Last strech

Another chapter in my life is closely coming to an end. As I sit in front of my office computer logging into my Monash University student account for the last time memories of the past 5 years of my academic life suddenly came rushing to my head, both good and bad, thoughts of what I could have done better and the things that I have accomplished during my tenure as a university student.

I remember about 5 years ago when a young 18 year old student set my foot in Melbourne embarking in an adventure that is tertiary education, he was sure where I wanted to be but unsure on how to get there. he knew it was not going to be an easy road to take but nonetheless a road that must be taken.

So there I was, standing in line in Monash University for the first time waiting to sign up for my subjects of choice, although I knew I was applying for a course called bachelors of arts I had no idea what was in it, all I knew was that at that time it had a GPA requirement that I could achieve realistically, advanced methematics is not part of the course nor the course requirement and that it had nothing to do with studying fine arts specifically, as I sat there looking at my options I was stunned by the amount of options they had for me ranging from languages to social studies to history, my choices were clear I wanted to know more about society and I wanted to study politics so I took sociology as major and politics as my minor, later I realized that they weren't offering the politics subject I wanted so I switched to history. Once that was done I had to wait in another line to get my photo taken for my student ID card, the photo was black and white and the card was made out of laminated paper and my face was veritcally compressed to fit the frame, in short it was cheap, really cheap but for some reason I was proud of it, I finally made it, I was a student in one of Australia's more prestigious university but more importantly I was academic.

It was not long until I became the president of the Monash University kendo club, while my skill were not comparable to some of my peers the coach saw that I was fit the manage the clubs administration. Personally I thought I did a decent job handling most of the administrative work in running the club however there are other things that I wish I could have done better, it was by convenience that I was also picked as the club delegate, a position I held for almost 3 years since nobody else wanted to do it. On the academic side being active in the club cost my academic performance to a small degree while other factors cause the decline of my overall performance and before I realized I had spent 5 years in a 3 year course but nevertheless I made it, I refused to take the easy way out and I finished my course, I've reached the end of another stage in a persons academic life I am a Monash University graduate.

So here I am now, much less of an academic, reading the last reminder of the 90 day limited access notification in my student e-mail account reminding me that after today I will no longer have access to the student account, soon I will be a bachelor in almost every sense of the word but before that I wait for the finale, the last curtain call, the last train stop, the last page in my academic life or what ever euphemism you can come up with, the day I will receive that damned piece of paper that every academic or crazy delusional individuals who are under the presumption that a university degree will guarantee a better job worked for years to obtain, once that is done I can finally close the book for good......that is until I decide whether or not to take a Masters degree.