Holidays are over and everything that froze 🥶 last month is now comming back to life. I am moving from my holiday projects to attending virtual meetings and other stuff.
Expenses are through the roof, thanks to the sale season 😝 and I wish somebody started a super program where I could get super contribution for my rent, car repayments and myki fare! 🥺
I got new curtain and lampshade fabrics but they won’t be finished until mid year. There’s not going to be much room for anything else with my job and studies 🤣 Speaking of my job, I am set for a next week start and it looks like a smooth sailing atleast until April 🤞 Super excited! Not just because it’s a cool place to work, but also because I get to learn a lot about 💰 there.
Won’t bore you with that. Stay safe and hope it’s not Goodbye Gabba.
love,
MoneyOverMen
Happy New Year, y’all 💃 Donno how you guys celebrated yours, but I have a lot of quirky NY traditions that kept me busy. I change something that I use everyday in the New Year to mark the occasion. Much cheaper and more meaningful than partying. Also, I spend the NYE either working or reading.
This year I am updating the room décor, got my first art piece 😁 and now I’ll make a new lampshade and curtains to go with it 🤩 I wasn’t working or reading but got my project running that day 🥳 and I jotted down my new year resolutions.
Don’t have to worry about losing weight this year, the JobSeeker rate cut will make sure I don’t have an extra ounce to spare 😝 But I plan to keep using my supersuper account to save money. It’s a superannuation account that puts a certain % of your spending into your super fund. In short, you get super because you spend 🤣 No kidding, it’s real. I started last year on 1st Jan and now my super balance is $1500.
My contribution hasn’t been much but the point here is not how poor I am. Although it's a valid one, good on you for quick thinking 🤪 But I feel all pink cotton candy, glitter rainbows and fluffy clouds every time the balance goes up, even a tiny bit. Besides, I want to get into Investment Banking so I need to get my finance sorted. Who’s gonna trust a banker who can’t mind her own money 🧐
My other resolution - make sure Cat attends all her management lectures so she can successfully boss people around, not just in the neighborhood but the entire world 😾 #BossCat. Small goals but they'll pay in the long run. Now I just have to put them into action 😁
Stay safe and away from Sydney-siders.
love,
MoneyOverMen
In defence of this year, 2020 has been a year of growth, of opportunity and of experience. The year, like many other catastrophic world events, has humbled us and brought us together to remember the important elements of life. It has long been touted as the most important aspect to one’s life, and that is one’s health, so for godsake, wash your hands!!!
The world and life will continue to challenge us. As students we are not foreign to challenges and meeting them head on. There will be more restrictions, health warnings, mask-wearing and hand-washing, all done in the spirit of keeping us healthy and safe. So follow instructions and be a good citizen, we all need everyone to do the right thing.
As for studying in 2021, perhaps we may be back on campus in second semester, or we may not be. Keep your expectations about life and such things low. Keep positive about whichever mode we are privileged enough to learn. Who cares if Zoom university is the new norm, learn to be more grateful for your learning experiences. The tough stuff that we endured surely made us tougher.
Tips for a more enjoyable academic year
Have a glorious breakfast
Everyone knows how important it is to break the fast overnight, so try and wake up before your first morning lecture, with enough time to make a healthy breakfast and eat it mindfully. The same goes for preparing for lunch, with only half and hour often between the morning and the afternoon lecture period, create an easy to prepare meal before, so you can relax a little between your lecture.
Drafting and editing
The best essays, even ones that you have to write during exams, have been through a rigourous drafting process. Most of the best essays I’ve written, (H2A) have been edited and re-written at least three times. It sounds like a lot, but it’s not really.
The first essay is simply my personal thoughts about the topic with a few academic references thrown in for good measure. The second draft incorporates more relevant literature to support my key ideas, and the third and following drafts involve editing for relevance, sense and flow. I want my words to sing on the page! So, if you don’t already and want more from yourself next year, prepare to write several drafts of your essay.
