grades

What is it that drives people to excellence? What is it that drives a uni student to the brink of insanity in pursuit of those elusive grades of D and HD? Why is it so many of us need to be the best? I am one of these students, who is not happy unless the marks are phenomenal. A wise woman - my mother - told me to not put so much pressure on myself, and yet here I am, after receiving one bad mark, and feeling so down about it. And I started thinking about what it is that gets us here in the first place. So many other people I know are like me....I'm not saying it's bad, but maybe we do put too much pressure on ourselves?
But even as I make this admission (shock horror) I know I can be fairly hypocritical and while telling people that it is ok to not get amazing marks all the time, I will die a little inside when it happens. And I know I will go right back to expecting amazing marks from myself, even if I have had time off uni, or for any other reason.
So it begs the question - why? Where does this insufferable need for excellence come from? You might think I wasn't hugged enough as a child or something like that, but I was, and I was always encouraged and had a very supporting family - so where does this psycopathic need for a good mark come from???
Are we trying to show that we are the best, that we can handle anything thrown at us?
















Is it some attempt to prove ourselves to others? Or is it trying to prove ourselves - to us?
And even when we say "it's ok, there is only improving from here on, and the only place we can go from here is up.." well.....do we ever end up believing it? I am not so sure.
We'll help our friends, tell them it is ok, it is just onebad grade, but do they, and do we, even believe it in our heads? Are we to the point in our society where being the best, getting the best grades is the be-all-and-end-all of university?

Now, I am not trying to sound like some depressed bum, but today it just really got me thinking about why so many of us are like this, and desperately desire what we term the be 'the good marks'.

Food for thought.

One of my friends shared this image with me - well, needless to say, such logic must be passed around. It sometimes reminds me of being a student, how we're always expected to think outside the quadrilateral parallelogram in which we live our lives - well, I would love to see the face of a professor if you answered with something along these lines :P

Nah, my professors are awesome .. but still......I wonder if such a smart alec comment would work well in an exam...... kidding

tales from the North

well well well.....we meet again, on the field of blogging. It has been a rather long time since I have done this - so forgive me, I am a tad rusty. It has been over a year now since my trip to Tanzania - this time last year, I was wandering around France and about to head off to Finland.....sometimes I look back on that trip and wonder how on earth I actually managed it. but it was an awesome experience. I have now enterred the new awesome experience of my life - university!
ENTER DRAMATIC MUSIC
Now now, no need to be so melodramatic- currently, it is not that different to my senior years at school....IB......shudders.....
Moving on - so, I successfully manouvered myself through first semester and am currently enjoying my second semester at uni. This year has been full of surprises for me - I think karma was after me from last year - because I had such amazing luck with my travels last year, this year was time for a bit of change. At the end of last year, in a foolhardy move, I managed to (what we believed at the time) sprain my ankle...quite severely....ending with me on crutches for 9 weeks, seeing doctors and a surgeon and then extensive physio. So, i though, sweet, road to recovery......wrong! lady luck had another idea. While down for the mid year break, I decided to have it looked at again as it was still sore and stiff and just alround annoying. So after multiple scans, and once I am back at uni, I receive a call.. on a monday morning....something like this

hello is this annie?
*looks at watch, 8:30 am....do I want to be Annie at this time of morning?* Yes, it is?
jolly good. yeah, look, the doctor has seen your scans, you need surgery... can you come in on wednesday?
.....I'm in Queensland.....
...Oh
*awkward turtle moment*


so anyway, after some very quick planning, I managed to get myself down for the surgery and all was hunky dory. surgery.....such a strange word.....and the gassy stuff, knocks you right out - literally! and keeps you rather out of it after the surgery...especially when they give you morphine...... :P
So currently still on crutches and hobbling around, i will be able to start to learn to walk again in just under a month, which is very exciting for me

On another note, uni in general - awesome :D college is amazing, I have made some of the most wonderfully awesome friends here - even found my doppleganger, it is insane!!!! she is awesome and every day I am reminded how lucky I am to have so many wonderful people that comprise my college/uni family. Life is truly good!

Uni work is pretty good, and I am enjoying my subjects - especially because I only had to do chemistry in first semester...now, don't go all hatin on me, it is a very interesting subject and I am sure if....certain things were different, I would have enjoyed it and appreciated it a lot more, but as I did not to chem in highschool, and only did prepchem for a few weeks before uni, being thrown in the deep end in a subject you have only just started understanding ... well, it can suck and potentially lead to a deteste of said subject. That being said, i did enjoy knowing about how things work - just not the whole "I'm assessing you so you better do well or else" sort of ..... pressure. But i had my awesome doppleganger and a plethora of other friends to help me through.

What else....what else......we have had a cat explosion at home, have I mentioned this? well, we went from one cat to three last year, and then this year y father found another abandoned kitten. so now, we're part way to becoming the crazy old cat people with 4 cats in the house. but it is fun.

Living away from home has its perks but it also has its cons. I do miss home quite a bit, and the comforts of home, like a hug from mum, or cuddling the cats. but again, I am really enjoying the uni experience.

And considering I have uni tomorrow, I suppose I should be a responsible student and go sleep....or should I????? my sleep patterns suck right now, not going to lie :P

anywho, that is a short update from me, hopefully I will be back on my blog more often, so expect some very random ramblings in the coming months :D

cheers!
Annie