You're walking 'cross the campus. (Kate)
In the three weeks that I have been able to post on this blog I have said about 200 words. I think it’s safe to say, up until now, I’ve done a fair shit job. I think it’s also safe to safe I cannot guarantee this will change. After all I’m at college and, as others have mentioned, I have way too many distractions. Including an N64 in my room. Jealous? Too right you are.*
What makes it even more difficult to bring myself to write a full post (besides the partying, that’s worthy of a post in itself) is the feeling that you have no idea who I am and I have no idea who you are and I also have no idea what I should say to correctly portray who I am and what I’m interested in. I guess, like most things in life, I’ll just have to put the work in and explain it all. At this point, I’m going to admit that I haven’t read any of my colleagues posts and I probably won’t read one and I’m sorry if anything I write is boringly similar to anyone else’s, I’m conscious of the fact that a lot of us are at college and that situation doesn’t apply to a lot of readers but that’s what my life is these days so deal with it.
As I was saying, when you meet new people you have to put the work in. It’s easy to go hang out with the kids you’ve known for years, the kids with whom you don’t have to try. It’s hard to introduce yourself, to make conversation, to think of things to say other than ‘what degree are you doing? where are you from?’ but it’s so bloody rewarding. To be honest, I’ve gotten a kick out of watching my own new friendships develop. It might start off with a drunken D&M at a party, or a shared lighter, then the next day at lunch you see a free seat next to them. With each encounter, with each little bit of effort, you find out those little things that mean you’re going to become firm friends, or maybe study partners, or maybe just someone you nod to as you pass each other on your way to class. Become acquainted with the Olive Theory, it comes in handy.
I think I had a really solid point to conclude that little friend-making discussion with but it’s gone now.
This should be the point where I start talking about what I planned to talk about this post but maybe I’ll save it for post three. Remind me. It’s not going to be entitled ‘Tips for living at college’ but it’ll be about that sort of thing. Actually, that’s a good plan cause what I was going to write was going to be boring. This gives me time to do a better job.
Oh! Back to making friends, if you’re in Year 10 or 11, maybe even Year 12, you may think that once you get to uni everyone will be smart and mature and fashionable and pretty much everyone is but that’s because everyone’s in the same boat. Everyone still feels like they’re thirteen (real thirteen, not evan rachel wood thirteen) and everyone is looking to meet someone new (unless they know Doc Emmett Brown, pretty sure you don’t need other friends then, just a two-dimensional girlfriend) so give it a shot and hope if it goes badly you’ll never see them again.
Okay! (Here’s my nice conclusion from earlier) There is the first little bit about me. I’m not sure I said anything but often saying nothing is the best sort of something. I would like to hear a little nothing from anybody reading this. Lets get to know each other! Like I said, I won’t read other posts and certainly not the comments, so I don’t care if you repeat yourself, you don’t have to say anything interesting, it’s the effort that counts. I’d like to hear from someone in Year 12, someone already at UoM and somebody from overseas. That’s my goal for this post. You can lie and pretend you’re one of those people even if you’re a junior high school teacher from Carey but be prepared to keep up that persona for the rest of our blogging relationship.
That’s all folks. Stay tuned for my post about parties and where not to go if you don’t like college kids.
*To all those who know who I am and think I have an N64 in my room and will therefore want to play it all the time, I don’t. Go to the TV room.
Stuck in my head: Wilfred Jackal – Rail
Hey 🙂 I qualify as the ‘somebody from overseas’, I suppose. I’ve been contemplating going to UoM this July so I’ve been reading this blog in the hope that it’d assuage my fears (it hasn’t… yet).
The issue of friendship would be a big issue for me too; what with leaving my friends, bf and life 6000 long kilometres away (Singapore). It seems difficult to forge friendships with the insane number of people and courses. Even in my (ex) school of 2000 people, there were still plenty of unfamiliar faces by the time I graduated in November.
On one hand there’s the security and tranquility of home. On the other, going to UoM would be like jumping into a muddy lake headfirst in the hope that it’d be more than 2 metres in depth. But it could turn out to be a cool and refreshing (albeit muddy at first) experience. Oh, what a dilemma.
Someone from UoM:
Hey Su! Great to hear from you, you should comment more often, it’s great to hear what it’s like for someone overseas contemplating coming to the uni. And you have a brilliant sense of writing! — and don’t worry, although first two weeks are full of shock and fear, the road ahead seems to be smoothing out. This week (number three) I’m feeling much more in control of my life. So, yes the mud does clear. At any rate you still have time to think it over.
And kate: have no fear about repeating people, because I do believe you are the only one writing from a college at the moment (that or the others are more discrete about it). Keep giving us the college goss! (just because some of us are study-orientated live-at-homes doesn’t mean we don’t want to know what it’s like out there in the middle of party-word ie. colleges)
On friendship: Yeah, there seems to be a fine balance between keeping old friends and making new friends. So far I haven’t met up with my new uni friends much outside of classes, and have spent a lot of time on the internet keeping up with old friends. Friendship is never black and white, I guess only time will tell who I keep in touch with closely, who I become closer to and etc. I’ve even met up with some of my old primary school friends who are coming to Melbourne uni with uncertainty about where things sit now and in the future. It always surprises me when adults talk fondly of people they “haven’t seen for 20 years” – I’m only 18 years old in total!