Kia ora koutou,

Yes I know, 90% of my blog titles rhyme. Deal with it, somehow it just happens. To be honest life is pretty drab/stressful at the moment. Like most students, I’m feeling the typical end of semester blues and exam stress. We are sick of uni and now that lectures are over we are studying all day everyday for exams. During the semester the General library, Kate Edgar Information Commons study rooms and the unihall floor 1 study room are pretty empty but as soon as exams roll around you struggle to get a desk. In Kate Edgar they even clear your stuff away if you’ve left the desk for more than 20 minutes. Because all course coordinators think its a great idea to put your tests in the last week we have spent the last few weeks studying for those tests and now exams have snuck up on us and nobody is ready for them. To add insult to injury the weather has been amazing. The sun is out to remind us that summer is nearly here and to kick us in the face because we know that days on the beach are on the other side of a serious grind.

Clearly I am ranting, probably just because I am tired, and stressed and sick of studying and actually sick (hoping this sore throat/runny nose/headache will disappear asap). Most students are also sick of hall food. I have a friend who has ordered pizza like 7 times in the last fortnight. Personally I can handle Flametree catering most of the time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t constantly complain about it along with the rest of the hall. Furthermore, most peoples bank accounts are looking very sad, and to top it all off we’ve only had one working lift for 450 people the last 5 days. Welcome to Student life, you have a lot to look forward to.

But before I give you the impression that I hate life. Don’t worry, I am always trying to keep it in perspective and I assure you life isn’t all bad. Just reading the news I am constantly reminded how lucky I am that my city isn’t being bombed, there isn’t a racist-sexist-sniffing sexual assaulter running for NZ prime minister and I haven’t been stabbed like 3 other people in Auckland recently!! When that fails I only have to look at my friend done the hall battling to juggle biomed and high performance rowing and I always feel better.

In an attempt to stay positive during these testing times, I have compiled a list of 7 things which I have come to appreciate, because it is these little things in uni life which make up for all the stress and study.

1. Spontaneous jam sessions at 3am. Sometimes it’s just me and my friends Arvin and Grace improvising Hamilton mash ups on the guitar, sometimes it’s half our floor piled into one room with a keyboard, but either way it’s always a groovy time.
2. Monday night yoga – Makes me feel less guilty because it counts as a trip to the gym, but more importantly it keeps me sane and reminds me to breathe.
3. Quality conversation whilst playing pool on Level 1. It always starts with “just one game okay” and an hour later we’ve played 3 games and told our life story.
4. Futsal. Also counts as exercise. I’m always up for a casual game with friends on the unihall turf. I also enjoyed playing in the Unim8’s futsal league on Wednesday afternoons at the uni gym. (especially when I saved the sudden death penalty goal to win the last game)
5. Coffee and catch ups with my grandparents. They always spoil me and remind me there is a life outside of uni. They never fail to make me glad I picked Auckland. Remember family will always bring you up when you’re down so don’t forget about them when you pick where to go to uni.
6. Planning a road trip with friends for New Years. Its nice to know there is light at the end of the tunnel and something to look forward to.
7. My gen ed Māori 130G – Intro to Te Ao Māori. This paper is about Māori culture, leadership, knowledge, language and New Zealand history, politics, health and other issues from a Māori world view. I have always been interested in Māori Culture and Language and am about as close to Māori as a non-Māori can get. Having taken Te Reo Māori throughout high school I thought I had a pretty good idea of Te Ao Māori, but this paper has further opened my eyes to serious issues in NZ like institutional racism, poor Māori health outcomes and other inequities which stem from colonisation. I would always find myself still thinking about these issues hours after our tutorials which shows how intellectually stimulating this paper was. It is also taught by passionate lecturers and tutors which is contagious and goes along way in a uni paper. This paper should just about be compulsory, and you should definitely TAKE IT for your gen ed.

Now I should stop procrasti-blogging and get back to the medsci study because our exam is TOMORROW!! Arrrgh

Till next time, stay calm

-A