The end of week 12. Holy crap. When I started my first tutorial all the way back in February I couldn't even imagine getting to the end of my first year of university- 1/3 of the way through undergraduate. Then on to bigger and better things! Hopefully!
Anyone else got a huge crunch for exams? If I'm being honest, I picked my discipline classes partially because I knew they wouldn't have exams, just essays. But karma always wins because my essays are due in a two week period while I also have an exam in the middle of it! What a winner, right? On top of trying to pack up & fly home, and hang out with my friends until we're woefully separated for three months. How did it end up being that sem 2 is so much harder than sem 1? I was told by a few people that semester 2 is harder but of course I thought I was the exception and of course- I'm not. (So if anyone else is struggling with their grades this semester, you aren't alone!!) On the bright side, all of my classes have been super interesting this semester (aside from one class I dropped that just didn't vibe with me), so at least I'm busy doing work I love. I could be doing math again! I do not miss high school!
I think some of my big advice for this year/semester is to take advantage of what the uni offers in terms of academic help, start your assignments As Early As You Possibly Can, go to your lectures even if you really want to stay in bed and always, always, always make sure you eat enough when you go out drinking. The amount of classes I've missed because I've been in bed or hunched over the toilet bowl puking my guts out is starting to get a bit unfunny. Maybe that's why this year has gone by so quickly- at least a week and a half has been spent lying in bed pitifully trying to keep down some actual food and telling myself I'll never drink again (always a lie). Seriously, if you're going to go out and have a good time, taking care of yourself is important. Speaking as someone who can't drink wine because of a few unfortunate decisions, it's not worth it.
Onto lighter news, I'm writing this blog post so I don't have to study for my linguistics exam. Coming from the US, where we get very specific instructions on what our exam will cover, having to study an entire semester of content Just In Case is a mountain of work. I'm about two pages into my fat stack of study sheets that I printed at the library and I've already circled about 15 terms I do not remember learning. Pray for me guys, maybe if I start crying in the exam hall my professor will take pity on me and give me a few pity points. Hopefully next year I can come back for the second year diaries. If there's one thing I love writing about- it's myself. I'm also incredibly bruised from lightly bumping into things (low iron gang rise up! Then sit back down so we don't pass out), it seems like every day I find a new spot where I smacked into a wall and my body took it as a personal attack. I'm starting to apply for jobs over the summer with exactly zero responses, despite the fact that I'm so incredibly hire-able. I mean, what about 'I'm free all the time 24/7 please give me a job' is turning the employers away? I'm practically on my knees here. Also, one of my friends found this blog, which is super messed up considering this is my very public private diary that nobody should actually be reading, ever. In fact, if you're reading this right now I have to ask you to stop invading my intentional lack of privacy. Stalkerrrrr.
There's something so upsetting about having to wash your sheets at night. It's my fault for eating bread in bed but if I wasn't supposed to do it, it wouldn't sound so catchy. Right now the only thing I want to do is spend hours on my phone before finally passing out in the middle of a You-tube video but I have to wait for the dryer to load. And I'm NOT doing my work. It's 10:55 pm! I should be snuggled under the covers right now! If I go and study for my exam I'm considering it an affront to God. So instead I'm going to go lie on my sheet-less bed and try not to fall asleep without any pillowcases.
So, I've just realised that I've missed more than one or two blog posts. Whoops! Time really does fly in 1st year. Speaking of flying, I flew onto my back after getting shoved in Brunswick (about 3km north of campus). Yeah, I won't be the first or last person to tell you that 1st year isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Around evening time, after grinding some study away at Uni, I went to buy some groceries before I returned back to my apartment. Just waiting for the tram. Out of nowhere, some guy walked through with his bike, and figured there wasn't enough pavement space for the two of us. He "accidentally" elbowed me pretty hard in the stomach, then walked straight past, like nothing happened.
I'll be honest, it was pretty funny at first. I tried not to laugh, because who has the time and energy to shove a guy waiting for the tram with his groceries? Bruh. No one was around, so it wasn't worth the risk to get help or start a big scene. He left as quickly as he came, didn't bat an eye, turn around or make any snarky comments either. Just left. I'm okay though, no injuries or anything. Just shocked by this weird, crazy, but unforgettable experience.
What's my point? Well, this was definitely a rare incident, and there are many things you could probably take away. Maybe don't get groceries by yourself too late at night, and watch out for yourself. Oh yeah, and stuff like this is bound to happen to at least a few unlucky people, 1st year or not.
