AUT Uni Life

By Tori Mok

One of the hardest parts about the Christmas season is finding the perfect gift for everyone on the list. If you’re feeling stumped on what to get your diverse array of friends this year, I racked my brains and scoured the web to put together a series of gift guides. From your devoted study buddy to your biggest crush ever, you’ll find the perfect gift for (almost) everyone.

By Amy Tielu

I recently submitted my Master’s thesis for examination (thank you, Jesus; thank you, chocolate cake) and of all the milestones I crossed in this journey, I am possibly proudest of… constructing a Samoan fale out of MS PowerPoint shapes in under 10 mins with zero prior planning.

Figure 1. How to PowerPoint: More diagram, less written words. #AllDay

Look at that tiny fale in the middle. Although bulbous, so profesh. You might even say ‘proportional’. My supervisor from Spatial Design didn’t cry in shame or despair; it could be that he was just sparing my feelings – and that’s fine with me.

I somewhat foolishly decided to submit for examination, and present my research to an international network of Pasifika scholars via videoteleconference at the same time. I didn’t have to do this, but when the invitation came, I decided I owed it to everyone who had helped me, and to pay it forward for anyone else who could benefit, as I once did. That’s how we do.

Even so. There will be times in life when you suspect you’re setting yourself on fire, but a weirdly quixotic voice that’s grown stronger with every challenge stirs like Henry V and decides, “Once more unto the breach.”

Three minutes before my presentation, I was still completing my slides in MS PowerPoint:

Figure 2. Time management, the story of my life.

I do not share this to brag. This was f*cking painful. The only reason why my heart didn’t implode in my chest was because I’d done this countless times before (writing down to the wire) and trusted in that experience to get me through. Also, the last time I bemoaned to my dad, “Why am I like this???”, he beamed and patted my knee like I was still seven, saying, “You’re just like Daddy.” What a bonding moment.

I started this Master’s journey with advice, and I’m going to end it the same way. So, a few lessons I would like to draw out, that you may learn from my battle scars:

1)      Pray/Meditate. Be consciously grateful and never take for granted whatever humble blessings got you to where you are now: your family, that one person who believed in you, or your stubborn as attitude. Do not underestimate the motivational power of gratitude.

2)      Don’t stop looking after yourself. Walk and choose the healthy meal when you can. You’ll feel like you don’t have the time or the luxury, but it is even more important for your mental and physical health when you’re close to the finishing line.

3)      Always overestimate how much time you’ll need. Always.

4)      If anyone should ever grieve to you about how much sleep they’re losing, work they’re doing, and makes it sound like a war ballad – walk away now. If it’s anything less than a therapeutic venting exercise to get on with the job, they’re wasting precious time that you could be eating, working, sleeping, or attending fa’alavelave (I joke, but really). Sometimes I was so tired, I would hallucinate conversations with my pillow.

PILLOW: “Nobody loves you more than me.”

ME: “Except Jesus.”

PILLOW: “Imagine cuddling down to me and sweet prayers.”

ME: “As I lay me down to sleep, thank you for this pillow I keep. Zzzz….”

5)      Push yourself to push yourself. The first time I ever heard this, it was probably a translation error and I laughed too long, too inconsiderately loud – but truthfully. Push yourself outside your comfort zones, beyond what you think you can handle, toward those challenges that make you sick and nervous. It’s the only way you’ll grow and realise how much you’re capable of.

6)      And always schedule time to recover. Relieved crying, passing out. Taking over childrens’ playgrounds are all acceptable.

7)      At the end of such a drawn-out saga as a degree, you must celebrate or punctuate it in some way so your brain can recognise it is the end of an era. At a subconscious level, this readies yourself for transition. Also, you deserve it. I’m glad I was forewarned by Thesislink of the common depression that can set in after submitting your thesis. I averted it by presenting and then having a celebratory dinner with my family. I go hard, then I go home, and then I sleep for two weeks. I would have preferred more time between submission and presentation, but we work with what we have, so –

8)      Just get it done. Whatever your challenge, it doesn’t need to end perfectly. Just make sure you’ve given your task the best effort you could, and that you learned something. Then you can close that chapter with no regrets, you’ve already earned the lesson, and whatever grade comes back is incidental. The real world doesn’t care about grades, only your attitude, your experience, and your ability – and willingness – to keep improving.

