'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not' (Simone)

I write to you, kind people of this blogsphere, with ‘Man vs Wild’ going on on SBS behind me. My family are hooked on it, sitting on the couch beside me, eyes wide, hoping Bear Grylls will successfully cross the blizzard of snow. “How’s he going to do it, Simone?!” Dad asks me in what I hope is mock enthusiasm. I tell him that while Mr Grylls is temporary isolated (ahem, apart from his camera man and crew!), he is going to eventually reach civilisation, and is just about to tell us that a few tourists got lost down here last month/week/year/insert-date-here, as he seems to do in nearly every adventure goes on, and Dad laughs. Anyhow – I must warn you, having gotten up at a mighty 6am this morning, the earliest in months, I’m half asleep by now (9pm!). These 8am psychology are going to be the end of me! So basically – I hope this post makes some sense amidst my lack of sleep and the epic Bear Grylls sliding down some snow behind me.

The last time I felt so overwhelmed with something I was studying was in Literature last year for year 12. We were reading the intro, Act I of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and I was reading out the lines of the king (very excitedly – Shakespeare’s words are so pretty). Finishing the scene, my teacher prompted a class discussion about what the opening of the play was telling us. My friend was giving a deep interpretation to her view of what good ol’ Will was trying to tell us, or warn us, when I – cringe here – thought aloud and said stupidly, ‘oh! They were on a boat?!’. My classmates tittered good naturally; my kind teacher said nothing but looked over, clearly worried. ‘The boat is sinking because of a storm!’ a girl had informed me. ‘As if you didn’t get that!’ another cried.  I remember my cheeks flushing deep red and wanting to sink into the chair. Honestly, I had been too involved in the beautiful language of the play to listen to what the characters were actually saying! I’d quickly flicked back to the beginning of the scene while my classmates were continuing the discussion to try and read over it again, when I was suddenly hit by the realisation that even when I tried to understand what the characters were saying, mostly I had no idea at all. As we read on, I still didn’t get what was going on until my teacher and classmates began the next discussion. I know this might sound ridiculous, but going to Lit made me so nervous that I stopped particiapting in the class for fear that my points were silly, that I understood it all wrong. My palms would sweat and stomach swell. All I could think was – I can’t do this! I can’t understand this! Let alone write an essay about it!

Long story short: after a few tears, sleepless nights, and a bit of a chat with my lovely Lit teacher, I was determined that I would do The Tempest on the Lit exam, and that if I could write a whole essay on it, no matter how bad it was, I would be so proud! And so I sat with that little book of the play in front of one of those websites that translates Shakesperian into Plain English until I understood every line and written out side notes of interpretations for the whole play. When my teacher told me I needed to look at some deeper ideas than the ones I was writing about, I found books at the state library of some more serious analysis’ of the play and copied the key ideas down. After what felt like an extraordinary amount of effort for one text, I can now say I wrote on The Tempest for my exam. Lit wasn’t my best subject for VCE  – but it was the one that taught me the most about how much you can work to understand something and be successful with it, reach your goal.

So now, back to the point after some serious blabbering (in which Bear Grylls has eaten a rabbit heart and has made it back to civilisation via a helicopter!), I now have to follow this same process of working hard to actually understand something with Psychology at the moment. My last lecture appeared to be in another language: the talk of those blessed with a Science Brain! Has anyone else had these issues?! So alas, my amazing Sunday night was spent combing through the details of the first lecture, slide by slide. A very slow process, but definitely going to be worth the effort. I hope I get it in the end!

PS. If you ever get lost at Melbourne Uni, as I do many a time, just think, a few tourists got lost down here in Bear Grylls voice, have a giggle, and be thankful you are not about to drink your own pee.