Open Day Excitement!!! (With Exclamation Marks Because I'm Excited Like That.)

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a year since that rainy day in August when I gathered my things and my boyfriend and went to Parkville decided to know, once and for all, if Melbourne Uni was really for me. It was the day when everything changed. If getting in was the goal before then, it became the only option afterwards. Not even the rain could spoil that day for me. I remember walking around marvelling at the buildings, the atmosphere and the options Melbourne was offering me. It was heaven – a very gothic-looking heaven, that is, which made it even more paradise-like in my eyes.

One of my fondest memories of that day was going to an information session on Creative Writing. Back then, it was a toss between this, Psychology and Fashion for me. I know, my interests aren’t very broad. At all. But as I stood up in that crammed room, listening to Kevin Brophy go on about what his course encompasses, I knew my interests had been narrowed down to one. There wasn’t any choice left for me, really. It was Melbourne Uni Arts with a Creative Writing major all the way for me. I needed to live that, listening to professors who looked just as stereotypically writer as him, and learning the craft from the best in the business.

Less than a year later, I sat in an auditorium for 5oo people, listening to Kevin Brophy’s writing advice.

A year later, I was selected as a guide for Melbourne Uni’s Open Day 2011, and I couldn’t be more excited. This upcoming Sunday I get the chance to give back and help students, just as I was helped, to realise their potential and hopefully choose our university as the home for all the brilliance their minds will – for sure – come up with in the next few years. Sure, I’ll be up at probably six a.m. to be there on time, but it’s all worth it. I just can’t wait for the fun – and the unusually sunny and warm day that the weather forecast has been predicting – to begin!

Oh, and I also helped shooting this Visions video podcast to promote Open Day. Because of it, I was actually allowed to jump the chains and get into the garden in the Old Quadrangle. That was something I wanted to do ever since I took a picture in front of it on Open Day 2010. (That was the very picture, by the way, that hung on my  inspirational wall for the rest of the year, keeping me motivated to study and get my desired ATAR score.) Check out the video and don’t forget to select “Attending” on UniMelb’s Open Day Facebook event page to get a free coffee on the day. If you see me there, come say hi! 😉

Brenda.

Edit: For some stupid reason, WordPress won’t let me show the video here, even though I’ve done everything I would usually do to make it work. So here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6E8FiRQIME