9)      Pay it back. The odds are that you didn’t get here by yourself. Never underestimate the future value or the power of giving back.

10)  Pay it forward. Everyone flailed as you once did. This is not just about making yourself feel good. This is about balance and lightening our collective load. Share what you know. We’ll get more done, and we’ll do it better.

 In conclusion / TL;DR, yes, everyone should absolutely do postgraduate studies at some point in their life, because you will regret nothing (except how much sleep you’ll lose and forgetting what your loved ones look like) and the world needs a greater diversity of The Everyone building this thing called Knowledge. Knowledge is not only gained or formed in universities, but what better way to change the traditional notion than from inside the traditional systems? Choose what you love, what terrifies and excites you. Come study it. Upset people (including yourself). Make peace. Struggle. Win.

You’re allowed to feel like giving up sometimes. Let yourself sit within the moment, and then remind yourself of all the reasons why you must get it done instead. There’s only one of you, and the world needs what you’ve got.

 When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don't you quit…

 Success is failure turned inside out--

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--

It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

By Najmah Usman 

Maori language and Howick Historical Village: A mirror of a nation that preserves its history

As international students, we know New Zealand, through movies like The Lord of the Rings. We are amazed when we arrive by the beauty of the nature in New Zealand, how this country preserves its environment and promotes its amazing destinations, particularly for international tourists.

Maori culture and language

There is a beautiful mixture of cultures, particularly Māori culture with the modernity of New Zealand. In other words, despite the modernity of New Zealand, this country is very concerned with its history. Initially, when you arrive in Auckland Airport, you will pass the gate with a Māori sculpture and you will listen to the Māori music, songs and pray in the Auckland Airport.

At AUT, another instance, signs use English words and Maori words; welcome and Kia Ora; library and Whare Pukapuka; wash your hands and horoi tou ringa. Furthermore, the University also has a Marae located on St Paul St, a communal and sacred place for religious and social purposes in the University. We can also learn the Maori language for free at AUT! We also can visit the Auckland war memorial museum in order to feel, learn and watch a Māori cultural performance.

Howick Historical Village

Another aspect of New Zealand history we can experience is the Howick Hisotrical Village.  You can come here by public transport from city. We went there from the Britomart train station and got on the Eastern line (Manukau) and then get off at the Panmure station, then continued by getting on bus number 550 and then off in the Howick village. Otherwise, you can get on bus number 550 from the city to the Howick village, it takes approximately 60 minutes. But if you go with kids, it is better to get on the train for 20 minutes and then get on a bus that only takes ten minutes to the location.

A handmade tripod  from the village blacksmith, for boiling water in the kettle: $120

Wow, it is surprising when you see the price of a handmade tripod: $120. How come something this small is so expensive? I guess that there is a historical value for this kettle. As international students, we can learn how New Zealand appreciates its history by visiting places like this. Being in the past, the 19th century, and experiencing the past are a chance for us, particularly for our children to learn history in a real-live setting. The Howick Historical Village, a living history museum of the fencible period, offers lots of fun activities for children, a lot of people wear traditional costumes and you can hire your own traditional costumes for  souvenir pictures (one picture for $ 5 or 6 pictures for $20).

Feel the past

The third weekend of every month there is a live historical experience in the village.  For a student it is only $12, adults $16 and for children under five years old it’s free. One secret, if you grab an Auckland A-Z there are lots of discount vouchers inside  including one free adult ticket for a Howick Historical Village if you come with friends or family.

The village offers many fun activities for children

During a full day in the Howick Village, you will the past. The village offers many activities with special topics, for instance Peter Rabbit and Friends last holidays. The activities started from 10 am with puppet show, hymn service, a Victorian school lesson, pipe band, kid acorn piñata, soldiers’ demonstration, story time, races through the hay bales, and Peter Rabbit. The activities were located in some historical buildings i such as Puhi Nui Homestead (no 33), Ararimu school, outside the tent, outside Fords cottage and other places. You can get on a horse drawn carriage for $2 each. The children experience a real insight into the history of the village and at the same time they have fun.