Maintain your connections
The best experience is one that is shared. If you have a pet or a human being to share in your experiences as a student, it is better. Talk to your partner about your study to your family, a study buddy or your lecturer. Take advantage of the Zoom catch ups that lecturers offer and schedule appointments with them, to get better in your study and remain motivated. The same goes for participation, when I interacted with my fellow students, I developed perspective and got more out of my lectures. So, if you’re shy, try and work on becoming more confident in speaking up, you will only benefit. Also, when you’re shy and choose not to show yourself on the camera, it makes it incredibly difficult to interact with you. So attend that free Zoom art class and have more fun!
These are the three things I endeavoured to do throughout my first semester, and the proof was in my results. There were limited periods of high stress time and I learnt how to balance my need for perfection against the need to simply get things done.
Believing in yourself
This sounds corny and trite, but stick with me. It’s my last point. Believe in the best. Even just learn to believe in yourself more. I was gutted when I only just passed my first assignment, but I really tried to believe that I could do better. And I did.
When I felt frustrated, I had a cup on masala chai and on those cold mornings, I continued to participate in Zoom lectures and continue to plan, write and edit my essays. Even on days when I felt like giving up, I tried my hardest to believe in the best and just keep going. That’s when the tough get tougher.
So, when 2021 hits us, and it will (in three hours, from when I’m typing this blog), believe in yourself and a better world. Stay positive out there.
2:02am, Singapore. I've been meaning to post something here to wrap up the year-- just that in my last post it didn't seem like the best time to do so as it was really early on in the month. I was thinking of going to sleep after wrapping up work for today, but I know if I do so I would further procrastinate on this, and then it sorta defeats the purpose of this post anyways.
So before I begin!! Advanced Happy New Year to everyone, and idealistic as it may sound, may 2021 be a better year for all of us. This has been repeated many times but I'll just emphasize it again: it's a tough job being a student and trying to balance our academics and social life amiss a pandemic, especially considering the fact that many have commitments outside of being a student that can be physically and mentally draining. So I just wanted to say that I'm proud of all of us!
With the year coming to a close, I would like to share with everyone some key takeaways I had from this semester off the top of my head. For the record, I'm far from a model student myself, but I hope this may be useful to a future first year that may need it!
(Context: I'm studying Bachelor of Arts, so most of my assignments are in the form of an essay or report of some sort)
- It's okay to procrastinate! (within limits)
Yes, you read that right. I think I brought up this idea in one of my earlier posts as well. What I have learnt is that I'm typically most productive in the evenings, and I think it's because that's when the sense of urgency kicks in (usually between 8pm to 2am). There's also a sense of calmness and peace that I feel when doing work in the evenings-- towards the later part, when my entire family is asleep, and the only sounds that can be heard are the whirring fan and my typing. Even though I sometimes have morning tutorials, I don't mind sleeping late, waking up early and taking a nap midday. On the contrary, it helps my concentration better!
After learning that about myself, I try to schedule all the tasks that need the most brain power (lecture notes and recordings, writing out drafts for essays are some examples) in the evenings. That way, I leave things of lesser priority (organizing emails, arranging notes, clubs and activities commitments, and others outside of school such as household chores) in the day, and can afford to get through them at a slower pace (while squeezing in time to watch Tiktok and living the life of a sloth...)
I mean... so long as the work gets done at the end of the day, that's what matters to me :) Which brings me to my next point.
2. Don't plan more than five tasks per day (or whatever number you prefer) (excluding submissions period)
What I have learnt about myself is: on overenthusiastic days, I try to do beyond my to-do list and in the end produce quantity over quality (which... rarely happens to be honest). On under-enthusiastic days, ticking off the first task is hard. In which case, I try and remind myself the consequences that I will face later down the line-- one of which, a grumpy 4am Charlene.
So I set for myself the golden rule: whatever happens, just finish this list of 5 tasks. That's it. When they are done, how they are done, it doesn't matter: they have to be done with quality. Of course, the number varies from time to time, but I try to stick to a constant number.
And that really helped for me.
3. My two best friends this semester? Google Drive, and Typo notebooks.
I have never been an organized person. Before university, all my documents were a mess, and it was really difficult for me to find copies of things. Looking back, I think that had a negative impact on my learning. This semester, I forced myself to clear my computer regularly, and organize files using Google Drive into one big folder per module, and then subfolders for various things. My hard work paid off when I realized it got so much easier for me to find things, and I could make use of features like the comments feature to make notes for various things.
