So it’s a Saturday afternoon and I am feeling rather reflective while being on just a couple of hours sleep. I have been extraordinarily busy, and am rather looking forward to Monday…make that Tuesday, where I can spend a day doing absolutely nothing! Despite being so busy I am in wonderful spirits due to some recent adventures.
Yesterday was a mix of excitement and nervous energy because not only were semester results being released and I was to attend the PIS Christmas Dinner that I’d organised, but I had been asked to attend a lunch meeting with two highly intelligent and impressive investment bankers from a top investment bank that I had heard many great things about.
I enjoyed the lunch immensely and it was lovely to meet such friendly genuine people; as the business world does bring all types. I felt bad though because due to the warm weather (and naturally being a small eater) I could only finish half of my duck risotto, while their plates were clean! I know investment bankers can be competitive types, so I can only hope “How much you can eat” is not a category they take into consideration when judging people they meet!
It wasn’t until about 5:30pm that I finally got the chance to check my results for the semester. J covered his eyes while I stared at the screen, and after spending all day preparing myself for the worst…I thought what I was seeing was wrong! I was in such shock that I started screaming. (I always react very emotionally to good news). On the whole I was very pleased and proud of myself, considering I was sick for everything except Macroeconomics. None of it came easy however, don’t get me wrong – I wish I was a genius who could study the night before and ace everything, but I’m not. I worked so hard for my marks.
The one slight disappointment was my mark for Accounting Transactions & Analysis in which I was the most ill for.
The department has rejection my special consideration application despite the fact I had bronchitis and sinusitis (I am still recovering from it all some weeks later). I am planning to appeal. Some might say they can’t be bothered, or it’s a waste of time, but I only ever feel 100% satisfied if I’ve tried my best to obtain the right outcome within bureaucratic madness.
Thankfully my night ended in a fabulous dinner at WHEAT (reference: AWB wheat scandal!) where I got to spend an hour managing a debate about September 11 being a conspiracy (e.g. it was a bomb not a plane that made the towers collapse) between an Anarchist and heavily right-wing Liberal. It may sound interesting, and yes at times I was in fits of laughter; but by the end of it my head was starting to hurt and the topic became painful! We really needed an engineer nearby to give his opinion on the feasibility of how the towers collapsed – open invitation to someone from Engineering Department to join the PIS (Political Interest Society)...!
Today begun with an 8am start at the tennis club and tonight I have a lot of partying to look forward to! Might try and fit a nap in there somewhere…however…
To celebrate the end of my First Year on the Blog...I thought I would follow this entry with some advice for those walking in my shoes next year.
Before I write my tips down, I firstly want to thank everyone who contributed to the Blog this year: Chris, Jeremy, Johanna, Lara, Jim, and Rick. While we have all had such different experiences over the last year, I would like to say how much I have admired the honesty which you have shown in writing on the Blog and the strength you have displayed in the face of adversity – each one of you has inspired me.
A massive thank you as well, to the Melbourne Uni Transition Department which has allowed me such great freedom in writing on the Blog, and provided me with the opportunity to follow my passion of writing by contributing to the Blog.
Above all, I want to thank each and every one of my readers - I wish you all an inspiring, challenging and FUN First Year – whether that be First Year at Uni, First Year of Second Year or even First Year in a job…
For those starting university - it will be a big transition – for it is here that you begin to truly take control of your life and in the process, define who you are and what you stand for. Do not take for granted such an opportunity – set some goals, dream a little, work hard, be honest, be friendly to everyone you meet and find yourself some incredible opportunities and friends for life along the way.
Cheers,
Sophie
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Almost Christmas. Come to the Christmas department at Myer and buy things, preferrably from me.
On second thoughts, don't. I've only had three shifts and I still don't know how to use the cash registers properly.
It seems silly to use 'Christmas' as a descriptor, seeing as it is made up of "Christ" and "mass" - the word carries huge meaning for Christians. I'm not Christian, but I still celebrate Christmas.. not as a day of remembering the birth of someone who may or may not have been the son of God, but more as a celebration of family and friends, giving and togetherness, love and peace. So I suppose the word 'Christmas', as loaded as it may be, can belong to everybody, and doesn't have to be about religion. It's just about good things in general.