A lesson for my country, Indonesia

Some groups of Indonesian students and local kiwis proudly perform traditional dance, songs and musical instruments, like ANGKLUNG for a lot of events in Auckland. They are proud to introduce Indonesian culture here in Auckland. Indonesia has one national language, Indonesian, and hundreds of local languages. My country also has diverse dances, cultures, and songs from 33 provinces among 17,504 islands in Indonesia.

However, a lot of local languages are endangered in Indonesia. Furthermore, younger generations do not understand their local culture and language. Sadly, the national television channel, TVRI, that offers many good programs for understanding the local language and culture seems to have fewer viewers in this era compared to the programs from many commercial television channels. Also, English seems to be the best language to be learned by kids in their early stages, not a local language.

We can learn from New Zealand about the preservation of local language and local culture and history. How the Kiwis integrate their local language and culture in their daily life, in the university, public areas and how historical places are preserved and made relevant to children with fun activities for kids.

By Tom Vasey

Hey everyone, I hope that the tail end of this semester is treating you well, and that exams weren’t too harsh at the moment.

Now that exams are done I find myself reflecting:

I often worry about exams, and when I try to think of something else, it’s always “Don’t worry, Tom. Soon you’ll be done with that, and then…” well, then what? It’s not easy to think about a time beyond exams, difficult to keep your eyes on the prize when you’re unsure what the prize is. A holiday? I legitimately can’t afford a holiday at this stage. Yeah, it’d be nice, but it’s certainly not going to happen. A job? Well yes, that’s the most obvious possibility, but it raises the question of where one can find the time to juggle looking for a job and studying for exams. What happens if an interview lands on the same day as one of them? How do you go about explaining that and not coming across as precious? Well, I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s doable. Here I’ll pop down a few ideas that might come in handy this time next year if you’re wondering just how you can get a little balance in your life. 1. Set up job alerts

Trademe, Seek, Indeed.com and even individual companies usually have the option to set up alerts that’ll be emailed to you when new roles are available. While some of them admittedly have a slightly weird definition of entry-level, that can easily save you a good 45 minutes of browsing various job sites. Plug in your qualifications and wake up every morning to a new set of possible jobs that might be the thing you’re looking for. Remember, many supermarkets actually let you set these alerts up, which will give you a wide range of opportunities.

 2. Keep a template of your CV and cover letter handy

Student CVs rarely need much changing, beyond adding completed semesters if you think they’ll be relevant for the job. Having a template cover letter that allows you to switch out keywords and company names/dates etc. is a godsend too. It’s no fun writing the same letter fifteen times when you need to just change a few words on an existing one. Be careful about this, however. You will definitely want to make sure you pay attention to which company you’re sending your cover letter to. You don’t want to open a cover letter for Countdown with “Dear Domino’s Pizza…” People get a bit testy about that, as it turns out.

 3. Sign up for Student Job Search

Again, Student Job Search is probably basic common sense, but well worth doing just because it’s a student-oriented site. This removes much of the competition and opens the door for you to see far more job openings than every other entry-level person. They tend to have a pretty good selection of jobs, too!

 4. Keep abreast of when your exams are

Well, you should be doing this anyway, but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on when they are so you can indicate the best possible days for your interview, if you get one. It’ll save both you and your prospective employer an awful lot of stress down the line, and it gives the impression that you’re prepared, even if you don’t feel that way! Well, that’s all I can think of for the time being, but those were some bits and bobs that I picked up this time round that might save you time when it comes to the job hunt, so you can instead focus on the important part – passing your exams. It’s important to take these steps early on so that you can devote half an hour to 45 minutes a day applying for jobs, and take the rest of the time out to study. Still, if this is the only blog post of mine you read, then let me say that I sincerely wish you the best for your exam results and a safe and happy summer holiday.

By Tom Vasey 

Since politics is so topical right now…

Recently I had a bit of a learning experience. With all the decisiveness and gumption of someone who was lured in by promises of free food and prizes to be won, I found my way into the AuSM Annual General Meeting. I’d seen a few advertisements around campus for various unfilled student council roles within AuSM, and since this meeting would include the election and appointment of certain positions, I decided to throw my hat into the ring. As a Health Science student, I decided to have a go at the position of Health and Environmental Science Faculty Representative. I’d done a similar job back in high school and figured that it wouldn’t be too difficult to get back into it.