The number of positive experiences I've had over the last half a year have definitely outweighed things like this though. Speaking of positive experiences...I want to share my hot take: exams are underrated! If you hate sitting and preparing for exams and think I'm crazy, let me explain myself and maybe change your mind a bit.
I sat last semester's exams in the Royal Exhibition Building. It was cool. Period. I remember asking one of my friends "Hey, did you look up and see all the cool paintings (forgive me if they're not paintings, I ain't no artist) on the roof?" They said I was crazy if I had enough time to admire a roof during an exam. Point being, at least some exam venues in Uni have a nice environment.
And the routine and motivation I get from studying and exam prep? It keeps me grounded during the semester. I wake up, I know what I've got to do, and that's such a great feeling. Yeah, it gets tedious at times, but I came here to study and learn a bunch...you know, the whole "Wominjeka" idea is inspiring here! We aren't just presented with a boring old "welcome," but we're asked and reminded as students to "come with purpose." If exams are a part of the process, then I'll greet those damn exams with a warm welcome myself!
Holidays are over now though. I could just wake up and do whatever I wanted a month ago. It was nice while it lasted. Catching up on all the clarinet practice hours I missed last semester, and balanced with some absolute gaming timewasters.
But I'm glad to get started with the new semester. I kind of missed the routine of school a bit, not going to lie (call me a weirdo if you want, ha). Anyways, thanks for checking in!
Hi again everyone :) I hope you're all having a lovely time on break. I'm over in sunny New York where we currently have an air quality warning for the wildfires haha, still better than Melbourne winter.
I've been thinking recently about changing my degree a little since I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do when I first got here. Not that I'm sure now. Like many young adults I feel a bit aimless since I wasn't born with a destined career path. Choosing which degree will lead me in the right direction has been a bit stressful and I'm still working out the kinks. So far I've decided to drop one of my majors and add a minor- which should be interesting & should help me get into a small range of post-grad courses. Or at least set me up to understand what's going on... Choosing a degree isn't easy, especially at Melbourne. Since you can apply under a faculty and then choose from inside that, there's a ton of different courses and configurations that come with it. Not to mention you can change it at pretty much anytime if you have enough points to get your chosen area done correctly. I chose my first major purely on a whim because it sounded useful and somewhat interesting, and then my second major was the 'fun, but not as reliable' one. Funnily enough I'm enjoying my 'responsible' major way more than what I thought I really wanted to do. Maybe my true calling was just something I hadn't discovered yet!
I'm not going to pretend I know anything about choosing a path. Almost all of my friends are umming and ahhing over whether or not they've made the right choice and half of them are adding or removing majors or minors just like I am. In between first and second sem of the first year seems like the right time to take a good hard look at what you've done so far and how you feel about it. It's like dipping your toes into the swimming pool of a course and deciding if it's right for you. I guess the worst thing that could happen is you graduate a little later than everyone else. Not the end of the world.
Anyway- I couldn't even update my course yet because the study plan site wasn't working. Praying Stop 1 gets back to me soon enough but I'm sure they're all busy as it is. I'm cutting up a shirt to make a birthday gift for my friend so I've got something to keep me occupied until they do.
Hey everyone, here's my spiel for the day. To all the international students and Australians who have to take a plane back home, DO NOT BOOK THEM UNTIL YOU KNOW YOUR EXAM SCHEDULE!!!!! I speak from experience. Not knowing that my exams would be the first three days of the exam period š¤Æ, I naively booked my plane tickets for the 24th of June, BUT I finished on the 7th. Now, don't get me wrong, there are soooooo many fun activities and places to go in Melbourne, but two whole weeks is a really long time to be finding stuff to do (and also having the funds to do so). Anyways, you learn from your mistakes, so I'm not too fussed. And funnily enough, I somehow ended up playing squash at the Unimelb sports centre, so you never really know what new and exciting endeavours await you š
I spent two and a half hours doing a Computing practice exam. I went away to wash the dishes and came back to a blank paper. I forgot to save ā a cardinal sin for a programmer.
