There is something so refreshing just knowing that the place you are in right now, whether it be physically or mentally, isn't permanent or forever. Just to know that you will eventually move on and grow up, becoming an adult version of yourself. Recently, I visited an open day at Victoria University of Wellington and this was the major thought on my mind as I looked at what I consider to be my future. Its truly insane to think that in a years time, I will legally be an adult, and be properly deciding on my university course and potential career path. However, that isn't to say that I haven't already decided (Law anyone?).
I travelled down to the capital on Thursday the 25th of August, with my mum and her partner's daughter, to check out Vic and have a roam of Wellington. I never could have imagined that this open day would completely solidify my decision to study in Wellington. The open day was on 26th, and was jam packed filled with sample lectures, halls of residence tours, seminars, and course planning slots. To say the least, it was difficult to decide what I wanted to see, as there was so many options to choose from, everything from Art History to Sociology struck my fancy. At school I really enjoy humanities and social science based subjects, and plan to continue these at uni, so I wanted to catch as many seminars which highlighted these subjects as possible. This meant that I spent the whole day in and out of lecture theatres, listening to course plans and other information on the subjects. With 15 minute intervals between each 45 minute seminars I felt completely overloaded with information on the different degrees offered at Vic. I started the day off with the Law seminar after grabbing a coffee at Louis's on Kelburn campus. The seminar was really interesting, and began to introduce the Socratic method of lecturing, which promoted involvement of the class. Its really intimidating, and as I am a year younger than most people at the open day, I wasn't entirely comfortable with putting my hand up, despite not knowing anyone in the room. The student speaker, Katie Alexander who was as 4th year student taking a double degree in Law and Theatre Studies, was great to listen to and gave a more in depth perspective of a Law student. The way the Law course is set out is highly competitive, which is something I knew prior to the open day, but I feel like seeing an example course outline made it feel more tangible. The second seminar which I saw for the day was the Psychology one. I was pleasantly surprised at how much the Psychology seminar intrigued me. I had always considered doing Psychology as a second major or degree with Law, but it wasn't until I was in the lecture theatre, listening to the Professor talk so passionately and comedically about his subject, that I seriously considered/decided that Psychology was something I wanted to do. I've always been interested in how people work, and why we act the way we do, so Psychology definitely seemed a great fit. Throughout the day I also saw the History and Philosophy, International Relations and Political Science, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology and Criminology seminars, which not only were extremely interesting, but ultimately confused my decisions about what I wanted to study. Unlike some of the other high school students I was surrounded by, I have another year to decide what I really want to do, and maybe that might not be Law and Psychology, it might be Law and History or some other combination, but going to the open day definitely gave me a more in depth understanding of uni life as well as the courses on offer. While I was at the open day, I also caught a tour of Katherine Jermyn which is a hall of residence at Vic, near Lambton Quay. I was taken around in a small group, by an RA, and got to see the rooms, cafeteria, gym, study rooms, theatre, games room etc. The halls at Vic are of such a high quality, but KJ is especially new, with someone I know describing it as "hotel-like". I wouldn't mind living in a hotel for a year. On another note, one takeaway message that I found at the open day was that what you decide you're going to study fresh out of high school, may not be what you end up spending your life doing. With more than one of the Professors/lecturers leading the seminars that day saying that they never started out in their chosen field, the idea that I have the option to change my mind at any time became realistic. I am really passionate about Law and Politics right now, but that doesn't mean to say that I will in 5, hell, even 2 years time, and just being aware that just because I start something doesn't mean I have to finish it is great. I know now that our lives are determined by the choices we make and the ones that we don't. To summarise, I would highly recommend that if you had the opportunity to visit a uni open day (before you decide where you want to study) to take it. If you have no idea what you want to do, hearing the actual Professors and lecturers speak about the courses and seeing the campus could do a great deal of help to you. Even if you know what you want to do, its still fun to visit where you may end up spending 3+ years studying before o-week. - C P.S. I have now created a blog upload plan so I will hopefully be posting more regularly. Every Friday evening at 8pm NZT.
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