Life beyond expectations
Lucy Kgweetsi | Monday December 1, 2025 06:00
In her new book, Beyond The Tassel: A Graduate’s Journey After University, 30-year-old Same Onneile Oitsile brings that silence to the page, drawing from the journals she kept during her own transition into adulthood.
Oitsile, who hails from Nswazwi Village in the North-East District and holds an MBA from the European Business University as well as a BBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Botswana, says the book began without any literary ambition. “I didn’t start journaling to write a book; I was trying to process life, especially during that transition from university into the ‘real world.’ At first, it was just a way to distract myself from how harsh and unfamiliar everything felt,” she explains.
She recalls a single moment that shifted her writing from personal reflection to something more meaningful. After receiving a rejection from a job she thought she had secured, she sat on her bed and wrote simply because she 'needed to breathe'. Looking back at those entries over time, she realised they reflected a broader story.
“I saw a young Motswana woman trying to find her footing. And I knew many others were going through the same battles in silence,” she says. Describing the book as raw and vulnerable, Oitsile says the hardest part was telling the truth about not having life figured out.
She explained that as Batswana, we often feel pressured to appear strong and ‘fine’, letting people into her fear, confusion and rejection pushed her far out of her comfort zone. But she believes vulnerability is where healing begins.
One chapter that remains especially personal recounts losing a job at a tutoring start-up after only three months. “It was painful to revisit. I had walked into that role with so much hope. Writing about it meant admitting how small it made me feel and how heavy it was to tell my family. But that same chapter taught me that closed doors are often redirection, not failure.” She admits.
Her academic background in entrepreneurship helped her make sense of those experiences. “Entrepreneurship teaches you to fail and get back up, to navigate uncertainty, to start small. Those lessons shaped how I understood my own journey,” she says. Oitsile hopes young graduates find reassurance in the book’s honesty. “Stumbling is normal. Growth is messy. Success isn’t a straight line,” she says.
She notes that many readers will relate to the pressure to succeed quickly, especially in an age where ‘social media makes it seem like everyone is thriving except you.’ The publishing process, she adds, came with its own surprises, countless rewrites, edits and moments of disagreement.
“Publishing required far more patience than I expected. Every chapter went through emotional rewriting and technical editing. It stretched me.” She says. Asked how the book contributes to conversations around post-graduation life in Botswana, she says it offers a perspective rooted in lived experience rather than statistics.
“Many young people here face unemployment, pressure from home and the challenge of redefining themselves. I wanted to be honest about what that looks like,” she said.
Through the journey, faith has been a grounding force. “Even when I doubted myself, I believed God was still writing my story,” she said. With Beyond The Tassel, Oitsile opens a space for reflection not only on the challenges that follow graduation but on the quiet resilience many young people build along the way.