When things change, yet stay the same (Sophie)

Well…I am back to my second week of classes.

I am finally starting to slowly settle back in. It has been difficult and the whole routine has been something of a shock to the system.

Despite the fact my vacation was anything but quiet, the atmosphere of University is so intense and the time I spend traveling from home to Uni and back is tiresome and draining.

The administration problems I had to sort out over the first week are finally settled, after numerous trips to faculty offices and determined negotiation efforts. My timetable is how I wanted it. 4 days a week, classes finished by 12 or 1pm….and then extra-curricuar/work in the afternoons.

For those who don’t know, I am also starting a position with the Disability Liason Unit at the University in which I act as an Academic Support Worker. I will be doing things like taking notes for students in lectures. My first ‘booking’ is today and I am really really nervous. It is a 2 hour lecture in a faculty not Commerce-related so I am worried about how I will go in note-taking for an entirely different discipline. In addition to this the timing of the booking is very late in the afternoon and completely non-conducive to my morning timetable schedule. I am not sure how this will all work out but I will report back. I just hope the students I have to work with are friendly and understanding.

Over the past week I have managed to meet some new students which is great. The Political Interest Society has had some amazing turnouts at events which has been wonderful! Typically, being the type of club we are, we don’t exactly attract the mainstream. Generally our weekly meetings have about 20 regulars attendees. Last week we had at least 40! Very exciting indeed. Mind you, I guess not everyone will be back.

One of our events we ran was an evening with renowned Islamic Commentator and Melbourne Lawyer, Waleed Aly. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING! It was so wonderful. Waleed was so down to earth and easy going, yet clearly a very deep thinker and extraordinarily intelligent. He discussed “The Clash of Civilisations” in regards to recent world events involving the Western World and the Islamic World….and national events such as the Cronulla Riots and comments made by the ‘Mufti of Australia’. It made me think about so many things, and if anything, gave me a greater understanding of Muslims and Islam. The night began with his speech and thoughts, was then followed by wonderful Lebanese food we had catered in YUM, and then ended with questions and discussion. Fabulous! If you ever get the chance to hear Waleed speak, please go. I recommend it 100%!

Completely changing the topic, I just had to laugh at myself. While writing this I am starting to revert back to Microsoft Excel commands. I was up very late last night finishing off an important report that I knew I would never get time to finish during the week. I am a bit tired today consequently. But, so it goes.

My subjects are going okay.
Principles of Business Law [PBL] seems pretty good though I think I am glad I chose not to do a double degree of Law/Commerce.
Some people think I’m crazy when I say I chose straight Commerce but I chose straight Commerce for a number of different reasons; namely because I know what I want to do, I want to be able to focus on that, I don’t want to spend 5 years at uni [half studying a degree i don’t want to practice], I don’t want to be forced to take more law than commerce subjects [particularly when i want a double accounting/finance major], and despite what ‘everyone’ says; i don’t believe having a double degree will win me the job- ultimately I believe it will come down to who I am as a person and prior work experience AND overall, I know I will be ready to get out there and work at the end of 3 years, unlike some students I don’t need an extra 2 years to ‘mature’. I don’t have time to elaborate more but I can easily spent 20 minutes justifying my degree choice to anyone interested! Lol.

Going off course there…Intermediate Micro is hard. I am not a Micro person. I am a Macro person. But I spoke to a few Honours students who unrecommended that Micro will help me mathematically/formula-wise….plus it helps to have a boyfriend who explains things for you in ways that make sense. No…X and Ys do not exist to me. Instead we talk about the Indifference Curve of Ice cream to JellyBellies. Works well because it keeps my attention!

