The Winds of Change (Cara)

Hola, hola, my stunnungly attrative readers!

I actually have big news this time around.

I am no longer a collegian. On Tuesday night, in the pouring rain, I dragged a giant bag of dresses and blankets through the puddle-splashing streets of Parkville and North Melbourne to my own home. The kind of home which isn’t governed by a Principal, where there are no rules about wearing pyjamas after nine a.m., and where bedrooms don’t have numbered doors. Yes, my dears, I’m living in a proper studenty sharehouse, renting with two other blue-bicycle-riding vegetarians. With our green door, milk crates and rickety furniture, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.

Now please, don’t get me wrong, I adored my time at JCH, and would highly recommend college-living to anyone starting out at uni, especially if you’re a bit anxious about meeting people and getting used to this city and uni life. College, especially such a small and close-knit college like JCH, gives an invaluable network of support which was crucial to my settling into this new life. Nonetheless, I feel ready for something a bit more like the real world, and having to fret about rent and food and whether our house will flood completely, I feel like I’ve got that.

Last night I was chatting with a college friend of mine (we may have been sitting, tipsy and wide-eyed on a park bench, but that’s beside the point) about the grand schemes of life, and I admitted that I feel ridiculously adult. I’m still legally a child for a few more weeks – and yet I feel like I’ve shouldered all kinds of responsibilities and opportunities that most 17-years-olds don’t, and it’s been an entirely positive thing. I’ve got an amazing house, a job I genuinely enjoy, a beautiful girlfriend, and a course which fascinates [and frustrates] me. I feel like if I was given the choice of reconfiguring my life however I chose, this is exactly what I’d select. This thought is both liberating and terrifying, the future always looming a little threateningly on the horizon.

This year has been a huge one for me, in so many ways. Moving three thousand kilometres away from my established life and starting more-or-less from scratch has been an immense challenge, but I can’t imagine living any other way now. At times I’ve been teeth-gnashingly regretful of leaving my friends and favourite haunts, but the more time I spend at uni, in Melbourne, and with the astonishing new people I’ve met, the more I fall madly in love with this new way of being.

I feel like, now that first year is over, I should be able to come up with some succinct, accessible list of pieces of advice for future students, outlining how to Reach Your Potential and Enjoy Life to the Max and so on, but I really don’t feel qualified to do so. So any potential Melbourners reading, just give it a whirl. Have fun, and don’t be too much of a douche. Life at uni here is bureaucratic, exhausting, stimulating and potentially fabulous. Make it yours!

Adios, amigos. It’s been a pleasure.