First Preference, First Round

So, first-round university offers were released nearly a week ago, last Wednesday. After many predictions that the site would crash on the 2:00pm opening time, students from my year level discovered that in fact, while our accounts weren't accessible online until that time, often the tertiary offers commission would e-mail us earlier in the day.

I found this out after I woke up, reached for my phone and refreshed my e-mail at 10:00 to find that an e-mail had landed in my inbox at 9:05. The subject line: VTAC offer information. With shaking hands, I clicked on the e-mail, opening it up to see the words, VTAC would like to congratulate you on receiving the following offer. 

It was my dream course: primary teaching at my local university! I had achieved, after everything that was my final year at school, my first preference. I could hardly believe it - moments later, shouting, 'I GOT IN!' to my mother on the phone, my brother almost knocked my door down wanting to know what the news was. 

For the rest of the day I was on cloud nine, already imagining myself shopping for stationery and walking into uni on the first day. From that moment on, the planning had begun for the first-day outfit which needed to radiate the best first impression it could! At 4:00 pm, I received the official e-mail from the university extending its offer to me, and I accepted within minutes.

On Friday, I went into uni for the first time as a current student to seek help with my enrolment at StudentHQ. The girl behind the counter helped me enrol for the four core units I needed for semester one, showed me how to access my new student e-mail account and gave me my ID card. I must say that the photo on the ID card is a whole lot better-looking than my old school ID cards! 

My timetable is now three-quarters sorted, but I'm waiting on my last class to release three more places on February 6th, to try and snag the time I want for it. I'll stay up until midnight on February 5th if I have to! 

In between uni preparations and keeping busy with other things, I have been staying active. In fact, I'm dangerously close to breaking one of my goals and not getting out of the house today, so after this blog post I might go for a walk down to the local oval. I've been eating three regular meals a day, but staying up too late at night - midnight lights-out is not a great thing, let me tell you - which has led to sleeping in too much some days. Tonight it's lights-out before 11:00.

Last Friday a great tragedy occurred in our beautiful city: the Bourke Street massacre. As of today, there are five dead, scores still in hospital critically injured and fighting for life, and still others struggling to come to terms with what they saw that day and what happened to disrupt our peaceful way of life. There is a great sadness here, for this is something that should never have happened.

My heart goes out to the dead and to their families, and my prayers to those still hanging on to life by its bare threads. It could have so easily been me, if I had decided to go into town that day. I can't watch or read news about the incident any more, I'm too shaken. May God bless you all, and bring justice to this terrible situation.

I hope you are all enjoying the freshness of a new year, and using this January to reset and re-evaluate what you want your year to look like. I know I am.

Ellie.

All roads lead to 2017

So, it's a new year. After the shenanigans of 2016, it feels as though it was a long time coming.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Now, as we all know, resolutions are made to be broken. However, I've got some goals in mind that I want to pursue over the course of this year. It's an entirely new chapter for me, having finished school and beginning university in March.

My first goal is more healthy eating. Not of the diet-changing type, but simply being able to have three regular meals a day. Last year I would often skip the midday meal, usually making me extra hungry for dinner. This year, I want to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far, I've been doing that every day of this year (okay, it's only the fourth, but still).

My second goal is a slightly harder one, due to my activities. I want to get up early (8 or 9 o'clock) at least three mornings out of seven. Herein lies the problem: I row, which means I will be getting up at five o'clock or even before, now and then. I didn't make the squad for the season ahead though, so I'll be able to keep this goal until at least August or September.

My third goal is to maintain organisation. I'm going to go about this in a slightly different way to the way I've been attempting it for the last few years. I've bought a planner, since I'll no longer be given one by school, and also have a to-do list. It's a running to-do list, meaning I just add to it or take items away as needed, so everything I need to do is in one place. Hopefully this means I can stay on track.

My fourth and last goal is to stay active. Even if there's nothing that I have planned for the day, I want to get outside my house every day. Whether that's just for a walk, or going to the shops, I want to get some vitamin D and fresh air every day.

The main reason for all of this change is my first year of university. It's time for a new chapter to begin, and I want to approach study with a fresh perspective. The school environment was beginning to wear me down, so I thought I should remove some of the obstacles keeping me from enjoying my days in an educational environment. After all, I am going to be a teacher.

I'm writing all of this down in an effort to stick to it. Wish me luck.

Ellie.

PS. The title of this blog is taken from a song: This Land is Your Land, by 1960s Australian band The Seekers. The verse which inspired the name is as follows:

"I've roamed and rambled, and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
and all around me a voice was sounding:
this land was made for you and me."