When taking notes for lectures, I feel that physically taking down notes for me really helped me remember things better (and it also gave me the freedom to make random doodles on the side of the page... hehehe). I particularly like Typo's notebooks (when they are on discount), as the cover pages are really aesthetic and the layout of the pages are really spacious. Alongside with colored sticky tabs, post-its and colored pens (different color for each module), can't explain why but it gives me an odd sense of satisfaction when reading them.
4. Zoom tutorials can be a lifesaver! (if you are shy like me)
Yes, Zoom tutorials are definitely not the norm pre-pandemic. I miss the face to face interactions with people in class, and maybe getting to know a few people better in the process.
But Zoom tutorials to me have opened up a world of opportunities as well. Not just the fact that I can roll out of bed 10minutes before class starts, but that it really helps in class participation for a shy person like myself.
Sometimes I want to say something in class, but I'm unsure and not sure how to speak up. As I have the freedom to turn off my camera, I can just unmute myself and say whatever I want with less inhibition that my facial expression will give it away. Should I need more time to think through things, the chat function is always there to help.
That being said, I want to work on my confidence next semester! As interacting with people face to face (eventually) and presenting my viewpoints in a large group is something I need to get used to.
5. Don't harbor any expectations.
As I progressed through the semester, I naturally had higher expectations of some modules as compared to others. Usually a combination of previous results, familiarity with the subject matter, amongst other factors. But that made me realize that I imposed much unnecessary stress on myself when there was absolutely no need to, and the modules that I didn't expect as highly from turned out to be just as good an experience. Maybe even better, given the lesser additional stress.
As cliche as it sounds, I tell myself (often unsuccessfully, I admit) that so long as I have given my best, that's enough. It's good to aim high, but sometimes it makes you lose sight of what's important.
It's 3:25am as I end this post. Before I end, I just want to end off by saying that it has been a great pleasure blogging here, and I hope my posts have brought a little sunshine :) It has been inspiring for me as well to read the works of the many other bloggers here too--thank you for sharing little snippets of your experience as well.
Here's to a better next semester! :))
Can’t wait for the New Year to start! But that’s me every year, looking for a reason to partyayy 😝 While the year has been trying, challenging and tough for most, I found it a lot more kinder to me than the previous ones.
Being unemployed for a while and struggling on NewStart, JobSeeker was a relief from having to count the crackers I eat in a day 🍞 Plus I started studies here, made new friends, found a new (totally awesome) job and of course, did some nerdy stuff 🤓
Sure, bad things have happened to me, like being stuck inside for half the year 😑 But then, I am always home for one reason or another. Failed in exams - yup, done that before. Lost my new job - again, nothing new. Stress, anxiety and messed up plans - why am I not surprised? 😒 Except for a new disease, 2020 hasn’t thrown anything new at me that I haven’t seen before 👀
But putting it all behind, I am really looking forward to 2021. There are good chances I’ll start on that same job again and it does sound like a keeper 😍 Like my friend said, will be interesting to see how I study full-time with full-time work 🙃
Oh, before I forget... the website is comming along fine. Got half of it done, realised there’s a lot more to do and the free hosting on Cloud is not as free as it looks 😅 Still on track for the NYE deadline 🤞
Stay safe and party on some more, see you in the new year.
love,
MoneyOverMen
Have a joyful one - from me and Cat to you and yours 🥳
Everybody’s on a holiday and I guess, I should take one too and stop writing but I joined mid-year, so technically still a first year. Besides, I am not putting down my pen until told otherwise 😤😝😜
Apart from cooking fancy feasts for Cat, I made fresh hand-rolled pasta this week. Another ✅ on my holiday to-do list. And now that I have my Christmas menu sorted, can focus on other things, like planning out the next semester.
I don’t want a repeat of the last one, so less “extra” and more “curricular” in the next 🤪 and get the activities out of the way in downtime, which is a fancy corporate term for ‘having nothing else to do’ 😂
So, building a website for the club and hosting it on Google Cloud! Super cool stuff 😎 If all goes well, it’ll be up and running before NYE. Will keep you posted 🤣
Until then, stay safe and party on.
love,
MoneyOverMen
The sun, the glorious sun has come out to play, to lighten our Christmas period with warmth and festivities.
