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When did different become bad?
Written by Gienah Tuesday, 20 March 2012 07:26
It was about seven minutes past noon and I was few minutes late for my lectures. I rushed up the flight of stairs and got into the lecture theatre just as the lecturer was coming in, I grabbed the chair that was next to the door and made myself comfortable for it was going to be a long two hours. I was glad that I had not missed anything. The professor greeted us and went about his business. About an hour and a half into the lecture, the professor reminded us that the first CAT would be done in groups of about five to eight students. This was news to me, but not to the other students. I had missed the previous lecture where this announcement was first made and my colleagues had already formed the groups.
Half an hour to the end of the lecture, the lecturer asked us all to revert to the groups and discuss a few questions that he had given us. He asked if there were any students who were not in any groups and I was the only one who raised my hand. He then inquired from my colleagues whether there was any group that had less than five members. After the other students went into their groups, it was then that I noticed that two male students sat on their own and one of them informed the lecturer that their group only had two students. I was asked to join them and gladly obliged. They were seated on my extreme left and as I made my way across the room, would not help, but notice that the lecture hall suddenly felt silent. All eyes were on me and I could not understand why. On reaching where the two students were seated, they all smiled at me and one whispered to me: “Welcome to our world”. At first, I had no clue what that meant.
I came to find out the names of my two group members were — Troy and Brian and they were gay. I also realized that they dressed little different. They both had skinny jeans, clear nail polish and Troy was wearing lip gloss. They all had earrings on both ears and so they looked a little different from the rest of us. Troy, who is more talkative, informed me that none of the other students wanted them in their groups because the two seemed ‘abnormal’. At the end of the lecture, the three of us walked outside towards the college’s shopping center. There, students there also stared at us as if we were made of plastic. I thought this was prejudicial because as I interacted with my two friends for the remainder of the day, I found out they were among the most decent individuals I had ever met. They neither stared at me with judging eyes because I was dressed differently nor refuse to be associated with me. They took time to know me. No other student took time to know Troy and Brian the way I did, and it is a shame this was happening in an institution of higher learning.
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