“When I was young I was rather ambitious.” Chwagitisa Nandisa Abongile Futshane then looks up at the ceiling and confidently addresses the fact that she “wanted to go to Oxford University and what not,” but then gives light heated giggles as “reality sets in”.
Rhodes University was always the obvious choice for Nan (as she is known by some of her closest friends), but her dream of one day studying English at Oxford still sits patiently waiting to be achieved. “It was a time where I used to think I was wonderful at English, but then I grew up,” she says while fiddling with the red white board marker.
Nan grew up in the small farming community called Komga (the sound of the click echoes throughout the room), and proudly states that it is situated exactly half way between Grahamstown and East London. “We only have one main road that drives through, people don’t even stop.” It consists of a petrol station and many tractors. It is a one horse town.
Surprisingly upgrading to a town like Grahamstown never intimidated this vibrant, confident person. “The day I got here, myself and this person I just met, went around the res and knocked on everyone’s door just introducing ourselves, just making friends where ever I go.” This probably explains the relaxed and friendly aura that surrounds Nan as she sits in the RMR boardroom, laid back with her feet up.
She reckons the reason why she never fell off the rails when she left the nest was because she found a family at Rhodes. In RMR Nan could be herself, people understood her loud, uplifting self. While momentarily pausing she reflects on her past and comments, “Ever since I read that book thing I have wanted to work at the station.” It was not an easy battle as she “drafted, re-drafted, drafted and then re-wrote the entrance letter”. Throwing her hands up, she expresses that it is was like fighting a battle and then concludes by saying that every step was like a small victory.
“I have this personality where people think I am weird, actually I am insanely weird, I don’t like to be put in a box. I am loud! Here though, I have found individuals who are similar and respect me for who I am.” Nan had found support on which she could lean if times got tough.
Since she is studying Journalism, Nan sees RMR as an institution where you reach a community, and you get the experience of working and for an audience that is not limited to the students at the Rhodes campus.
Since she is studying Journalism, Nan sees RMR as an institution where you reach a community, and you get the experience of working and for an audience that is not limited to the students at the Rhodes campus.
Whether it has to do with her studies or her commitments Nan is always willing to the extra mile. Sitting in the newsroom before bulletins Nan can often be seen doing work or just helping out. “I don’t mind doing something extra especially for the people at the station. In my perfect world it would be painted black and blue,” (RMR’s logo colours).
Coming from a small town, where she is sheltered from the money that floats around in today’s world and the realties of the affluent people that Nan would meet, Nan’s parents were worried. “I would change, you know drinking, smoking and I think it would have being worse if I never found, not only RMR, but all my friends.”
Nan then sits back develops a defiant facial expression as says, “I am happy the way I am, I can’t change and one day I will get into television no matter how difficult it is.” All of a sudden a smile develops on her face as she randomly, yet flirtingly, remarks on how she is “going to marry Lewis Hamilton, I love that guy”. The problem is that this is probably true.
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Yes I will marry him and given the amount of F1 I have been watching this year, I think it is safe to say that I do lo9ve him... That is a joke, do not quote me on that...
I commented on Chwayitisa Nandisa Futshane’s profile, who was interviewed by Brad Janssen, www.takinglifeseriously.blogspot.com.
An ambitious, confident student is the hero. The move to Grahamstown and getting on to the station RMR, are seen as, what folkist Propp, would call villains. This tells me that these were issues that were very important for her to achieve and overcome.
The writer is not hostile, but rather seems to have gotten to know the hero, even letting out that she wants to marry Lewis Hamilton one day- something that probably not many people may know about Chwayitisa. This shows that the writer formed a trust. The writer makes use of some of Propps character functions and these move the profile along, because we are initially introduced to the character, we see what her villains were and at the end we see that she has made an achievement.
Andz
In this profile the hero is Nan (as her friends call her); the person the profile is on. She has battled and overcome many disruptions in her first year so far, which is necessary for Propp’s definition of a hero. The first was leaving the “one horse town”, that she is from, for a bigger, more vibrant one; Grahamstown. Her next struggle was that of her personality. She didn’t know if people would accept such a “loud” person but she overcame this by finding people like herself in the studios of RMR. The writer of this profile sees staying true to yourself as very important and a definite disruption to tackle in first year, as he mentions throughout the blog how Nan has not let Rhodes change her morals or her personality. This was a well written profile that raised a good point about not changing your fundamental beliefs to fit in.