Sydney Life

Dear Denial,

I have written you a thousand love letters, why don’t you write me back? Sometimes- when I am waiting in line at the supermarket, feeding my dogs or even in that fractional moment of repose between the sentences of a stream of consciousness rant- I find myself longing for your sweet embrace. As clandestine as our relationship is, this infatuation is not borne of a crazy, fumbling un-buttoning of a new sordid affair. No, this is comfortable love. Steady. Consistent. A rock solid, enduring, enveloping love. I think you are my safe place. It is undeniable that you have loved me too, Denial, I mean… I have always found you popping up, showing through, proving yourself to be the reaction I no longer bother registering. You lure me to a place that is so much nicer than The Everyday. You make it beautiful, you make it okay.

To continue for a bit on my theme from last entry - the joys of living out of home - I would like to recount the saga of the mouse.

When I moved in to Maison d'Erskineville, the guy whose room I was moving in to while he jetted around the world for six months hadn't quite left yet, despite the fact that he was no longer paying rent and I was living in his room. That is, his stuff was in our dining room in boxes and he was sleeping on the floor. He was having trouble with visas and stuff like that so we were cutting him a lot of slack, but despite all of this, it was becoming increasingly annoying having boxes of clothes, food and other things (?) in our eating space, looking ugly.

Dear friends, followers, and esteemed colleagues,

Every semester for me begins the same way. False promises of a fresh start study regime. “This semester:

I will not procrastinate.
I will keep on top of my readings.
I will begin essays before the day before they are due.”

After goodness-knows how many years attempting to perfect the technique of studying, I have finally mastered the art.

Read on for my words of wisdom (if you can’t guess what it is from the title of this post).

Want proof? I’ve made a comprehensive list of all the different types of procrastination you can partake in. And then I wrote a blog about it.

So...

I don’t know about you guys but I’m feeling a little frazzled. Week nine at uni, like a monsoon rain cloud, hits right on time with the same intensity every semester. You know it’s coming. You can feel it in the air. Suddenly computer labs are at breaking point, all the good books are due back in June and four hours sleep becomes the new ‘eight.’ Regardless of preparation, it’s impossible to stay completely dry under that umbrella when the rain falls in sheets from every which way.

Exchanging Manning for the dusty corridors of Fisher, I've sublimated all urges into some long overdue research for an Art History essay. My old habit of leaving things to the last minute seems to have followed through from high school, but this time round, I'm not so sure I can pull it off like in the good ol' days.

You may hear a term being thrown around during the first few weeks of uni... and it’s actually WebCT.

Not too sure what the CT stands for, but here’s the lowdown nonetheless.

Water, water all around, so let’s all drink... something else.

As my exams creep up and I hand in the last of my assignments for the year, quite a few people at college have gone home for the study vacation to avoid the rampant (and highly contagious) college procrastination syndrome. I, in what may [read: will] prove to be a less than wise decision, have decided to stay and sit out the most dull and uninteresting study-filled *!* week of the semester... and rather than studying hard I find myself hardly studying. So while I hardly study I thought I’d do something remotely productive and add to Asako’s Wandering Thoughts with a list à-la-Letterman of my absolute Top 10 “To-Do”s [read: displacement activities] as an expert college procrastinator (in ascending order)...

For our last Psych lecture in the cognitive processes stream, our lovely lecturer Caleb gave us some study tips that actually fit in with what we were learning. So I’ve decided to pass them on. And writing this is actually studying for me! Yay!

The HSC. All the previous moments (hours...) where you have been studying like crazy, stressing, worrying perhaps, and its now its here. The HSC has begun. And for my part, I cannot believe it has been a year since I last sat in that exam hall. I remember it exactly like it was yesterday and how I almost wasn't allowed in to the examination hall…

As I write this, you are all sitting in your various school halls / libraries / exam centres; full of jitters, nervous, about to vomit. Aka, about to sit English Paper 1.

I am feeling for you, I really am. I actually have that pre-exam nervous flutter in the pit of my stomach, for you all.

