turning on, tuning in and dropping out.
I’m really, honestly considering it. I am 18 now, and now have a job, which is nice. I’m currently however, homeless and couch-surfing at friend’s houses. I should hopefully be finding out whether I got a little studio apartment in Brunswick soon, but the estate agent seemed a little iffy about it. I haven’t been to university in a few weeks. The only class I’m still bothering to show up to is Creative Writing, because it’s great.
Basically, I’m going to take the Timothy Leary route and drop out. Hopefully I can withdraw from units and get a ‘Withdrawn’ on my academic record rather than a ‘Fail’. I’m just not feelin’ it, you know? It’s a great university, but at the same time it seems remarkably impersonal. It probably doesn’t help that I’m incredibly antisocial when I attend, but hey. I want to take some time off, earn some money and have some fun, and then transfer to RMIT to do a Bachelor of Arts, Creative Writing. The course looks really good and it’s purely Creative Writing based, no pesky IDF subjects or breadth.
So yeah. I’m going to see how it goes, but at this stage, this is my plan.
That’s a rather interesting plan. I guess it really depends on what you expected from uni – I think most of us have found that it is nothing at all like what we thought it would be. And RMIT is snuggled up with Melb Uni so you wouldn’t be too far away. Are you going to wait to withdraw? Or are you planning to do it really soon?
A friend of mine is doing Creative Writing at RMIT part time, parallel to her Bachelor of Environments at Melbourne – she said that if she only did the creative writing it would put too much pressure on her to be a published writer and just a published writer. Just be aware of the implications I guess. Though on a lighter note, I think one should always take the chance to do something purely out of interest, rather than trying to wedge yourself into something where you’re “not feelin’ it”.
I was talking to a mature age student who is in my breadth class, and she dropped out of uni the first time. She said there was too much stress and what not with moving interstate and starting uni all at the same time, and that she just wasn’t mature and cut out enough at the time to handle it. Now she’s come back to do an arts degree part time, living with her boyfriend and working on the side. I think it’s awesome – I guess for all of us it’s just barely the start of our life’s journey.
It takes a lot of courage to continue a course. But I think it also take a lot of courage to decide that a course is not for you. All the best, whatever you decide.
sup!
I am the friend Jinghan is refering too, so if you are wanting some information about the course i am happy to help 🙂 I’m only doing creative writing and not the BA, but I think that they’re mostly the same thing. It’s called professional writing and editing…same course or not?
If it is, then it’s pretty good! I would recommend it if you’re serious about writing. It’s good because you can explore a number of things – writing for children, novel writing, short story, even journalism if that floats your boat. It’s mature student dominated, which gives you a lot of life experience to learn from – and they are so brilliant as well! I would be lying if they weren’t a little condensending at first, but I think that’s just because I’m young (18) and most of them are over 30 and have kids, so think that my opinion is a little lacking in some matters. Still, after a while, if you put in your 2 cents then they really listen and engage with you. You need a tough skin because they do crit, and some are a bit vicious about it, but it’s good and helps you grow, so as long as you don’t take it personally it’s fine.
Listen to me ranting on 😛 basically, RMIT is the best place to go to for writing, and I’m not just saying that – most of the creative staff at melbourne did honours at RMIT. If you’re willing (And brave enough, unlike me :P) to try and be a writer, I say go for it! 😀
Hi Kate,
I am very sorry to read about your situation and that you are considering withdrawing from your course. The University has a wide range of support services available to assist students in your situation and I would be happy to talk to you about accessing some of theses services. Withdrawing is a big step and not one to take lightly and it is always a good idea to talk it over with someone prior to doing so.