Here is a typical example of how a semester might run for me. All the things below are true, although none of them were really expected or planned.
Next week I will have surgery done and take a week off.
Of course, right? My doctor says, 'Hey, you wanna get your appendix out?' and I say 'Sure, why not.' I have an auto-immune disease and apparently an appendectomy will fix me. Painkillers ahoy. I have had medicaly issues before at uni and have learnt the Special Considerations and Extension systems quite thoroughly. My tips are - plan ahead. Make sure your doctor can help you out. Be prepared to have photocopies of EVERYTHING for the arts faculty as, even if you cannot walk, they will not photocopy it for you. But otherwise it is a good system and do not abuse it - only get Special Considerations if you are actually in need of it. Using it for nothing means that when you need it it won't mean as much.
I am running for editorship of Honi Soit.
Sure. I get a phone call saying 'Will you be an editor with us and campaign for the next three weeks and do lots of work on top of uni?' I said 'Sure, why not.' So I am making a zine, posters, t-shirts, I am going to be lecturebashing, advertising, postering, chalking, everythinging. For a week, that is, until my appendix comes out. (See above.) I am passionate about media and democracy so this is meaningful for me but also a big challenge. Uni work is absolutely my priority and I can't let my grades slip, so now I am going to learn to balance extra-curricular with class. I talked to an SRC member who is now only taking one subject so he can do his extra-curricular work. That's pretty intense. I'm doing four.
I am trying to find inventive new ways of earning money.
Because I am low on time I need to do this. So when I got an unexpected and strange phone call from some marketing place about taking part in a discussion about pirated movies for $80 for a couple of hours I said 'Sure, why not?' (Read: Hell Yes!) I then signed up to as many of these amazing initiatives as I could. Part of me thinks that I am driving the capitalist consumerist system of bad, but then again, I like buying things and I'm not going to change the way the world works so better stop grumbling about it and just make sure the system works properly. That's what market research is about, and if I do the research willingly they won't have to buy my facebook details. Then I banked on winning money at stuff at uni which surprisingly has actually worked and I am $200 richer thanks to The Bull's photo competition. I have entereted literature and photo prizes with PALM (usu's awards) and I won money in that last year so there's no harm trying. I'm also making zines to sell at a zine fair and am going to do some photo shoots with people who need photos shot. And will photograph a school formal. Things like this make me happy.
That's about it for this dose of interestingness. The point of it all is - you can live outside the box and do things the weird way and I promise it will still work out because uni is cool and has systems to deal with people like me who want to do everything upside down and inside out. Don't hold back!