The meeting was quite interesting, though it came across as a bit of a closed-door situation. What I saw were various groups vying to have their opinions on the record (which became particularly loud and prevalent during the part where we went over the annual budget) and the AuSM representatives were in the centre of it all, trying to field questions and offer satisfactory answers. Interestingly, there were some for whom no explanation or answer was quite adequate. It seemed almost as if some people had arrived at the meeting with the express intent of complaining or beginning a serious debate, and were taken aback when the AuSM representatives proved not only helpful, but quite eager to make things right. Where legitimate problems existed, I was surprised by how quickly and well-managed they were. It did seem that the AuSM representatives were legitimately not aware of the problem, and upon being made aware that these problems existed, they were addressed relatively well. Was this because people were watching? I can’t say for sure, and it’s certainly a possibility, but based on my own intuition, these people were very genuine.

By Tom Vasey

Considering that I haven’t been at my peak this semester, there’ve been a few times where I’ve had to bite the bullet and stay up all night to get something finished up. With one of the rooms on City Campus now open 24/7, I feel it’s probably pertinent to go into the dos and don’ts of staying up all night to study. With exams bearing down on us, it can be a tempting prospect, but it really is a bit of a gamble. The first thing to think about is whether you’ll be able to stay up all night. It’s one thing to say “Oh, I’ll stay up the whole time and get so much done”, and it all seems so doable before you get into it properly. Of course, then you have the 3am wall. It’s like trying to get to the point during a race when you catch your second wind, a moment where there’s this overwhelming tiredness that just consumes you and makes it difficult to focus. You might not even notice your focus disappearing at first, making it all the more insidious. After that, nearby couches, chairs, tables and floor space begin to look like appealing places to rest your head. You begin to think “Maybe a quick nap won’t do any harm”, though part of you knows that if you close your eyes now, you’ll be asleep for hours and defeat the purpose of staying up. My favourite story in this vein is one of a friend I once knew in Adelaide. He tried to stay up overnight to finish an assignment, which was due in at 5pm the next day. Now, you’d think that he’d have gotten it done before then, but things happen and not everyone gets things done quite on time, so I’m not one to judge. He explained, with all the confidence of someone who totally knows what they’re doing, that he could totally stay up and get it done. He had an entire plan set out for how he’d get the work completed in time, and it wasn’t a bad plan. Everything was appropriately timetabled and prepared for, and it was all viable…on the assumption that he could stay up. Again, the night began properly. He had worked all day to get a good way through the assignment, and the work he got into overnight would have finished it off completely. In fact, he did. I remember getting a text at about 3.30am that night saying “I’m finished!” I was very proud of him, and rightly so. That’s an achievement. He managed to beat all of the odds and get things finished up on time. However, within the next five minutes, the poor guy fell asleep, and didn’t wake up until around 5pm the next day. It was too late to print the assignment off and submit it by that point, which regrettably led to him losing out on a grade. It was terrible because he wouldn’t answer his phone or get up, and even having everything sorted out and finished. Passing out after all that time awake just cost him a grade. What else could have happened? Well, another option is to get a good sleep, and in my Dealing with Exam Stress post a while back, I did go on about the importance of getting a full night’s rest. This is why. Not only are you not taking a huge gamble, you’re also messing with a few other factors. For instance, after one or two days of doing this sort of thing, your sleep schedule is going to be all over the place, meaning that it’s difficult to meet up with others, ask for help or attend revision sessions, not to mention the massive risk of missing the exams themselves. If they take place in the morning, you will find yourself in all kinds of trouble and may have to set up a hundred different alarms just to be awake on time. After all of that, then you’re probably going to be knackered going into the exam too.

By Harris Dowson 

With exams coming to a close and with Halloween behind use, we’re officially counting down to the best time of year, Christmas! I absolutely love everything about Christmas, decorating the tree, watching cheesy movies, listening to objectively bad carols and stuffing yourself silly with good food and drink. I mean honestly, what’s not to like? Yet it may surprise you to hear… ready to be surprised? I wasn’t always this way and until rather recently I was never really bothered with Christmas.