Itās not too bad because the thought process was what mainly took up all the time, but of course, rewriting doesnāt feel too good. I might have been a bit grouchy with my brother, who only wanted to show me his saved TikTok videos. (I would likely have found some of them funny because I practically raised his sense of humour.) I did apologise to him, but you never know when some moment clicks for a kid and locks in their perception of the world for a life-altering amount of time. I always think about the ānot now, sonā meme. I felt guilty, so I couldnāt focus on rewriting my exam either.
Hopefully, this came off as more relatably loopy than purely loopy.
To make this post deserving of being posted on a UniMelb-affiliated site, I should end with advice: Donāt forget to save your files. Maybe print them, actually.
Is it just me or has this week been SO. LONG. I swear it's been Thursday for three days already and I'm going insane. I've been working my butt off to try and balance having a social life and getting grades that won't make my parents fly over here and drag my back to the US kicking and screaming but god. They really weren't kidding when they said uni was harder than high-school, I can't believe I miss doing math.
Pro tip: say yes to everything. Over Easter break I ended up in the middle of nowhere weeding invasive wild grass for a conservation project. I think I almost convinced my friends I was about to die in Broadmeadows because I took the wrong train (not unheard of) but instead I spent a lot of time talking about gallbladder surgery with the conservationist (who was lovely). It was definitely an interesting experience and if I hadn't filled out a random google form without reading anything I probably wouldn't have even heard about this tiny national park in the middle of nowhere. It was organised by the club I go to on Tuesdays and I'm honestly thinking of going next year. Maybe somewhere closer this time, but I doubt I'll be more inclined to read things fully then either.
I also went and got my nose pierced so now I'm trotting around the campus like I'm some kind of cool guy. I'm invincible now that I've managed to spend my money, exercise my bodily autonomy and piss off my parents in one fell swoop. If anyone reading this is thinking of doing something a little out of their comfort zone, I absolutely think you should. There's no telling what'll happen, or how you'll feel after but there's really only one way to find out. Making friends is hard at uni. I went to get my nose pierced with someone I didn't know last month and now we have that in common forever. Even if you don't feel like going out and doing something away from campus, there are so many events all the time. The other day I got free bubble tea and pizza before my tutorial started which was awesome sauce. The night market was just on and I never say no to free food. A huge part of knowing and being known is the embarrassment of putting yourself out there. It sucks butts but it has to happen!!
It's getting colder now so I'm breaking out my favourite rainbow scarf and lamenting the fact that winter even exists. Melbourne is so damn windy it messes up my hair every time. And my skirt. I was wearing a wrap skirt that straight up untied in the middle of a crosswalk- I probably flashed about 15 people.
You know what's funny? I started writing this last week but I'm already starting a new challenge: get through week 9. Uni itself has been good but its hard balancing a social life with studying and trying to take care of yourself. Even if you don't feel like going out, I think you should try to just be outside. With winter coming on & temperatures dropping its so tempting to just curl up and sleep the days away. But then you end up behind on your schoolwork and all your friends worry about you. So just go sit in the library. Even if that feels insurmountable and terrifying, just go sit there with a warm drink and at least pretend to get work done. It's 100% better than creating some kind of nest in your bedroom.
And if you live out of home- call your parents. And if you see them every day, let them know you love them. Winter takes the energy out of a lot of people, and it's the relationships we have with other people that makes life so rich and interesting. - Amity
Today's topic will be moving out of home and adapting well to a new home and a new life! I am personally from New Zealand so that's about three and a half hours to four hours plane ride away! At first it was incredibly daunting moving to a new country, but I knew that I would be able to find a place that I could call my second home. In order to help me feel more welcomed, I chose to live at a University College. Living at a college is a great way to meet new people and get that sense of community. It is a high price to pay financially, but there are plenty of scholarships on offer and I can assure you that the community feeling alone is worth the price. I also can't cook very well, so catering is a big bonus!
I've got some general tips for those moving out of their homes too! First of all, I found bringing a couple sentimental items with me really helped reduce the amount of homesickness I felt. Some of these things were homemade items that my mum made and photos of me and my family. Another thing that really made my room feel like home was DECORATIONS! These could be anything! Posters, photos, fake plants, real plants! Putting in the effort to decorate your room can really make a big difference.
All in all, I hope anyone hoping to come to Unimelb is nervous but also excited! This time of your life will be a new experience and moving out of home could be part of that experience. To those who are already at uni, I hope you've found something useful in this blog post and I hope to see a few more decorations up in your rooms!
