Uni life is hard. Uni life is awesome. (Brenda)

Ron warned about it when we first met, to finalise my becoming an official First_Year@UniMelb blogger. “Some people are really excited at first and then they disappear from the blog for ages after that”, he said. I mentally scoffed at him, “as if that’s ever going to be me! I’m a very committed and dedicated person!” And yet, here I am. The last post I wrote was still during Week-O. I know… shame on me!

But instead of throwing a self-pity party about how I’ve been so busy with my transition into uni life I didn’t have time to blog, giving y’all a million reasons for my absence, I’ve decided to keep it short – a summary of what I’ve learned at The University of Melbourne so far:

Uni life is hard. You have to take responsibility for your actions – I’ve maxed-out the classes I could miss for one of my tutorials… all thanks to its start at the ungodly hour of 9 a.m. You (might) have to get used to long travels – when I found out that I could make the trip in just about 50 minutes it made my day. (It usually takes me at least an hour and fifteen minutes to get from my house to the Parkville campus.) You have to make new friends – I’m just now starting to recognise people from my tutes so I can say hi to them when we bump into each other at our lectures. You have to remember how to write essays – after a five-month-long hiatus, writing a 800w assignment was a herculean task for me. And then you feel dumb – I swear some words people use in normal conversations/professors use during lectures weren’t even in the dictionary when I looked them up! I have had to go to an encyclopedia!

And yet, at the same time, uni life is awesome. You get to be on campus – Melbourne Uni is one of my favourite places to be in all of Melbourne! (By the way, have you ever been to the Old Quadrangle at night/twilight? It is mind-blowing beautiful. I could stay there forever.) You are surrounded by very interesting people – one of the first wake-up calls (“helooo, you are at uni now!”) I had was during one of my lectures. The professor asked who had been to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and HALF of the students raised their hands! You’re finally in control of your life – I’m juggling three casual/part-time jobs, a long-lasting relationship, and absurd amounts of readings every week… Plus, I even opened my first ever bank account just a few days ago! And the most important: you (could) study the things you like! So far my first year has encompassed indulging in books, films, plays, writing and choir. Seriously. And I’m actually getting credit towards my degree for doing things I’d normally do as a hobby!

This time around it won’t take so long for you guys to read back from me again. I promise.

Brenda Nepomuceno