It is holiday time where everyone is expected to travel home to their family and enjoy a nice relaxing STRESS FREE break!
Whether you chose to watch movies in bed for three weeks, finish all six seasons of Game of Thrones from beginning to end or actually leave the house you cant help but not STRESS. For the first years we just finished our first ever lot of exams at university level.
How do we know we passed? How do we know if we meet scholarship requirements? How do we know we got second year Law entry? How do we know if we need to change course because engineering is too hard? How do we know which papers to pick for next semester? Or even for some How do we know to leave university and apply for a job at the supermarket???
Instead of relaxing and enjoying my holiday instead I am sitting on edge waiting anxiously for my exam results to come in. I has already been over two weeks and I still have yet to receive my Law exam results! What makes it worse is that I highly expected to not pass. However on a brighter note…..
Guess who actually passed Philosophy! Me!
My first semester of uni came with many challenges. Philosophy was one of those. I went in to a whole new subject with zero background knowledge. I started the year thinking “oh Philosophy, that sounds cool” to a month later with the opinion “how is Philosophy even a University subject? This is stupid!”. But as I persevered I begun to understand it more and more. I went from the majority of the class who didn’t turn up to any lectures to the student who didn’t miss a lecture, who interacted in our tutorials and handed in quality assessments on time.
I owe my attitude change to my Philosophy Tuakana tutors. There really is a huge up side to being a Maori student at the University of Auckland. The support networks are great! At first I just use to turn up to lectures for the free biscuits we got given since there were heaps left because so few people ever turned up. Then I used the tutor as a free counseling session so I could rant to him about all my many problems. He was always so understanding and supportive. He encouraged me to keep going and just pursue what I like rather than what everyone else tells me to. Eventually with his support I was able to give Philosophy another shot. I could then grasp the subject where I understood the purpose of Philosophy. I then was able to comprehend what the lecturer was actually talking about and I enjoyed it! Just as much as those free biscuits because who doesn’t love free kai?
Going into the exam I felt confident, relaxed and happy. I liked what I had studied so I remembered what I had studied and the only challenge was getting it all down on my exam paper in time without getting a sore hand! In addition it definitely showed in my exam results. Moral of the story, don’t give up. Look for help and keep trying because the support will always be there somewhere. Even if you think it wont help give it a try because surprisingly just chit chat can help ALOT.