Sydney Life

There are many reasons I love uni. In fact, the number is infinite. And regularly, as I walk past the quad, or into one of my aging yet glorious classrooms, I sigh contentedly, and ponder just how lucky I am to be here. But, in the past week, I had one of those light-goes-on moments, when I really thought “I’m so glad I’m here”. Here’s how it happened.

Sitting in our last religious studies lecture, the topic was the theories of the origin of religion. I can’t say I’m absolutely riveted by the subject, I prefer eschatological theology. You know, all the – “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” – kind of stuff. Stuff with oomph. Nevertheless, as I sat there trying not to nod off (keep in mind, it was a lazy Thursday afternoon, after lunch, on a warm day), the topic changed from rather boring bearded men with ridiculously long names who are so dead it’s not funny, to a rather more interesting bearded but slightly less dead man – Sigmund Freud.

Covering the basics of his theory, our lecturer encouraged us to perform an experiment. An experiment which he promised would not hurt us, nor would it be physical, or visible in any way. We would only feel slightly uncomfortable. He asked us to conceive, ever so briefly, having relations with our parents. He then proceeded to enlighten us about stages of development that Freud hypothesised, ranging from the oral, to the anal, to the phallic, genital, and so on. This, in turn, was coupled with a conversation about the id, the ego, and the super ego. Now, all this on the surface may strike you as an odd reason to love uni. I can here you shouting “Simon, you degenerate! Stop writing on this blog right now!”, but I’m not advocating Freud’s theory.

What I’m truly impressed by was the fact that our lecturer could suggest we should do this. No hesitation. And that, I think, is at the crux of why I love uni. Because it CHALLENGES you. Every day, and in every way. I can certainly say, over the past year, I have never had my most profound beliefs more violently challenged than at uni. People from all walks of life, from all different persuasions, have come and argued with me about the very fundamentals that I hold dear. And that’s what uni should be like. School’s great, but if you truly look to branch out, and break down the myths of reality, then uni is the place to be.

Of course, our lecture was capped off nicely by our lecturer telling us that we had the dubious honour of being his last lecture ever. So, whether the discussion on Freud was a one off, when he just wanted to have a bit of fun before he left, or whether it was of a bigger pattern that I’ll see at Sydney Uni, I’m not sure. But, whatever it was, I loved it, and I’ll certainly remember it for a long time. Well, that was bizarre, but hopefully for you HSC chickadees and prospective students, I pushed you just that little bit closer to uni.