All the world's a stage! - Tay's Artsy Adventure

[Potatohater]

24/01/18 - Off to Hogwarts

Hey! I'm Taylor!
Aka. the potatohater. And yes, it's true, I do hate potatoes. They're so mushy, bland and disgusting!
I love ideas, the creative process and this wonderful planet called Earth - you may have heard of it? This means I have interests in theatre, dance, debating, geography, writing, photography, filmmaking, entrepreneurship... Etc. and when you take that all into consideration you get some pretty tough Uni choices to make...

Picking a Uni Course

Spoiler

Picking a Uni course has been really tough but by the end of the HSC I had it narrowed down to two options

Bachelor of Planning/ Master of Urban management and planning at Western Sydney University (Parramatta campus)

Or

Bachelor of Arts and Advanced studies at the University of Sydney

And to make it more conflicting I had received both offers and enrolled in both courses. I had to make a decision.
The former option was very tempting. Only having a 10 minute walk down the street, an opportunity I know others would love to have, learning some pretty damn interesting stuff, free textbooks and entering an career that is so in demand right now, giving me the opportunity to work with any local council or state government I want. But then I did some work experience with Blacktown city council town planning and was BORED OUT OF MY BRAIN for 1.5 weeks (the remaining half was spent at the library working with the outreach section, thanks to my mother) and I decided planning wasn't for me. Sure, strategic and social planning may be more interesting but ultimately the desk Job and massive stacks of paperwork just aren't for me.
I kept thinking over my decision until over the new year period where I made up my mind. I'd been reading books of entrepreneurs such as "so much I want to tell you" by Anna Akana, "how to be a bawse" by Lilly Singh and "Unwritten" by Jack Desola. They made me see that the life I aspire to was definitely possible if I worked hard enough at it. They gave me courage and confidence to go with my gut rather than give in to the logic of my family and friends, all the people who have told me Arts is a "useless" degree, that I'd end up starving, homeless or worse, working at Maccas again. *vomits*
And with that, I've decided to run off and do a Bachelor of Arts and Advanced studies at Hogwarts, by which I mean USyd.

My course

Spoiler

So, a Bachelor of Arts and advanced studies hey? What does that entail?  Well, it means I'll be studying for 4 years, completing 2 majors and have the oppotunity to be involved in various different projects and maybe even exchange! Since I am now the NSW moderator for geography and drama I'm sure it's no surprise to you that my majors are *drumroll*

GEOGRAPHY AND THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES!

 I also have to do 12 units of online learning which will hopefully reduce the need to trek it in everyday, and I've chosen to do some units in web design/ coding and leadership. For semester 2 I also have some government units which deal with pop culture and politics - maybe that will give me the excuse to talk about South Park!

Overall I'm super keen to learn all the theory and skills that will hopefully make my career into a success rather than the failure that people have suggested. It doesn't feel real though. After being on holidays for so long it seems weird to think I have to go back to studying.

Welp! Looks like this 1st post is as much of a trek as it is for me to get to Sydney Uni, but in my defence, I do like writing (maybe not as much as Elyse though) and I feel like I have a lot to say, so I hope you found it engaging at the very least!

All the world's a stage, and right now my life is a piece of improvisation

[Coffee]

Yay! I'm so happy you chose an Arts degree. Looking forward to your future updates, Taylor.

[beatroot]

Sooooo KEEN to read your future updates Taylor! I'm doing a Bachelor of Arts (Screen) too so it'll be interesting to compare and contrast our experiences

[Potatohater]

Sooooo KEEN to read your future updates Taylor! I'm doing a Bachelor of Arts (Screen) too so it'll be interesting to compare and contrast our experiences

Ooh yes! Your course looks super awesome and is definatley something I would have considered myself if I knew about it earlier, so comparing our experiences will certainly be very interesting!

[fantasticbeasts3]

yay!!! so excited to read about your uni journey, taylor :-) your course sounds awesome and i'm glad you went with your instincts. best of luck for this year!!!

[brenden]

y'all need some butter and salt

#potato4eva

[Yertle the Turtle]

#potato4eva

He's right you know!

Great start to your Uni Journey Journal Taylor, really interested to see how it continues. Congrats on becoming mod of the Geography and Drama section as well!

[lilyrosee]

I'm so excited to read this journal considering my love for the arts (especially drama) too! Have you been in or attended any productions recently? And is this something you will continue in uni as an extra-curricular?

[Potatohater]

I'm so excited to read this journal considering my love for the arts (especially drama) too! Have you been in or attended any productions recently? And is this something you will continue in uni as an extra-curricular?

Soz for the late reply but my most recent production I was in was Mary Poppins with my highschool, and the most recent play I watched was 7 stages of grieving in June 2017 - I really need to save up so I can see more! I want to go see OnStage and Stolen - I've also saw the Alice in Wonderland Ballet in December (not a drama production but still worthy of mentioning.as for doing drama as an extra cirricular, yes!! I will definatey try and fill my days with as much drama as possible so I'm well equipped to enter the industry one day.

He's right you know!

Great start to your Uni Journey Journal Taylor, really interested to see how it continues. Congrats on becoming mod of the Geography and Drama section as well!

1. .....
2. THANKYOU! And Thankyou as well to everyone who I havnt directly replied to that's supported this journal thus far (aka. All of you minus brenden  )

[Potatohater]

12/02/18 - Facepalms and timetables

Welp! I am officially a numpty. I forgot that there was such thing as a uni email address and was getting frustrated at the lack of correspondence from USyd, especially since timetables came out today. Turns out they were all being sent to my new email address *facepalm* and there is so much info I've missed, one important aspect being my timetable.

