Saturday, 14 December 2013

You Can Be ANYTHING, but...

I touched on this topic in my post, When you start to be like your job.
For the Popular Fiction unit, we had to study Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (it's a pretty good read. It got me back into yoga, anyway). One of the main criticisms my classmates had of that book was that Liz (the main girl, who went to three different countries) got life handed to her on a silver platter; her financial worries disappeared in the breeze, and the opportunities she had were too convenient. That does annoy me, in books generally. Because it squashes hope for the rest of us. How can we be expected to rely on magic moments to get us towards our goals?
Things don't just happen. People and the media are keen to tell kids that They Can Be Anything and Do Anything.
Magic can happen, kids!

 'Yes,' my friend Hannah responded in placating tone to this generic statement. 'But you have to get out there and make it happen. You have to be on the lookout for opportunities and be willing to go for it when they come.'

I was immediately drawn to the study exchange program (yes, you will get tired of me talking about this, but whatever). It seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity (and you get some financial support from the uni through this program, which is a plus for someone who only works a few hours a week). I researched possible locations and universities to study at. After a month or two, I'd gone from There are so many awesome places! to There is nothing at all suitable for me; this sucks. 

I remember my friend asking how my research was going. I told her that there was nothing really right for me; nowhere offered what I wanted. Even then, it sounded like more of an excuse than a real reason. And looking back, it was pretty dumb to think that there was no other university in the world that offered something as good or better than QUT in creative writing. A part of me knew this, I think. I decided to give it once last whack. I spent a few more hours looking into universities that looked even halfway decent. I started to email the various international uni coordinators in my own polite way of saying "Is this really the best you can do??"

A mildly funny meme with a cat that looks photoshopped.


A few didn't respond. Another one sent me something, and I decided that that uni wasn't for me, after all (at least I was confident with that answer this time). Bath Spa Uni responded by sending me a PDF of the courses they offer in 2014. Turns out it was on their website. I was initially looking at the wrong section (local students rather than international, or something dumb like that). Anyway, these new courses were more varied and interesting than I could have hoped for. A few query emails later and I'd narrowed down my unit preferences with Bath. On the application sheet for QUT, I put Bath as first preference. I did have a second preference, but I knew I'd only be happy with my first. Luckily I got it.
Note: this isn't the best plan. You are supposed to have a decent few options. Still, I'm sure I read something about burning your bridges being a sure-fire way to get what you really want (seeing as there's no other options).
Note about the note: That was an unintentional pun. 

Even now I still have to do shitloads of preparation (the visa prep was a total b*tch, but that's mainly because the website sucks). Point being, I wouldn't have gotten this opportunity to study abroad if I'd only gazed dreamily at the info brochures, or popped onto the computer for ten minutes and expected that much research to be enough. I can say with full confidence that I was accepted because I worked hard. Not just hard, but persistent. First, you have to have decent grades to be eligible, so there's two years of study right there. Then there's all that research I've mentioned. And you can't be afraid to be that annoying student who pesters everyone. You will need to send dozens of emails, and think carefully about what you need to know.


I mentioned Liz at the start. She had finances handed to her without much effort.

How I'm paying for my trip, in case you're curious. 
I should mention that I suck at budgeting. I haven't saved as much as I could this year. Every time I started a budgeting plan, I'd give up on it within a week. Pretty pathetic. I spent way too much on food--eating out, and going to the extremely delicious but also expensive and 'chocolate's not that good for you despite what they say' chocolatiers, Noosa Chocolate Factory (but if you are craving cocoa-based substances, I would highly recommend these guys).

Yeah, budget. Mum's grounded me until I do my budgeting for next year. I think that's hilarious. I'm almost an adult, I'm fairly responsible and haven't been grounded since primary school, I'm about to live away from family for an extended period, and now it comes. It's totally fair--I should be grounding myself, really. Point being, I don't save very well. If it weren't for my extra jobs this year, I would probably have about zilch saved right now.

My main sources of income will be the student loan which gets added to HECS (or HELP or whatever they call it these days), the money my parents saved for me since I was a baby (which I wasn't supposed to touch at all but they relented when they saw how much I'd need it), and the piddly pathetic amount I've saved. The extra HECS loan has been approved, but apparently the government still need to give it the okay, which is a bit worrying (I thought it was a done thing). I've also applied for two scholarships, but I don't know if I got them and don't want to rely on them. I should probably get a credit card.
Note: The University fees themselves are the same as QUT's fees, so it's the same as HECS, which means that I can forget about it, then give away a huge chunk of my wages when I eventually (finally) get a decent job.



While I'm away I will be doing lots of posts on How to Live On the Cheap. Hopefully I will actually learn to moderate my spending while working within a fixed amount and using a card or two all the time, which is easy to track spending with.

2 comments:

  1. Melissa and I are proof that sometimes things do just happen, but you have to put yourself out there. Nobody's going to walk up to your house, haul you out of bed and hand you a job. That said, I had always believed that nothing good comes your way unless you work for it, and after half a decade of trying over and over again I just about gave up. We shouldn't rely on things just happening for us, but sometimes, it's the only hope we have.

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  2. Hope is never ever a bad thing! It is indeed the only thing that keeps us going sometimes. Faith is super powerful (not just the Praise the Lord type thing, but the feeling deep in your gut that you are meant to do something). It's hard when you keep hitting dead end after dead end. You feel like you've tried everything and still you get nothing back. How do you keep going? You answered it yourself, Owen: Hope.

    Sometimes it's okay to take a break. To try something completely new. Do something fun after all your hard work. It's not giving up; it's taking a breather and gaining perspective. Then the new experience might offer us something we'd never even thought of before, or another way into our original goal. You weren't looking, but there it is. You subconsciously make this happen with that gut feeling and self-belief inside you the whole time. Never give up, Owen. Everything works out in the end; if it hasn't worked out yet, it isn't the end.

    Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. I hope this didn't sound preachy. Just something I have come to learn.

    PS I’m pretty sure Rebecca Sparrow touches on some of these issues. In The Girl Most Likely, and other books. I’d recommend her. She’s hilarious. http://www.penguin.com.au/contributors/4705/rebecca-sparrow/

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