Kia ora/Xin chao, it’s Elizabeth!

It’s a bit late into the first semester, but hello to you anyway! I’m Elizabeth, a first-year Bachelor of Science student deciding between Computing and Environmental Science. I come from New Zealand and Vietnam — I move back and forth between the two a lot. While that does create some identity crisis, I’d like to think this has shaped me well enough so that by the time I’ve arrived in Melbourne, I’m ready to roll.

It’s quite late at night, but I’d rather be writing than math-ing myself to tears. I secretly like the process of suffering through multiple Organic Chemistry Tutor YouTube videos and rereading notes (this is not an advertisement but shout-out to my Calc 2 lecturer Anthony for not making math classes a lullaby) to make math concepts click, but I’m not awake enough to do it right now.

So, what do I often do when I’m dead inside? I write. We do a little bit of (non-physical) self-dissection around here.

To be honest, Melbourne the city and the university have been so much better than anything I could have imagined. This was more because of my self-perception than my expectations for the university.

Before beginning uni, I harboured much hope but kept myself grounded as I thought of myself as an introvert (which I now realise is a “meh” mindset, because you shouldn’t limit yourself to a single word that describes how people recharge their energy). As a frequent lurker on university Reddit pages, I’ve read how big universities are and how the experience is very much sink-or-swim. I feel that’s somewhat true, and I expected it to be true, so I exerted myself in taking part in social events, minus parties because I’m not much of a big party untz-untz-untz person. I found close friends in the most unexpected places, so just keep exploring events you find interesting and you’ll eventually notice who you click with. Keep in touch with them!

I still have much nostalgia for the places I’ve lived in before and I occasionally get melancholic in this new city. But sometimes, I could almost feel the nostalgia of the moment just before. That’s one of the many feelings that keep me rolling.