When it came to Christmas time I was never really bothered with the whole affair and simply regarded it as just another day in which I could start drinking alcohol acceptably at breakfast.  My feelings surrounding this holiday spawned years ago from that too cool for everything perspective we all had as teenagers and it bled over into my adult life, but I’m here to implore you not to do the same, come on, don’t be a grinch. Even if you think it’s silly or dumb, it’s always more fun when you get involved.

This still applies too if you don’t celebrate Christmas, whatever traditions you have over the holidays, get stuck in and enjoy the fun of the season with your loved ones.

Cook a feast, decorate the tree, make some cocktails, listen to carols, play a game of backyard cricket, whatever you do, have fun and spread the feelings of festivity.  

I’m basically trying to reiterate what Dr Seuss has said but in a much less clever or entertaining way. Don’t be a Grinch. It’s always more fun to throw away your inhibitions and take part and this is the best after a long, hard year. Silly traditions with your friends and family can be the absolute best, so go on and spread some holiday cheer!

By Shannel Milne 

Getting into the Halloween holiday vibes I, along with a few friends, decided to go to Spookers. It took 40 minutes driving from the city into a desolate, dark, horror movie location in the middle of nowhere. And that’s where it all began, the fear started to kick in. For those of you that don’t know what Spookers is, it’s like a haunted house. But for adults. Except there’s also a haunted forest, hospital, maze and a few other attractions. And basically from the moment you arrive every corner hides a heart attack. It is a great way to get into the Halloween spirit! I spent 20 minutes running, screaming and dodging various nightmare inducing actors through a pitch black forest. To top it all off the actors are allowed to touch you and there is nothing more terrifying than thinking that you are alone and safe in the dark then someone strokes your hair. Screams, giggling and overall petrifying sounds follow you around. You learn pretty fast that loyalty amongst friends no longer exists in this environment. It’s everyone for themselves, only the strong survive. No one wants to be at the front, no one wants to be at the back. Everyone fights to stay in the middle and use the others as a meat shield. There is darkness, small spaces, dolls and other traumatic aspects that adds to the night. The actors are all amazing and really get into scaring the sh*t out of you. All of the attractions are different and unique and I highly recommend going to them all.

There is also a bar and trust me you will need a drink after the hell you go through! A little something to settle your nerves. It was such a great night and gets the heart pumping. It also helped relieve some of that end of the year stress. Realising that you could potentially die puts your life into perspective. The experience also inspires you to attempt to scare those around you and have mock trials for a career at Spookers.

By Tom Vasey 

As we draw very close to the end of the semester and exams begin to loom, one of the major concerns we tend to run into tends to be stress and self-deprecating behaviour. It’s easy to get angry about an assignment or lab that’s gone down the tubes, and to blame yourself for it and feel worse about the upcoming exams because of it. This is a tricky situation to break out of, since it’s usually a very painful feeling to look at an assignment that didn’t go all that well. It’s natural to feel bad about something like this, and it breaks the delusion of infallibility that you hold onto throughout the semester (or maybe that’s just me). I feel like I’m having that experience myself this semester. Things went incredibly well in the first semester, and I felt like I was on top of the world. However, this semester has been a bit trying. There are reasons for it, sure – I found out that I might be very sick after my health began to deteriorate over the last few months – but at the same time you want so hard to believe that you can do anything you put your mind to. I know I write a lot of goodies about how to do this and that and how to cope with things, but at the end of the day I’m painfully fallible and human, so my body and mind can fail me at exactly the wrong time. It happens with all of us. It’s understandable to believe that you could’ve done better or tried harder, and maybe that’s legitimately the case, but resolving to beat yourself up over it helps no one at the end of the day. I’m put in mind of Boxer from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the big horse whose most memorable line was “I will work harder!” While Boxer may not be a central character in Orwell’s “watch out for the Bolsheviks” allegory, it’s fair to say that there’s a lesson to be learned from this relatively minor character, too. The more you force yourself to push harder and more rigorously, the more likely you are to completely burn yourself out. It’s doable in moderation, but in the immediate post-assignment panic, the reaction tends to be to massively overdo it in an attempt to prevent the same thing from happening again. Understandable? Certainly, but it’ll only burn you out in the long run.