AHHHHHHHH! BLAST OFF! Yep! It’s begun! You’re in it. Dead set, it’s the HSC. First exams are down, that’s one less to go. Don’t forget, keep studying! It’s really important. I’m sure you’ve heard this all before, all the time, for the past two years: but study is the key! The HSC is unlike anything you’ve ever done before, and for most of you, anything you’ll ever do again. It’s tough, it’s rough, and it takes no prisoners. But never ever make a mountain out of a mole hill!

That’s right, it’s crunch time. As I’m writing this, it’s no more than two weeks until the HSC begins, and I’m sure you’re gripped with nerves. Asako’s already given you some tips on how to study in STUVAC, and rather than copying her, I thought I’d give you some tips, from an HSC veteran, about how to handle the actual exam period, and the exams themselves. Keep in mind, I only did artsy subjects (so that’s why I went and did arts at Sydney uni!) but there are some basic rules that are true across the board. So, here are my top tips:

For the purpose of all you HSC doers out there, I attempted to cast my mind back to what I actually did during the procrastination-filled potential disaster that was the 3 week stuvac break. Problem was, I couldn’t actually recall any events from the time. So, I cracked open my diary to this time last year to see what I was thinking. Here is an extract from the night before my first exam (as is, no edits):

“So it’s getting real soon. I’m... freaked out, but it really comforts me when I know that we are all going through it, together. It’s all a learning experience, a journey that we take as individuals, whom are part of a collective. We are enriched with this voyage toward the end,.. OH MY GOD WHAT AM I SAYING?!”

Another interesting thing to note is that our grade’s message board peaked the night before our first exam, and this continues to be the “most people online” timeframe. Anyway, what I do remember from Stuvac are some study techniques that really helped with specific subjects. Read on for English, Maths, Japanese, Art, and some other general tips....

Just the other day sitting at my desk, with my mango & pineapple scented candle burning, and RHCP’s new album playing, I realised I had inadvertently recreated the exact environment in which late last semester (read: the dwindling hours of Stuvac), I was studying dreadfully hard for my final biology exam.

Instead of causing me to uncontrollably twitch or splutter expletives at the traumatic memories elicited by these familiar smells and sounds, it made me realise: if I can get through biology, I can get through anything (academic-wise). Furthermore, if I managed to beat biology to a pulp (ok fine... it got away with a gentle slap on the hand), you can definitely get through your HSC in one piece. Read on for the How To Survive Stuvac Guide:

If your school has decided to hold Trial HSC exams, chances are, they are coming up in just a few weeks.

So if you’re in Year 12, and facing the prospect of these dreaded exams (which are, I’ll let you know, much more difficult than the actual HSC exams…not that this fact makes the actual exams any less painful: an unpleasant Catch-22), then here are some wise words from a girl who has lived through it…

When you were a child and someone asked you "what do you want to do when you grow up", did you ever answer: "I want to change the world"?

I have. And one thing you quickly learn about social change is that sometimes the biggest changes happen because of the actions of a small few...

Yes that's right my friends, in 5332 words time I will have finished all my work for semester 1. Easier said than done unfortunately.

Procrastination may come naturally at first but will eventually, and quickly, evolve and adapt to new environments and study habits.

It starts out as simply avoiding work but eventually becomes a point of doing work to avoid doing work.

To reach your full potential takes many many years of practice and implementation. Personally I'm not there yet but I'm well on the way to the pinnacle!

Getting ethics approval for your Honours thesis is serious business. So is finding a solution to procrastinating...

If there was a class on Procrastination, I'd be topping it. In fact, I'd probably be teaching it. During exam time, my room has never been cleaner, my family never better-fed, my CD collection never more alphabetised.....yep, I am a world-class delayer of major tasks. Including studying. I'm actually meant to be starting to research for my Honours thesis right now...and what am I doing? Procrastinating, of course. So here are some of the best study tips I've received - make sure you let me know if I've missed any!