The thing about life is that a lot of time, it isn’t easy at all. We just have to try to make the best of it. But when the going gets tough we feel this ache, an ache for home. The ache for home lives in all of us, the place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
For me, JGU is the home I ache for.
This place has given me a sense of safety and acceptance that I haven’t even felt while living with my parents or studying in any other institution. At the end of vacations when I return back to campus I am always over the moon. I feel like I am returning home. A place where I can be whoever I want to be and still be accepted. I can be a feminist, a misogynist, a Capitalist, a Marxist, a social butterfly, a loner, without any label whatsoever and still be accepted.
Sure this place comes with its baggage and expectations, but it comes with the guarantee of acceptance. Acceptance of your gender, religion, beliefs, identity etc. As a woman I have probably never felt safer than on this campus. I can be assured that I can wear anything and roam at the oddest hours and still not be eve teased or be made aware of my gender.
How many of us are lucky enough to find a place like this in our lifetime?
I for one am glad to have found my safe haven where I can be who I want to be, don on whatever identity I want to and just be.