For everyone’s sake, abolish Fresher’s Nights in all campuses!

In high school, I used to hear of this thing called "Fresher's Ball" from my friends who were in various universities. It was on the mouth of every campus student I knew. After passing my exams with flying colours, I joined Rongo University where I finally got to experience university life.

After a few weeks, I came across a colourful poster reminding students of the coming Freshers Night. An older student explained to me that it was like a welcoming ceremony for first year students. I wondered why such an event would be held at night, but I decided to find out by myself.

What my eyes saw during that event made me hate campus. After that night, I wished there could be a total ban on Freshers Night in all campuses. It made me remember one thing that a great friend of mine, Ezra, once told me – that darkness hides many things and gives people courage to do anything. That night, I witnessed young souls being destroyed within minutes. I never knew that smoking bhang was as common as drinking soda. The smell of marijuana was everywhere.

Because almost everybody was smoking and taking alcohol, many first year students succumbed to peer pressure and tried it for the first time. I really pitied my classmates who were slowly destroying their lives.

Later that night, on the same open field that was hosting the event, I spotted some students shamelessly engaging in sex. It was Sodom and Gomorrah. So many first years lost their virginity that night. There was so much alcohol and cigarettes that it was easy to imagine they were being issued for free.

At the end of the event, young souls whose parents were counting on to study hard and uplift their families, were walking in pairs while caressing one another on the way to do God-knows-what in their hostels. The music played throughout the night was promoting indiscriminate sex and drug use. It wasn’t morning yet, but already there were used condoms thrown all over the place.

I came to the realisation that indeed, there is too much freedom in campus. Little wonder why new research findings show that campus students are at highest risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS due to their lifestyle. Promiscuity has been so normalised that those who don’t engage in it are labelled naïve and stupid.

I can only imagine how many pregnancy cases were reported after the event. That aside, how many contracted HIV? Many are those who got heartbroken that day, leading to stress. No wonder our generation is struggling with mental health problems.

It's everyone's duty to look out for themselves. Campus is only fit for mature people. Every decision one makes has either positive or negative impact. All in all, let's not forget that our parents are struggling to pay our fees. Let’s prioritise academic matters. Let’s not do things out of peer pressure. Good is good even if no one is doing it and bad is bad even if everyone is doing it.

Wafula Meshack,
Journalism student,
Rongo University

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