By Harris Dowson

 Halloween is just around the corner and for students this spooky tradition is both the best and the worst. This is because that Halloween always lands at our busiest time of year. With assignments and exam prep keeping the weight of the world on our shoulders it’s pretty easy for it to just pass us by. In saying this it’s also a pretty great excuse to put aside the studies, let loose and vent some of that horrid end of semester stress. The problem is though that usually by the time you’ve decided you’re gonna go enjoy some Halloween revelry it’s too late to put together a costume. So I decided to try and plan for that inevitability and throw together a list of cheap and easy last minute costumes ideas. I’m not saying they’re any good, but anything is better than being that one person who isn’t in costume. Don’t be that guy, no one likes that guy.

A Cereal Killer

Tape a box of cereal to your body and stab it to pieces, add some fake blood for extra effect. (Geddit… Cereal is like serial… classic)  

Donald Trump

Why not go as a bigoted fool? It’s super easy, put on a suit, smoother your face in orange paint and put on a cheap blond wig. Presto, you’re the republican nominee.

Black Mail

Wear all black and cover yourself in your postage. Genius. (Geddit again? … more solid pun work).

Facebook

Take a page out Jim Halper books. Just write the word book across your face and you’re golden.

Bread winner

Buy a bunch of dollar store medals and a couple loaves of bread. (I’m starting to see almost all these are puns….)

By Harris Dowson

I really don’t like children, which may sound somewhat harsh but it’s true. I think this is  because they’re so rarely a part of my life and with only a smattering of friends who have kids, I’ve never really been in contact with children long enough to experience any positive qualities of them.

Now before people start getting angry and defending how great kids can be I have to say that I’m aware this is just an opinion, which may even change as I grow older. In saying this, a majority of my life experiences involving children include me gritting my teeth in frustration while I watch them kick and scream as their parents stand nearby in dead tired stupor, too exhausted to do anything about it. Nothing about that is pleasant so why would you want that?

It’s this fact along with the sleepless nights, high expenses, energy and time that get put into children that’s lead me to conclude that I don’t want them, not one bit. When I reached this conclusion I also came to realise that I may be a part of the first generation ever that has been allowed to make that decision without criticism from every inch of society. Not having children is becoming not only an accepted way to live but even possibly looked upon by some as being the better decision to make. Previous generations had little choice in this matter, as having kids was just a thing that you had to do and by not having kids you’d been seen as some sort of pariah. Now we live in different times where that may not be the case anymore.

The modern world can’t cope with the amount of people on its surface, and adding more isn’t going to help. We’re so crowded we’ve started attempting to pawn our people off on other planets. Not having children is becoming a good thing and not just in the selfish sense of not having to invest every inch of yourself and your earnings into a person who may grow to not care about you at all. It’s actually a selfless choice to help our planet.

We could be the first generation with a majority of us choosing to not have children and many of the people I know seem to agree with the idea. It could just be circles I run in but if a solid amount of people I know, across all ages and spectrums of society are thinking the same thing then there must be something to it right?

By Tom Vasey

One of the things that’s struck me about life on campus has been the unexpected friendliness of everyone in my classes. Now, granted, there are people like the folks I featured in my previous posts who’ll go right out of their way to nick your work if they think they can get away with it. Still, one of the things that struck me about the atmosphere in this place was just how helpful and friendly everyone was. Almost every first-year seemed to take it as read that we had a lot of work as a group to achieve a common goal. The experience that best sums this up is probably last semester. See, instead of a final exam, most of the grade of one particular paper would be decided by a massive semester-long group project. Daunting, I know, and my first thought was that this was going to be a long semester. I haven’t previously had much luck with group projects, especially not in high school where people aren’t big on that whole work thing as a whole. It surprised me, then, that I got a group that quickly closed ranks, cooperated and involved everyone in the process from start to finish. It was weird and refreshing to work with a bunch of people who were proactive and eager to get this stuff done. What was amazing was the way we were able to organise meetings, talk over responsibilities and get tasks sorted out. I’ve had a lot of group projects growing up and I’ve never seen people care and maintain a positive attitude quite as well as these people have.

