I'm doing this right, right?

Oh. Emm. Gee. O Week is upon me at last. After three months of watching television, avoiding relatives and decidedly not doing very much at all my university career is about to commence. Oddly enough, and don’t throw tomatoes, I could not be more over holidays. One, because with the promise of many a caffeine filled hour of study ahead my parents have *finally* handed over the keys to a shiny new netbook (almost definitely out of sheer relief that I’m going to get out of house); Secondly and most importantly because university is going to be, pause for emphasis, awesome. I have never been more excited for anything in my life.

But I’m going to back up a moment and introduce myself. My name is Mercedes (yes, like the car and no, asking me if my last name is Benz and sniggering is not a sign of your wit or intelligence), I’m eighteen and I come from the Western Suburbs. I live in Yarraville, a lovely slice of bohemia which mainly consists of ex-musicians, artists ect. and their offspring. Its proximity to first rate coffee and op shopping means that there aren’t many nicer places to live. I was educated in Footscray at a very public school, which provided significant deficits and assets in pursuing my ENTER last year. Footscray was an eccentric place to go to high school and I like to think that I’ve graduated with a tougher skin and, at the very least, a cooler eye.

Anywho, I am now a student of the University of Melbourne pursuing my Bachelor of the Arts. Sometimes the attitude of an outsider to an arts degree can be summed up by a comment made to me by a high school acquaintance.

“Oh so you’re doing an arts degree. Is that kinda because you don’t know what you want to do?”

A few minutes to swallow my cutting comeback please.

I do know what I want to do, because I always have. I want to be doing Arts, at Melbourne. I fully realise that sounds wishy washy but hey, the heart wants what it wants (wishy washy and sentimental). Of course what happens after, that’s a whole different story. So maybe snide girl was a little bit right, but I do know what I want to be doing now. Choosing my subjects was an ordeal because I absolutely wanted to do ev-er-y-thing. Academic Advice day was punctuated by the long suffering sighs of my friends as they listened to me bounce sporadically from whining about not being able to do Creative Writing to squealing about how exciting Principals of Business Law sounded. I shed tears as I was forced to choose between French and American Revolution and Myth, Art and Empire: Greece and Rome. In the end I’ve (hopefully) made the best of settling. For my first semester I’m rushing through the booklist for Literature and Performance, an English subject, and flicking through my glossy textbook (highlight of my holidays was going to the text book store, I enjoyed it in an almost rude way) for Introduction to Political Ideologies (Political Science). My IDF is Philosophy, Politics and Economics and my breadth subject is the scary sounding Critical Thinking with Data. My goals for this year, however, are largely not academic. They involve more then late night cram sessions and micromanaging my notes, because to be honest consuming large amounts of caffeinated beverages is something I already excel at. This year I want to move outside my high school world and create a new life for myself by trying new things, meeting new people and occasionally getting crazy and messy. My expectations for Uni are so high and in a years time when I inevitably reread this post I hope they’ve been fulfilled at least enough so I don’t cringe in disgust at my naïve first year lack of cool.

If you have any questions or comments please post below, or maybe if you want to look out for me in a shared subject (because that would be so welcome my head might explode). Until later, see you alligators.