Intermediate Financial Accounting – well, I am not an Accountant. Theory to me is wonderful. I am a theory person. But number crunching I hate with a passion. Thank god the first 3 weeks are theory. However I did almost die when the lecturer said he received an email of someone asking “when do we start practical exercises?!??!” NO I DON’T WANT PRACTICAL EXERCISES! Throw the theory at me, the philosophy, the rules and regulations but do not make me debit and credit. Luckily – thank god- I have joined and IFA ‘PASS class’ which a girl I know from 85 Broads, is running. She is a lovely girl and very smart so I am 100% sure these classes will help me conquer this subject. I had my first PASS class today and it was awesome. We discussed stuff and she gave us mini quizzes and it helped cement so much knowledge. Plus it is a great way to meet new people 🙂

Last but not least, Organizational Behavior. I typically enjoy Management subjects, possibly because in my spare time I study a lot of Management theory [please don’t call me a geek – i get paid to do it!]. Anyhow…I like how Management is a social science and very subjective with no easy answers. That kind of stuff works well in my mind. The Head Tutor is my tutorial leader so that is wonderful. She is a very cool, energetic Type A personality. I also have a friend in this tutorial class. Unfortunately 40% of the subject accounts for group work – hence I negotiated my way into my friends class! Group work is the one major evil of university. They set it because they think ‘team work’ is an important skill for business. Correct – yes. BUT….we bring in some agency theory here. Every university student has different aims and motives. More often than not, these are likely to be conflicting. Hence in the case of group work, more often than not it is very very difficult to manage a group successfully unless you all have similar aims and motives [E.g. all want H1s]. Last year I got screwed over dramatically in one of my group assignments due to a complete lack of alignment in individual values.

In complete opposition to this, typically companies try to ‘best fit’ individuals within their firms; hence creating teams of people with similar overall life philosophies…and of course a ‘job’ is different to ‘uni’ because the consequences of screwing up at work are much more severe than at uni.

Anyways…I could almost write an essay on this but on the whole I think group work at uni is a joke because unless you are incredibly lucky you will get stuck with a group of people who either a) don’t care about their mark for the subject and are happy for an average mark b) don’t want to do any work at all c) don’t know how to write with proper English and grammar [and i am talking domestic students included!], or d) all of the above.

So…you can’t get idealistic. What happens more often or not is that the high performing student says “Fuck you all, I refuse to let you ruin my mark for this subject so I will do all the work myself and pass it off as a ‘group assignment”.

So yeah…at least I have my friend in OB to help me out in the assignment if no one else does.

Peer Mentoring starts tomorrow. I am quite excited. It should be fun. My Mentor Partner, G, seems like a pretty nice guy [and he has started coming to PIS events so that gives him points in my book!]. Our group is of about 10 people and we have met some of them so far as they seem like pretty cool students. I hope it all works out well.

My funny moment today was that I experienced a “Jezzy”. In other words a “Jez moment”….in which one can’t walk 10 metres without seeing at least, i repeat AT LEAST, 4 people one knows that one must stop to talk to, hence delaying advancement to ultimate location by 15 minutes.

And funnily enough, amongst those I saw in my Jezzy was none other than Jeremy himself, along with his girlfriend Kim!

I also ran into an old friend from High School who was 1 year younger than me. We had 3/4 Methods together and us along with another girl [also a year younger than me] would joke around and laugh a LOT while trying to learn at the extreme pace that maths at MacRob takes. They were good times. It turns out that her and my other old friend both made it into Med at Melbourne so I was thrilled for them! They worked so hard and truly deserved it.

Anyways…
I have to go now. I need to do SOME work before I head off to my note-taking class.

Things have changed so much this year, I feel older and wiser, and last year was one of the biggest [and best] years of my life. I only hope I can top it with this one. I am about to start applying for internships and that is a nerve-racking process. I am aiming for the best of the best….but all I can do is my best, and hope that maybe that will be enough.

No matter what though, some things still stay the same – I’m still the same person I ever was, with many of the same friends….and J is still there keeping me company – despite being extraordinarily busy at the fund management firm he now works at.

Best of luck everyone for the year,
I hope you follow some of your dreams, and manage to achieve at least one of them!

Sophie