INSULTS here and there, and bad words directed at her when she was pregnant when she was young and studying in high grades, she used it to be a motivation to achieve the good things she wanted in her life, she graduated as a teacher at the university.
That is Ms. Thembile Biyela from Ndwedwe, who is one of the students who graduated from different fields at the University of KwaZulu-Natal this week.
Accepting these titles, Ms. Biyela, woke up with sadness remembering all the pain she went through, she remembered the year that was the most difficult for her, 2016 when she got pregnant while studying in Grade 11, many criticized her for the mistake she made.
“People’s actions towards me when I was facing that situation made me feel like my life would not go forward. They laughed at me, gossiped and mistreated me so much that even when I went back to school I felt unwelcome,” he said.
Continuing, he said that the other thing that added salt to the wound was that he grew up in a family that was not financially stable, so that sometimes he went to school without eating.
“Life became difficult again after I failed matric, which made me feel like a failure and made me start to believe the bad things that people said about me. All that almost ended my life,” said Ms. Biyela.
He said that after that he stayed at home for a few years, while raising the child and trying to make ends meet. He ended up going back to school until he passed the matric which he was doing for the second time in 2020. That helped him continue his education at university.
Even then it was not easy as she had to deal with the burden of studying, while raising a child. Money laundering did not give him an opportunity but he pushed forward because he wanted to use education to pave the way for a better future.
“I want my children to grow up knowing that no matter how difficult it is in your life, you don’t have to throw in the towel – and I also want to show people that giving birth at a young age is not good, but it doesn’t stop you from achieving your dreams,” he said.