Editors Blog Issue 1

This month the editors asked themselves what their earliest memories of university were.

JORDAN ARCHER

It was Journalism enrolment day 2008. I’d already enrolled but I was the type of person so super keen for uni that I thought ‘heck, why not go anyway’.

Anyway, I’m sitting in the lecture looking mighty unapproachable, when I realise these two girls were standing right next to me. The girl closest to me looked like she just came from a modelling show or something.

I was wondering whether maybe the girls had mistaken me for someone else or something, when UniSA’s next top model spoke. ‘Hi. We like your t-shirt. And your hair. And your jeans, because they’re not too dark, and it means you’re not an emo. So we might sit with you!’ she said.

My memory is a bit fuzzy on what I said back but I’m sure it included a lot of ummms and ahhhhs. While I’m normally a man of way too many words I had nothing to say, I was confused by this bizarre experience that would never have happened in high school!

Anyway, the girls sat next to me and we got a-chatting, and spent the rest of the day finding our way around Magill campus. Three years later that girl (the one who looks like a model), is still one of my best friends at university!

Everyone worries about the first impression they’ll make at university but the truth is that it’s nothing like high school! Everyone is as keen and excited to meet new people as you are. Chances are if you haven’t already, you’re going to meet a tonne of new, interesting, EXCITING people at uni, and it will be when you least expect it.

LAURA PIETROBON

As embarrassing as it seems, it didn’t even cross my mind that I would have to ENROL in university. I thought it would be just like high school. You arrived on your first day and we would all be handed out timetables. I didn’t even KNOW what subjects I would be studying – as you can see, I was extremely well prepared for university life.

Thank goodness for friends, is all I have to say. I was fortunate that I had a close friend who was also enrolling in journalism that year. She messaged me the morning enrolments opened, asking if I had enrolled yet. This sent me into a panic, as I hadn’t even realised we were supposed to enrol. I rang her, freaking out. Fortunately, she kept calm, cool and collected – and had somehow figured out how to use My Enrolment. We both logged onto our computers and spent the next hour exhaling in frustration as we attempted to find out what our subjects were, what times they were available and making sure our timetables matched. By the end of the hour, I wanted to throw the computer through a window. Luckily, we had both managed to coordinate our timetables and got all of the times we wanted.

Did you think it was just you that had trouble with that first enrolment? Don’t worry; you were most definitely not alone. If I had been alone in enrolling, the results could’ve been disastrous.

University gets A LOT better, but unfortunately, enrolment doesn’t get any easier as you move to the end of your degree. But at least now you know how to use My Enrolment.

JESSICA MATTHEWS

My earliest memory of university was my first studio class. We were asked to cut large squares out of white paper and smaller squares and rectangles out of black card. Our task was to arrange the black shapes on the white card using no more than four black squares and only one black rectangle. I remember sitting there thinking, “I thought I was studying graphic design – where are the computers? This is bullshit!”

The entire first year of my course, and most of second year, was extremely hands on and practical, and we were never allowed to use a computer. Even for typography, which was the most painstaking process of cutting out singular letters, arranging them on a line to make a word, checking the spaces between letters and going “Oh shit, that’s way too close, gotta do it all again.” And then we would wipe away tears, pick up our dummy off the floor and start all over again.

But here I am, about to embark on my third year, and as cliché as it sounds I am extremely grateful for all the hands on training I have been taught. I believe my designer’s eye is very strong and this has only come as a result of our lecturer’s beating us over the heads until our eyes went fuzzy and we couldn’t work anymore. All that effort and hard work really does pay off, and our designs are unique and visually interesting; not just something someone whipped up in ten minutes on Photoshop.

But seriously, we produce amazing results. =]

ERIN WILLIS

While I have many memories of my early days at UniSA, my favourite of these would have to be the 2009 Journalism Pub Crawl that took place half way through my first year. This was the start of a new era as past journalism students hadn’t really had the luxury of experiencing one of the best social events offered to Uni students.

I arrived at the pub crawl with just one other close friend and as we moved from pub to pub and the drinks began to flow (responsibly of course), many new friends were made, many t-shirts became covered in white texta (not to mention windows) and many wonderful memories were created!

Starting Uni brings a lot of changes to everyday life with a new study environment, new people and plenty of new things to learn. While it may be stressful juggling your new study load, definitely don’t pass up any opportunity to get out and meet your new class mates at many of the social events offered by the Uni.

After my experience at my first University pub crawl, I definitely feel that Uni life would not be the same without all the great people I have met and the outlets provided for doing so. Make sure you look out for information on this website or on our Facebook page so you can get to as many events and pub crawls as possible!

STEPH SIMON

Uni is where you learn all the important things about life, like your friend can only do headstands after a few too many drinks, and where to eat on a budget.

In first year uni I explored much of Gouger Street.

Having grown up in the country, Gouger offered many new culinary delights, including yum-cha.

Most of us had originally come from the country and only one of us had ever had yum-cha before so the rest of us were new to ordering.

There were six of us so we decided to get three of everything we ordered.

The waitress warned us that one of the dishes was quite large so we only got one of those, but she failed to mention everything else we ordered.

Our entire table was piled four levels high with dishes, it was such a ridiculous amount of food that people were taking photos and we were laughing at how ridiculous we were that we couldn’t even order lunch without making fools of ourselves.

Then the waitress brought out 11 more plates of food, all for our table!

We stayed in there most of the day and all ate so much that none of us ate anything the next day but still didn’t get through even half the food.

After all that the bill was only $20 each, which we were all very relieved about.

We still order more food than we need every time we go.