Sydney Life

Don’t let marks and uni enrolment sour the longest holiday you will have in your life.

Hey Charger, school finished in November, Uni Starts in March! What a holiday! While all those around you may start to gag at the amount of time your having off, there is that horrible little nagging thought in the back of your mind asking, ‘but what next?’ It can be really quite overpowering and stressful, but it really doesn’t have to be.

What you should be doing at the moment is rewarding yourself with a little bit of ‘mental health’ time. It has been a huge twelve if not twenty-four months for you, full of work, leadership, sport and study, so take this time to let yourself unwind. You probably need some time out to recover from schoolies too, all you eighteen year olds, yeah, I watch the news, I know what you did this summer!! It is actually really important to take time out to relax. It will allow you to clear your mind and gain the energy to take the next stage of the process with full batteries.

Remember, there’s nothing you can do now to change your marks. Its over, so why keep on worrying about it? It will only build up stress that you don’t have to deal with. So, what I want you to do is take three deep breaths. Okay, do it, right now, and forget about the HSC. Okay, One (Aaaahhh), Two, (Aaaahhh), Three, (Aaaahhh)… See, now it’s gone, much better hey!!! Just take yourself aside each time you start to worry about it, and just let it out. Don’t let it build up!!

Mental health time doesn’t all have to be spent lying on the couch or next to the pool. You can be a bit more creative. What you might like to do is actually start to get things prepped for uni, like setting up (read cleaning) your room for study, getting together some money for bus tickets and coffee, or even having a look at some of the subjects that you will be doing and getting a head start on some of the reading. You will need money for uni, so it is not a bad idea to get a job and start to make some money, and anywho, it might be good to get out of the house for a bit too.

The reason I am pushing this advice is because it’s what I did, and I had a great break! I had a wonderful time at schoolies and the like, and spent LOTS of time at the beach, but then I decided that I wanted to get some money together for Uni, so I got a job that I’ve kept right through uni, as a Porter, which let me study but also work and make some money. I also did a fair bit of exercise, I play rugby so it was pretty much preseason, but lots of people fall out of sport once they finish school, but I think its really important to keep fit, a healthy body equals a healthy mind!! Its fun too,. No, really, exercise IS fun!!

Yeah, so that’s it in a nutshell. Make sure you have a tops time, and start to make the steps towards starting uni next year! It will be a grand time, do it! Go on, do it now! Off you go, have fun. Ta ta.

Brendon