By Prashalan Govender
Zahra does not particularly stand out in a lecture venue. She walks briskly and alone into the lecture venue without looking or talking to anyone. Throughout the lecture she sits and stares, occasionally reaching for a pen or smiling at something funny the lecturer has said but mostly she just seems impatient. She frequently fidgets with her jacket or purses her lips while peering down at her desk or her eyes glaze over. This impatience is easily explained: she’d much rather be outside the lecture venue than inside it.
Zahra is 1.56 metres tall, her skin is the colour of a glazed donut- a creamy brown/beige and her head of hair consists mainly of little spindles that cascade over her forehead and covers the top of her ear. Her ears are decorated with large white earphones and her small neck is often gaining attraction because of a thick black choker necklace that she often wears. Her arms, hands and upper body is never visible as she wears either an oversized blood red blazer, red woollen sweater or baggy blue denim jacket – Zahra prefers this covered look as she likes drawing as little attention to herself as possible. Zahra, commonly referred to as “Zah” amongst immediate family, is just as robust with her style for her lower body. She loves denim so she’ll either be in a pair of blue denim short shorts or a pair of blue denim jeans. Her footwear is always sneakers, she will wear sandals if the heat is unbearable but both her and her brother, Amilcar, agree that she prefers sneakers.
William Shakespeare once said that “The eyes are the widow to your soul”. Such a theory has proven itself true time after time and Zahra Jardine is no different. Observing her behaviour from afar it’s easy to think that there’s nothing more to her than social reservation and impatience. However, upon closer inspection it becomes clear that her eyes aren’t glazing over with boredom they’re simply reflecting her minds imagination[4] of where she shall go this Friday or which country she wants to visit next. Yes, Zahra is an aspiring traveller and practices going out to restaurants and clubs like it is her religion.
Zahra, unlike many others her age, is not very concerned about discovering herself through academics and self-elevation through academic success. Instead, she seeks to discover herself through discovering herself through experiences and uses the hunger for more experiences as motivation for academic success. Zahra inherited an appetite for travel from her mum, Muriel Jardine, who as a Human Resources executive travels a lot. Her love for going out at night seems to have come from the affinity for the more welcoming environment of a club and or house party than the environment of a lecture venue.
This predilection stems from years of exclusivity at her high school. However, Zahra has revealed to close sources that she managed to cope by inheriting her mums’ independence and being born “selfish”- she always maintained her image for herself and never for others. Despite her ability to cope, such an experience made her want to get out of her home city,-Johannesburg. Thus, she began researching inclusive universities that had were surrounded with beautiful landscapes- she has a passion for photographing nature. Unfortunately, restricted by points she decided not to apply to the University of Cape Town. Instead, she applied to her second choice- Rhodes University. Here, Rhodes University is where she currently resides and is currently enjoying her life as a multifaceted being. Maya Angelou’s most famous and beloved quotes, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”, may have just proven to not be true for all cases. As in appearance and within the course of a first meeting Zahra does not show all of who she truly is-the introvert is the only aspect that’s seen.
Diversity Times 