....
I think that's all I wanted to say. I probably won't find anything of interest to blog about until post-Christmas/New Year, so I'm wishing everybody happy holidays. Be safe, be happy!
xx Johanna
Classes are over, and there is nothing that I have to think about anymore. It's strange - one day after handing in my last assignment, I was laying on the couch thinking, "How am I going to handle moments like this where there is nothing pressing, nothing to be done?". I suppose I'm used to being under pressure, and when it's taken off, I feel like there is little of me left. This year has been ridiculously hard, many times I have felt like my personality or whatever it was that made me who I am was just wasting away. I was becoming work, stress, melancholy, escapism, etc. Things like laughing, or dancing, or spontaneous creativity didn't seem to exist anymore in me.
I still feel a bit lost in myself, like I'm wearing clothes that are several sizes too big. But the summer beckons, and hopefully it will be sufficient self-recovery time.
Summer is a strange loaded concept... it's stretching out in front of us until the end of February. For my friend Glenn, it's an opportunity to party as much as possible before he has to start his first real job as a graduate in the real world. For Matthew, it's a chance to have the first time he's had in years where he has no uni, no shows, no projects, no ANYTHING. For my housemate David, it's something he wished for until it got here, and now it bores him. I suppose I have to find my own purpose for Summer.
There has been a lot of goal setting in the last week or so - regarding future career aspirations. Instead of wasting money on Krispy Kreme or random shoes I will wear once, I now have important things to buy - like headshots, or screentest intensive workshops. Oh, and the part-time course I want to do at VCA next year. That's right kids, I want to be an actor. Lots of parents would be devastated if their children said, "I want to be an actor". Suddenly the future they planned for their child as a doctor or whatever would be shot with visions of them struggling to survive in near poverty as a waitress for the rest of their life, just waiting and waiting and waiting for that big break.
Funnily enough, my parents were actually relieved when I told them. For my entire life, wanting to act and perform has been the one continuous thing I have consistently wanted. People would tell me to be realistic and I'd push it out of my head, with other more temporary career options to appease them. But I'm sick of it - if I am not an actor, I have no idea what I want to do.
Our university probably has career advisors somewhere, but I'm not sure I want to find them. I've been thinking about going back to my high school and having a chat with my drama teachers. They know me and what I can do.
At high school, before our first big school production (in which I played the lead), our careers advisor kept telling me that acting was too hard to break into and I should focus on something else. She saw me perform, and then she changed her mind. Mmmmmm..
Sorry that I'm inflicting these mental processes on everybody else.
Knowing what I want to do is difficult enough, but figuring out how to do it is even harder.
After all the exams were finally over, I went to see how I would go at the U-Film Fest state final. Unfortuantely Angry Man didn't do so well, but lost to another animation of a whole bunch of only slightly related themes, from RMIT.
After spending the first few days after exams going to music shops, looking for a bass amp, visiting family and friends, and getting my room ready, I'm now back home.
Before going home though, I finally got round to donating some blood. Every time I had an opportunity I'd developed a cold, I was even thinking I'd probably develop a cold just after, and I'd have to tell them, rendering my blood useless. For what I was doing, it was really next to nothing. In other words, I think it's a very easy way to help someone. Soon I'd like to register as an organ donor as well.
On Friday night there was an end of year party of someone I knew from Uni, and hung around with all my best new friends from Uni at the start of the night, and forced to meet new people later in the night. (Not that being forced was bad, in many ways I was glad that I was giving myself a chance to meet some new people, no offence to the people I know well.)