Like all of my assessments, readings, lecture recordings and other work, I have put writing this intro post off for the maximum amount of time possible and instead have been watching sit-coms Iāve already seen in all of my spare time. I have also had to spend 3 hours a day on the bus and driving though, which I think is a valid excuse.
I'm Chelsea and Iām studying a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Diploma of Languages (politics, media and French are the vibe). Iām from Melbourne, but literally from the most middle-of-nowhere suburb so Iāve been loving coming into the city more than my usual twice a year.
Iāve spent the first few weeks of the semester trying to find the best study spot on campus, buying minimum two coffees a day (from 7/11 I love them so much), walking through the city for at least 45 minutes a day and taking pictures of everything ever. I have also signed up for way too many clubs, told myself I would read the recommended readings and then didnāt even make it through the compulsory ones, consistently left all of my French homework til 8:40am on Monday morning for my 9am class, and spent (considerably) more time at Savers buying clothes for uni than on my uni coursework. I must say I am loving uni so far, but am about 3 weeks behind on any sort of uni work and have many, many impending assessments, so I am not loving that.
Iām excited to record my experiences this year, partly because I like writing (blogs, not academic essays) and partly because I think it will be really funny that my silly little words will still be on the uni website in 10 years time, amongst all the past and future first yearsā reflectionsāitās kind of cool in a strange sort of way.
Itās a bit late into the first semester, but hello to you anyway! Iām Elizabeth, a first-year Bachelor of Science student deciding between Computing and Environmental Science. I come from New Zealand and Vietnam ā I move back and forth between the two a lot. While that does create some identity crisis, Iād like to think this has shaped me well enough so that by the time Iāve arrived in Melbourne, Iām ready to roll.
Itās quite late at night, but Iād 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 Iām not awake enough to do it right now.
So, what do I often do when Iām 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 āmehā mindset, because you shouldnāt limit yourself to a single word that describes how people recharge their energy). As a frequent lurker on university Reddit pages, Iāve read how big universities are and how the experience is very much sink-or-swim. I feel thatās somewhat true, and I expected it to be true, so I exerted myself in taking part in social events, minus parties because Iām 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 youāll eventually notice who you click with. Keep in touch with them!
I still have much nostalgia for the places Iāve 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. Thatās one of the many feelings that keep me rolling.
Studying at the State Library is a magical experience
āEverybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid ā
- Albert Einstein
Starting university can be a scary but exciting thing. Making sure we know our own capabilities and believing in ourselves is essential to keeping us motivated and happy ; or at least it did for me !
Hey ! My name is Alice, and Iām doing a Bachelor of Science, majoring in neuroscience here at Melbourne University. I love playing the piano, journalling, going out with my friends and learning. I am very excited to share my experiences (good and bad) with all who are reading this !
This semester I'm doing three subjects : introductory biology, compulsory science class, and a psych class! Although there is a lot of content in university compared to high school, I'm enjoying it. I originally did have 4 subjects as I was taking a finance class as my breadth, but I dropped it just to take things easy. I didn't want to stress myself out too much! Since joining university, I've joined a couple of clubs, and highly recommend other people do too ! It is such a great way to meet new people and to also get some occasional free food !
Iāve lived in Melbourne my whole life, and always had the intent of doing university here, half because of the pretty campus (! Hogwarts!) and half because it was the only university that offered neuroscience as a major. I hope Iāll get through all the content to be able to do this major !
The brain and the nervous system, filled with billions of interconnected neurons and is the most complex system in all of the human body. Even though the brain is the most fundamental to survival, we donāt even know much about it. The brain is like the deep sea; mysterious and unknown. We only know about 10% of what goes on in there. Since there is so much left to discover, I hope that I can make that 10% to 11% (or even more!) in the future.
I feel like a lot of people talk about how good university is and also the hard work that is needed. While all that is true, life does have its ups and downs, and it is almost guaranteed that something unexpected, big or small will happen when you're in university, so I intend to keep it real with my university experience, and give advice on how to juggle multiple things in your life at once. Even though wearing a lab coat to do experiments and researching neurological processes does make me feel cool (yes, I can be a bit of a nerd), university can be a challenge. For example, I wasn't expecting to get lost as many times as I have (even the ālost on campus" app canāt help me), but some things just happen.
Thanks for reading my blog, and to wrap things up, I am so excited for the year ahead and for keeping you all updated on things that go on, while also giving some advice and recognition on the things that aren't as talked about !
