South African columnist recounts students’ stories of heartbreak
South African columnist Ndumiso Ngcobo, in a column for TimesLIVE, recounted students’ stories about painful experiences in relationships. In the author’s view, it may be somewhat easier for young people when they realize that others have gone through similar experiences before.
Ngcobo recalled an incident in late April 1994. According to his description, a first-year student at the University of the Witwatersrand boarded a bus in Johannesburg and travelled to Durban to see his school sweetheart, who was studying at what was then the University of Natal.
The young man did not find the girl in her room at the Mabel Palmer residence. After returning there with friends, he followed their advice, walked around the building and looked through a window. The columnist does not specify what exactly the student saw, but notes that the episode upset him for a long time.
Conversation with students
The author returned to this story during a meeting with a group of young men at one of the universities. One student said that he had learned about his girlfriend’s intimate relationship with another student after they had been together for two years.
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Ngcobo tried to support him with the old memory and stressed that heartbreak has happened at all times. He also noted that the protagonist of the previous story is now married, has children and no longer remembers the name of his former girlfriend, although such words do not always quickly ease the pain after a breakup.
The pizza story
In a conversation with friends, the columnist heard another story about a student who came to his girlfriend’s apartment in the Umbilo area of Durban with a chicken and mushroom pizza. The door was opened by a large man wrapped only in a towel.
According to Ngcobo’s retelling, the student pretended that he had confused the apartment number and walked to the dormitory in the rain. About 15 minutes later, he noticed that he had been carrying the pizza box under his arm the entire time; it was already soggy. The columnist stressed that he cites these examples not to mock anyone, but to remind readers that the distress caused by a breakup is a common human experience.