Saturday we had a small picnic in the botanical gardens in Melbourne with two people from uni, and another two of their friends. As with all of these things, quite a few people who wanted to go were working. The picnic was fairly casual, and even though there was supposed to be no rain at all - there was a little bit of rain, and we kept hoping that it wasn't going to get heavier. (If it had've, it would have made for quite a bad wedding which was planned where we were in the afternoon.) One we started to go home, I looked in the greenhouse. I had a huge bag that had stuff for staying overnight in Melbourne. As I left the greenhouse, I boasted to my friends "Look what I've got guys!", holding up the bag. There were some other people around at the time as well, with a man looking suspiciously at me for a while. (At least that's what my friends said, since I was so busy looking at them.)
So now I'm back at home in country Victoria, with all the baby chicks. I'm looking forward to being creatively busy - no time for video games. (Ok, just a little.)
Tommorow I'll be going to the "Fill the 'G'" protests with my brother and Dad, and intend to make a small sign with Johnny Howards' head on it, reading "Public Enemy No. 1". Should be fun.
I need to share with the world the fact MOTOROLA is replacing my phone!
My skills of negotiation were put to the test with a Multi-National company and I won. It was tough, but I got right to the top - Manager of the whole call centre! He knows my case very well now. Nice guy too. It took two weeks of negotiation but I think they gave up after they realised I remember the names of everyone that I speak to, and above all obtain a sick pleasure in talking calmly and cheerfully until I wear them down. I even had a number of operators admit to me that it was just not good enough what happened with my phone!
I am happy...it is a relief to finally not having to worry about it anymore. My determination behind the matter stems to the fact that I am a genuine customer and I just won't accept being told to go away when a company has done something wrong.
Well, I know at the very least I am due for an update on here – especially considering my last post which was when I was definitely worse for wear compared to my usual self.
It has been a pretty difficult last week and a half. Fate did intervene in some respect and I don’t have Glandular which is great, however I have been sick with Bronchitis and Sinusitis which has definitely not been fun! I haven’t been this sick for a long time…however I’m slowly getting back to a state of normality though my voice is still a bit croaky (not great for someone who loves to talk and have long conversations with people!).
Overall I am still concerned about my results, but all I can do is hope for the best. Being sick definitely affected my performance, particularly in ATA, but I feel like hopefully my hard work in the semester helped me pull through. I’m feeling very objective about it all now…it’s happened, I cannot change it now; it could have been a lot worse!
I have returned to the philosophy that has followed me everywhere this year – that belief in yourself, hard work and doing what you love will lead to success no matter what. It has worked so far!
I will not let anything stop me from trying my best, and trying to achieve my dreams – not just in the sense of a career, but in my broader goals to change the world for the better. I think sometimes I just place so much significance on attaining career success because it will make it so much easier for me to work on some of my other goals.
In the broader scheme of things however, University life is already off to a great start for next year -I’ve just found out that I’ve been officially accepted to be a Peer Mentor for 2007!!!!!!! I am so happy about this. I did the whole application process and thought I’d missed out because I heard nothing back by the due date but it turned out that this had just been because there had been so many applications! I am so excited to be part of the program. It is an honour to be chosen to be in a role like that! I just hope the First Year I’m assigned to is cool! Lol.
Last night as a climax to the end of exams (my last one was yesterday morning), I attended the Make Poverty History concert. It was amazing…the vibe was incredible. Despite being sick, I was determined to be the picture of “Crowd involvement”! I am never too scared to get down and boogie! My arms are tired from waving my glow-stick in the air not stop and jumping up and down so much! My friend and I took heaps of photos so if I get the chance, will post a few up. Eskimo Joe and Evermore were the highlights….our homegrown talent definitely overwhelmed the presence of Bono and Pearl Jam! Eskimo Joe’s “Black Fingernails, Red Wine” was an amazing thing to watch with the crowd just going nuts. They also performed one of my favourite songs right now – London Bombs (of which the popular misconception that the song was politically related was cleared up with the announcement that “This is a love song!”).