So what does my time table look like? It goes like this:

MONDAY
12pm to 1pm - Performance lecture
3pm to 5pm - Performance workshop

WEDNESDAY
11am to 1pm - geography lecture

FRIDAY
9am to 11am - geography practical

So not too many contact hours which leaves a lot of free time that wont actually be free time. I'm gonna have to use the extra hours to complete my online units which this semester will be in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, project management and GIS (Geographic Infomation Systems). I am annoyed that I have 2 hours of travel time just for a 2 hour practical / lecture but I'm sure this will become less annoying if I stay and use the library (or potentially skip a lecture...)
Overall though I'm pretty happy with my timetable, although, it still hasn't hit me yet that my holidays will actually have to come to an end, eventually.

[K888]

(or potentially skip a lecture...)

Already thinking like a proper uni student You'll fit in nicely.

[Potatohater]

Already thinking like a proper uni student You'll fit in nicely.

The things you learn from Rui, what a bad influence!

[Potatohater]

22/02/18 - The most fake uni student

3 uni's. 3 days. None of which were actually mine.
Monday - UNSW
Tuesday - Macquarie
Wednesday - Western Sydney

From these I've gotten a bunch of free stuff and learnt
1. I can apparently set up my uni account to forward emails to my main account
2. There's an app called lost on campus which looks super helpful
3. UNSW and WSU have heaps of cool clubs and facilities that I can't use 

---

I also had my highschool high achievers assembly yesterday (very underwhelming actually) and afterwards went to talk to the yr 12 geo class about getting a band 6. I used this oppotunity to promote ATAR notes and the teacher was so excited about it she wrote it up on the board.

The next period my friend was talking to yr 11 ancient history and I was there for moral support and since it was the same room, ATAR notes was still written on the board, so when the teacher turned to me and asked if I had anything to add about yr 11 in general I mentioned ATAR notes again. This made the ancient teacher upset cause she thinks students should go to teachers for questions and support and resulted in a awkward and slightly embarrassing justification falling from my lips ughhhh #awkward

But yeah hopefully we get some new users from that, but only time will tell

[Potatohater]

26/02/18 - A rainy, draining day

Today I had my first bit of orientation and to be honest, I am so glad it's over! It was 7 hours (10-5) of mentoring and orientation lectures in which we were in small groups for the whole day. The groups were meant to be organised so that we all had simular majors as our group members and mentors, but something must have gone wrong because everyone in my group did either history or anthropology. I do neither, Ughhh awkward! Especially when they were doing campus tours they showed us all the history buildings and then kept saying that we wouldn't have any classes in the city road side of campus, which I know to be false cause I have classes in the Seymour centre and Madsen building sooo.....
Good thing I have some sick geo skills up my sleeve cause I reckon I actually know my way around campus a little bit and know where some classes are even if no-one has shown me. Oh if only Rui was a USyd student though, he was a much better guide while I was being a fake UNSW student...

The people in my group seemed nice but we didn't really seem to have that much in common so it was mostly silence. I ended up hanging with a girl who I'd been forced to talk to in one of he icebreaker activities, and although it was only snippets of small talk it was kinda nice to have someone to walk with but ultimatley by the end of the day I'm glad I don't have to talk to them anymore if I don't want to. I'll probs never see them again amongst the 12000 students under the wing of the arts faculty, especially with no-one doing any of the same subjects as me or having any simular interests as far as I know of.

The lectures were also kinda boring and I was falling asleep in some of them, and ultimatley the day just seemed to drag onnnnnnnnn, almost as bad as a day at town planning, and that's saying something! Even though this mentoring program lasts for 6 weeks, I'm gonna try and not go back.

I'm not normally one to be so negative but honestly the best part of the day was the tiny little gelato at the end of the day before I walked off and left the day behind me.

[Potatohater]

28/02/18 - The magic of quidditch and USU Acsess

So today was the first day of the orientation week festival and it was super fun! I got a few freebies, met up with some of my highschool friends and with Jess (as in ATAR Notes Mod Jess), walked around and talked A LOT and signed up to some clubs - the dramatic society and Quidditch
(I also intend to join MADSOC tomorrow cause I didn't get round to it today)

I also got to be involved in the quittich demo game. Whilst we were happily watching the game from the sidelines, several existing team members came and pestered us into having a go, and squashed all our excuses. So there I was, a yellow bib and white headband on and a PVC pipe between my legs, a chaser for the match.

Surprisingly I actually did quite well. I scored several goals and yes, some of them may have been a bit dodgy but they can't expect me to know everything 1st go, since the game is kinda complicated when you start out. But even then, there were a few legit goals scored too. In fact, the captain of one of the teams (they have 3) came up to my friend (who was also chasing with me) and I and told us she specifically wanted US on HER team. Overall it was super fun, but also tiring, and resulted in my friends and I signing up, so even if we are doing such different degrees at least we can meet up at quidditch!

Now in the title I also mentioned USU acsess. I kept hearing people talk about how it wasn't worth it and almost didn't buy it, but I'm so glad I did as it has allowed me to get free pancakes, sign up to the clubs, and entitles me to discounts on campus. If I stay as keen as I feel right now it shall hopefully eventually pay for itself, yayy!!!

Tomorrow I reckon I'll probably go to my faculty welcome BBQ, sign up to MADSOC (Movement and Dance Society) and hopefully meet up with my friends again. Maybe there are even more freebies to come... Just have to wait and see