It's not limited to that particular project, either. I see it everywhere around here. Making friends can be as easy as sitting down next to someone during a lecture or yapping about the assignments you both have. While I’m not big on a lot of those ice-breaker activities a lot of classes run (I’m pretty terrible with names and usually feel like a jerk when I can’t remember who’s who after two minutes) it’s always fun to meet people through group activities, labs and tutorials. Finding someone who can put up with my terrible puns is also a big plus, if you ask me.

With exams coming up, the pressure is definitely on for everyone to do the best they can under stress, which will inevitably require us to look for support in the people closest to us right now. If you can, see about booking out one of the library’s group study rooms and invite everyone to come along and do a little group revision. True, getting people together can be a little bit like trying to herd cats sometimes, but I’m confident that there are at least a few people who might be keen.

By Shannel Milne

These next few weeks are going to be absolute hell on earth. Say goodbye to sleep and happiness. Every class is going to have something due or something coming up. Assignments will be pouring out of your ears, your hands will constantly ache from writing and typing. You probably won’t bother to make meals anymore, it’ll be take outs or snacks. Yes, the end of Semester 2 is a joyful time! Summers in the air. We get months off to recover from a hectic year. Yet even knowing what lies ahead doesn’t help us with exams. And assignments. And more exams. To keep you stay sane or as close to it as you can get, I’ve written a list of what keeps me going through these hard times:

A night out in town! I know this doesn’t seem possible right now. You have to consider how long a potential hangover will last. Work out how much time will be wasted. But one night out won’t destroy the hard work you’ve already put in. Having even a casual night in and a few drinks with friends will help. You’ll all get to vent, dance and think of happier times.

Movie study dates. There is nothing I love more than curling up on the couch with my blanket, surrounded by snacks watching reruns or movies while powering out a last minute assignment.

Getting outside. This can mean changing where you study or taking a 20 minute break to go for a walk. The fresh air will give you a new lease of life.

The reward system. Everyone knows about this one! If you work until the next hour or reach the next 200 words you get a reward of your choice. It can be food, an episode of your favourite series, or 20 minutes scrolling through Facebook.

Making lists (like I am now) to see the progress that I am making and what’s left to get through.

Plan something for when exams are over. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, just a general idea of some activity to look forward to.

Remember to take care of yourself. Sleep, eat, and shower! Change out of your PJ’s. It is surprising how much better you feel by doing even the smallest things.

By Harris Dowson

With the state of the world the way it is at the moment I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of silence. When I say the state of the world, what I’m specifically talking about is the seemingly rising levels of racism, misogyny, homophobia, Islamophobia and all the other horrible phobia words and things that fall into that basket of nightmares. Now granted this has largely flared up because of the bizarre sideshow that is the Trump presidential campaign in the United States but it’s not just America promoting awfulness. As easy as it is in our country to just act like we’re the sane nation at the bottom of the world and do that throw away thing of “Crazy what’s going that’s just America eh?… aren’t Americans just crazy? The real reality is that this sort of stuff is happening everywhere, which means yes in New Zealand too.  

I believe its happening because people are always talking about it and we now, with technology have the platform to talk about it literally non-stop.

I’ll be the first to admit that this is a bizarre sort of line to walk, as it’s sort of a doubled edged sword. We can’t just turn a blind eye and not talk when Trump or any other public figure says horrible things but we also don’t want to give them any more of the spotlight than they already have. When horrible people say horrible things you should want to argue your opinion, with the hope that you can convince others to face their prejudices and promote the ideals of living in a more widely accepting world but sometimes doing what seems like the right thing may be hurting more than helping.

Obviously we can’t sit idly by and watch as a person who says that Mexicans are rapists and basically brags about sexually assaulting woman get voted into one of the most powerful positions in the world but along with that, our outrage and vocalisation of Trump and those like him may be one of the things that got him and people like him there in the first place.  Talking about anything keeps a spotlight on it, attention is a powerful thing, so to take away the power of horrible people and their horrible opinions, silence is the best option.