Behind all this music, the message was never lost however – that We are the first generation who can Make Poverty History. Sometimes I think stepping back for a moment to seriously consider this statement is so important. I’m proudly wearing my white wristband around town. The excesses surrounding us are just so disproportionate to reality sometimes. Whether that be Saturday morning Video Hits with rappers shoving their bling down our throats, or Society’s general obsession with celebrity culture…
Tim Costello’s words on the night, were perhaps the most significant and meaningful to me: “This is how our politicians govern – they wet their finger, they put it up in the air and they say which way is the wind blowing?” Such a true statement…one that in a sense sums up the increasing amount of political apathy…but at the same time shows us that if we educate enough people, and encourage enough people to believe in certain things e.g. moral awareness and the need to help those less fortunate than ourselves, that we CAN make a difference.
It is so important when being blessed with the right to vote in this country, that we take the right along with a sense of responsibility –
“I do have a brother, and he along with both sides of politics has failed to see with the same moral clarity what your generation gets”…
I am hoping We will fight to gain even clearer ‘moral clarity’ against so many of the forces that try to decay it in. For so much of the world’s future depends on our decisions now, and the way we live our lives into the future as the leaders of today step down and we take control.
I live for the day, where we can Make Poverty History – starting with Indigenous Australia.
Sophie
Had Accounting today.
Went really shit.
I'm so disappointed. I studied SO HARD for it....I went in, and everything just crashed. The first question was of the type I has been struggling with (and consequently spent hours practicing). I didn't have enough room to do workings and so I stuggled to do a page's worth of workings in a margin area. I started to confuse myself, so I left it and went ahead but my focus was already gone. I was exhausted as well as I didn't sleep much the night before and I felt really sick. I did my best, but I know my best wasn't enough. And I'm so bitterly disappointed about it.
There is just so much I am so desperate to acheive in this world, and sometimes it drives me insane how to get over the first few hurdles, just to have a chance of acheiving what I want to achieve, it relies so intensely on a percentile score on an exam - much of which is based on rote learning ability rather than practicality, intelligence, or the drive and motivation to make this world a better place.
After the exam, I sat there so intensely depressed as my paper was taken up. It was a terrible feeling of failure.
I can only hope that somehow by some stroke of luck, I can still get to where I want....but that hope seems less likely by the day.
Immediately after the exam I also found out that there is a high liklihood I might have Glandular Fever. At least that would explain these symptoms that have hit me over the last 24 hours. So I'm going to the doctor tonight, I'm getting a blood test tomorrow. We'll take it from there. And all that jazz.
S.
..shorter Rick :P
Shortest Blog Entry - Ever
Gee golly gosh, I don't think I've had such a weight off my shoulders since I finished the HSC. All of my assessments are done, everything handed in to the best of my rushed-to-finish-do-tutors-really-care-about-word-count standard. I'm reasonably happy, but as always, I won't really know until the lovely Thursday of December 7th. I am aiming to increase my H1 average to be even more competitive for my transfer, but I have no idea whether or not this is possible / likely. In the mean time, I'll enjoy thrusting it to the back of my head, like some kind of rusty screw.
In other news, I had a great time during the last few days of the MIAF, and even went to the "exclusive" Closing Party, where I mingled with some of the world's most exciting artists. Well, by mingled, stood somewhere in a venue near. And most of the best artists were too cool to attend. BUT IT WAS FUN OTHERWISE! I was introduced to the writer / performer of a play that I saw earlier in the year at the Malthouse called 'Autobiography of Red' and having nothing else to say, I gushingly lavished him with compliments about it. He just stared at me, and then left. For the next twenty minutes, I wanted to die several times over. Another entry on the rest of that night, and the other incredible productions I saw, later methinks.
My brother arrives from Sydney tonight! He's staying with me for a week, which is exciting, because after that he buggers off on an around-the-world trip for at least 12 months. I haven't seen him for 4 months, and I'm not going to see him for at least a year after that. In the space of 12 months, our family dynamic has changed so much that it's incredible. But it's all looking positive too, because, at least for me, I know that I'm still growing and evolving as an individual. Would love not to cook though. Maybe I'll make my brother do that.
Anyway, good luck with exams my fellow bloggy-bloggers, and good luck to any Year 12 students who actually read this - not long to go now!
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