University is basically all about finding the right friends. I don’t know if I got the right friends or the wrong ones but I will let you be the judge. One of my friends had the key to the head of department’s office. You can imagine how many of my warning letters mysteriously disappeared from the file. I wasn’t aware how many of them they were!

Another friend sort of misled me. He was so sharp that he didn’t need to read to pass. All he had to do was attend class and ace the exams. I followed him everywhere and during exam time we were together but when results came back, I was far behind him. Anyway, we figured out a way around our situation and he even started coaching me. 

These two friends were also my housemates in some really small house in a dingy neighbourhood. We did a lot of stuff together. But even after repeatedly being nabbed misbehaving, none of us had a warning letter. So there was reason for concern. They looked into us but unable to find evidence, they just gave us another warning letter to take to our parents and get it signed. 

First guy’s home. The journey to his home felt like we were going to the end of the world. I think we used all means of transport to get there – save for a plane of course. When we got there, the family already had too many problems so we lied to them that we had just come to visit and got the paper signed by his elder brother who had been home, unable to get married because the family had no dowry to pay his girlfriend’s family.  

Second guy’s home. We were so hungry, but after finding out what brought us there, we were denied food. It was horrible. We just got the paper signed and bought sugarcanes for lunch. 

Finally it was time to go to my home. It was tragic. The last time I left my home we were a little rich; I came home to find my brother had sold everything in the house and ran away from home. We were officially poor!

My dad looked at me and said, "You are the only normal son I have.” I quickly folded the letter I had for him to sign and run back to school. Now I hide at school because my letter has not been signed.