- By Erzsebet
When we were children, most of us went to Kindergarten before stepping into the big wide world of primary school. Although we would have been too young to remember what we did at that age, but whether we liked it or not, more often than not we found that the friendships we made at Kindergarten were no longer to be seen after we enter Prep. Entering a whole new world with several other young children around the same age as us sharing new life experiences. I remember starting school and knowing nobody. I can imagine what I would have felt: alone and lost. Reflecting on the years after Prep, I remember new girls coming and old ones leaving. I established a fairly good friendship with some of these girls but sadly, some of them had left before we reached the beginning of our secondary school days. I was fortunate in my educational journey to go to the same school for at least 75% of my school days.
Three years ago, I was in year 11. I was studying my Victorian Certificate of Education via distance education as I was too unwell to go to a mainstream educational setting. Despite there were teachers to guide you, and social networking chats, it was a really lonely experience after what I was used to! Looking back at it though, it was just what I needed.
A lot of people I know go to university straight after they finish high school, others spend several years working before going back to pursue further studies. Many returning to study after several years have told me, and I am sure this is the case for some of you too, that you are coming to another phase in your life all on your own. You may not necessarily know anyone. It is really scary at first but I think you can get through it. If I could survive on my own to finish my high school days and two other tertiary qualifications alone, I know you can do it too!
Coming back to study on campus was a real challenge but you know what? It is what you make of it! To ease your transition, go to orientation, you will meet people from your course or similar courses; you can meet people of all backgrounds at events that you probably never would go to under normal circumstances. You can even meet others from the different campuses! Go onto the universities Facebook page, introduce yourself; I am sure there will be other students who are just like you! You could always go to a DUSA event, and may even make a friend or two for life! The photo I have attached is of me with a friend that I made almost a year ago at a DUSA event! Ever since, we have been quite close despite the campus difference! So my advice: don't be afraid, just get out there, talk and meet people!!
Good luck!!
-By Jo Results are usually a relief, they arrive, you got what you wanted, sometimes more and sometimes less, but it usually means you can tick those units off your course and sigh happily that you’re still on track.
That’s how it usually goes for me, until trimester one last year. Of the four units I had taken that trimester I had completed three of the optional assignments, but the fourth one remains on my hard drive to this day, approximately a day away from finished but totally useless to me. I went into the exam knowing a pass would be very hard to come by – but not turning up to the exam would have made me feel worse.
I chose to sign up to receive my results by SMS.
I paced the house from 4 pm.
I held my mobile in my hands from 5 pm.
I stopped pacing at 5.40pm when the message tone sounded.
Here’s where I would normally open the message as quickly as possible and announce my results to my family and then share by email with fellow students.
But I sat.
I starred at the message preview in the lock screen of my mobile phone.
I waited, but I wasn’t sure for what. There is a certain last minute hope that is hard to give in to. After some time passed I concluded that the marks were there and as they weren’t going to change I had to be brave and look.
There were three credits that I was happy with and one dreaded ‘N’.
I sat and starred some more.
Perhaps I should have gone to my lecturers and told them about the intense semester I had endured and the house move, and my physical health problems, but I hadn’t, thinking I could never fail.
Then I went into denial. I sent an email to the unit chair, one to my lecturer to see if they had got it wrong (after all it was the only logical explanation).
Then I went into meltdown.
This unit was a pre-requisite for a unit in trimester two, and for a unit the following year. I had effectively added another year onto my degree not to mention the extra fee for when I repeated the unit (back then I didn’t know the textbook would be updated by the following year so on a very tight budget I was going to need another textbook too).
All these thoughts kept leading me back to that assignment I’d missed. I kept comparing my results with that of my friends – how come they passed and I didn’t? Was I not as intelligent as them? Was it a cosmic sign that the powers that be felt I shouldn’t be in this course? Was it karma for lying to my mother in the 90s?
Then the tears and self-pity moved in and decided we should be roommates for the next week or so.
I didn’t access Student Advocacy (through DUSA) which is available free to all students, and which I should've accessed. I felt I deserved the ‘N’ like I’d deserved all my other marks. I had failed a unit and my pride and my ego were suffering from severe bruising!
I found out that failed exam papers are looked at twice to make sure the grade is correct, that lecturers are usually willing to go over your paper with you and help you understand where you went wrong and most importantly the world doesn’t launch into an apocalyptic ending.
My failure highlights a few things for me – I’m human, life events do impact my study, it’s best to speak up as soon as this happens and maintaining a strict study time table is more important than it sounds.
‘The only failure is when you quit’ is now the first thing I write in my notebooks.
