that it was coming. But still… being prepared for something doesn’t guarantee your heart won’t break when it actually happens.

I left the window open, slightly. My head was spinning and my heart was tearing.

I laid on what was supposed to be our bed and dug my head in a pillow in an attempt to block out reality. It was useless; warm liquid from my broken heart poured out through my eyes. All I could smell was her.

But what was I expecting? It could never work. We were two puzzle pieces from different sets. Two pieces that were never supposed to fit… We tried to force it, and it ended in pain.

She was such an odd person. She had this ‘forbidden love’ thing about her. Being hers was strange, I knew she wasn't mine but I still tumbled head over heels. Being with her was like cheating on a diet. Or texting when you’re supposed to study.

She had beautiful, wild eyes that had perhaps seen too much. She got high on other people’s vulnerability. When her arms locked around me, she wasn’t just holding me, she was searching for pain. Insecurity. She would pin me down and kiss my nose. When she felt my guard coming up, she would tickle me and my power would leave me and enter her. She always won.

Often we’d try to watch the stars. I could never concentrate, her beauty was fierce and demanded undivided attention. She couldn’t focus either. She looked at the stars, not for their beauty, but for adventure. She looked at them as a guide.

I felt her hot blood in her embrace, she had to move to keep cool. There was rarely a still moment. Always dancing. Always moving.

I guess that’s what attracted me to her. I made her my adventure. I wanted to see what she had seen. I told her I was happy where I was but in reality I wanted to go everywhere she went. Wherever the stars would take her.

My lips only met hers when she was drunk. Perhaps she didn’t want to remember showing a little bit of emotion, being a bit vulnerable in front of me. But even then she rarely shared her thoughts with me.

So her secrets are still with her, while she knows mine.

That wild girl, may I never hold her again. She said she didn’t like it. She wanted to feel liberated. And my arms didn’t offer her that.

The girl with a storm in her heart had started a fire in mine and left.

I look out the window, where she had been standing. I almost smiled. What was I thinking?  Thinking I could fix her? Whether I love her or hate her, it makes no difference because she’s not here. She’s not coming back.

I will never know what exactly she wanted with me. But I’ll grow wiser from this.

You can’t teach someone who’s power hungry to surrender. You can’t mould someone who despises being held. You can’t put out a wild fire. Don’t try to pick wild flowers, because their thorns will pierce your skin and then they will wither because of your blood. But their scent will linger forever.

Now I know. You can’t tame someone who is wild. You shouldn’t offer your heart to someone who has sold her soul to adventure.

Don’t try to love someone who can’t be still.

 

News Archive

Valuable opportunity for future educators
2012-02-13

 
The UFS will award bursaries to about 670 students this year. These bursaries, to the value of over R42 million rand, will give these students the opportunity to follow their dream of becoming educators in South Africa. At the selection process were, from the left: Prof. Gawie du Toit, Programme Director: Initial Teacher Education at the UFS, Dr. Rantsie Kgothule, Teaching Practice Coordinator at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus; Ms Fiona Padayachee, Deputy Director: Recruitment and Selection in the Free State Department of Education; and Mr Kennedy Vilankulu, Information Manager at the Fundza Lushaka bursary scheme.

 

This year, 675 students from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Faculty of Education will be awarded bursaries worth more than R42 million from the Fundza Lushaka bursary scheme.

The selection process for the recipients is already underway. Although each student’s academic performance plays a vital role in the selection process, beneficiaries are also selected based on performance in scarce subjects like mathematics, science and African languages.
 
 “We are trying to attract and train as many teachers as possible. Hoping they will honour their contract and teach in South Africa” said Mr Kennedy Vilankulu, Information Manager at the Fundza Lushaka Bursary Scheme.
 
Mr Vilankulu commended the faculty on its management of the bursary scheme. This is evident in the close liaison between the faculty, on both the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa campuses, and the Free State Department of Education. Just over 90% of the beneficiaries of the bursary scheme study at the UFS.
 
Prof. Gawie du Toit, Programme Director: Initial Teacher Education (ITE) says the quality of a school can never exceed the quality of its teachers. It is the faculty’s aim to educate caring, accountable and critically reflective education practitioners. These teachers must be able to act as agents of change in diverse educational contexts. Prof. Du Toit said it was a privilege to collaborate with both national and provincial Departments of Education in this venture.

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