I can’t really think of much to write in this blog. I’ve read, y’alls reflection on 2020 posts and think they were great.
As for me, I’ve too finalised my enrolment and soon I imagine I will be planning my year. Got myself a cute Muji calendar so I stay organised and so I guess I’m looking forward to 2021 and the new offerings it will bring.
Stay safe over Christmas and New Year and remember, laugh and be merry!
11:16pm, Singapore. The weather has again been getting cold lately, and it's making me feel really lethargic. In fact, I'm having many brain fart moments right now when typing this (it took me 10 minutes to get out these two lines, I kid you not. I've just been observing my 10 guppies and neon tetras aimlessly swim around the tank. I've realized many things from being a pet fish owner, and have also experienced the worry that comes with it too). Have been trying to bake and read more this month as well, and catch up on movies that I've missed (I just rewatched The Grinch yesterday. This marks the fourth time I've watched this movie, and I've no idea why I'm not sick of it yet!)
I realized it's been a month since I have last blogged. I wanted to do the typical reflection of 2020 kind of post, but I'm not in the right headspace for it at the moment, and this may be something good to cover slightly later on this month instead. So I guess the purpose of this post is like what the title says: to check in with everyone!
How have you been? For me, life's been slightly busy but good. I've been involved in some commitments within and outside of uni recently, but have also taken the time to catch up with family and friends. I'm also happy with myself for getting through the semester strong, and I can enjoy the break to it's fullest-- feels as if all the hard work over the semester was worth it! But I admit that I miss this semester somewhat, ever since I submitted my final research paper on November 10th. The whole rigor of watching lecture recordings, taking down notes, chasing after the next deadline--it somehow gave my life some sort of order and purpose. I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but this really hit home recently.
Subject enrollment has recently ended, and I made the (hopefully right) decision to sign up for a summer intensive subject in Feb. Which means a shorter break, and a more intense pace of learning. Well, just have to stick by this decision and make the best out of it! Feel free to leave a comment if you are taking a summer subject as well :) I've also just completed my LICA award! Feels good to get something accomplished.
Hope everyone is having a great holiday, for we all deserve it! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays in advance (not quite the usual festivities we are used to because of this pandemic, but let's make the best of it).
Just finishing subject selection right now, only an hourish left to avoid that late fee. So yeah Uni has taught me to be really organised...
I'm kidding, hah hah. I'm also really funny.
Hah. h a h
🍇
So I don't really know what happens now with this blog because I mean, it is for first years and I'm not really that for much longer. But I'll really miss writing these, even though I'm pretty sure it's only us bloggers who read the posts. Even though I've never met you guys I do feel like I know you all well. It's crazy to think I could bump into the real you and never know, maybe we need a blogger's zoom since we're still spread all across the world?
In any case, Merry Christmas to everyone!!
Tonight's Listening: 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' by Nina Simone (saved the best till last)
Still not sure if I have passed or failed, had a turbulent semester and it shows on the report card. A lot of admin details are pending and that means, I'll not know my results until all the kinks are smoothed out. But just to be on the safe side, I am using the holidays to revise the concepts and rework the problems. I would rather redo my exams, than spend the holidays at home 👻
That's not because I don't like my folks, I am just enjoying the freedom and the single life a bit too much. Also because I have a new family here. Yes, it's me and Cat forever! And it's Cat's birthday this week. Not a coincidence that it falls in the holiday season. She came home one lonely Christmas when I told the shelter that I am looking for a 🐈 with a broken smile, and she will be loooooved... 🎼🎵🎶 They said they knew the perfect 🎄 toppler. Along came Cat and she pretty much started ordering me around the minute she cat-walked into the room, been bossing me since 🥺 #BossCat
So I'll be busy cooking her the perfect fish and giving her a manicure. And not like it's a big deal or anything 🤣, but Google recruiters are comming today to campus for a chat. It's a virtual event and nah, not excited even a little bit. Got my poker face on, like I don't care 😝
Enjoy the holidays and have fun.
love,
MoneyOverMen
Number of posts found:
1327