Snatching away the attention of something by not talking about it will let them and their horrible views drown into obscurity; even though there will always be people who will always want to talk about these sort of things on both sides of the argument, the less people doing it the better.  

So how do we walk that line? Of not feeding the beast the attention it craves but also not letting the voices of hate be the only noise heard in our society. I think the key comes with picking your battles. There’s no point arguing about how awfully right wing Donald Trump is to your left-wing Facebook friends because they’ll agree with you; in the same way there’s no point arguing that same point to an avid Trump fan either because no minds will be changed and the focus still sits on the racist and horrible person.

Pick your battles from a place of education, let people know openly and honestly how these things can damage society and how being a good person, who just accepts that people are different and just gets on with their life should be an inherent character trait and not something up for debate. Make equality the focus, give that the attention it needs and keep quiet about the people who want your noise, your outrage and your anger more than anything.  

Silence is powerful but so is your voice, the key is knowing when to use them.

By Tom Vasey

I’m sure that when we look back on our time in university, one of our fondest memories will be the people for whom we had to complete a bureaucratic obstacle course, all for the special privilege of getting into debt. I mean, I shouldn’t complain. We in New Zealand get a pretty great education for a fraction of what it’d cost in, say, the USA, but it’s still a lot of money to pay back at the end of the day. Med students have it even worse, given that you’re probably going to spend most of your 20s getting through uni, and then you’re probably stuck trying to pay it off well into your 30s.

Now, I’m 24, and I’ll be 25 in April. I’m actually a fair bit older than a lot of people in my first-year class, but I’d like to share a personal story about my experience with Studylink and why it’s taken this long to get back to work.

I began my studies in 2011, and I was 18 at the time. My parents had the sort of mentality where you should go somewhere far from home if you want to go to uni. Basically the idea is that you move out early, get on with your studies, learn to be self-sufficient, stuff like that. In retrospect, I agree with that, though admittedly my first attempt at it didn’t go all to plan.

My first year at university wasn’t to be spent in New Zealand at all. Instead, I signed up for Adelaide and made my way over there. Got a place in a hall of residence, got to meet new people, and once the initial homesickness died out, I was on my way! Not long after I arrived, however, I learned that my father had become very sick and probably had less than a year left. So, no sooner had my adventure away from home begun, I needed to turn tail and run back to New Zealand, get some closure with him, help if I could. I enrolled at the University of Auckland to be closer to home, just in case I was needed. Later in 2011, my dad passed away (just over 5 years ago, actually. Guess that might be why this story comes to mind). Things kind of got worse when Studylink began claiming that I couldn’t apply for a student loan for UoA on the basis that I a) wasn’t a citizen, and b) hadn’t been living consistently in New Zealand for the past two years. Yes, it turns out that what sodded it was that my permanent residency “resets” every time I leave the country, which is a big faff because at that stage no number of school and immigration reports will convince them that you’re legit. I remember having to practically beg on my knees towards the end of semester 2 of 2011 for the student loan, because on top of everything that had gone wrong that year, I was about to be unenrolled. The guy seemed to take some kind of feral glee in telling me I had to wait a week for someone in Lower Hutt to come to a verdict.

Sure enough, they said no, and I was unenrolled. I kept going to classes and finished them all to the best of my ability, but it didn’t matter because I had no student loan and the tuition fees remained unpaid. Well, pants.

In 2012 I tried again, and for the first semester it seemed as if everything was going to go as it was supposed to go, but as luck would have it, I chose this most inconvenient time to get incredibly sick and refuse to get better until around mid-2015. Let me tell you something; it is a nightmare trying to convince Studylink that you’ve been sick, especially if your only evidence for it is a report written by the cheapest GP in Auckland’s city centre.

I got better last year, and I began working on my writing again, and planning to go back to uni. For a few years I lived in an apartment across the road from City Campus, so maybe the big glowing signs at night were some kind of subliminal message to get me to choose AUT as the place I’d go to get a real education. I fought all year to get the right documents together, sitting in on lectures both there and at UoA to learn how to take notes, and come this year I launched back into it, finally doing something I love and enjoy…and promptly getting sick again, but since Studylink’s finally approved me after five years of struggling, it’s not relevant unless I fail something, and I don’t intend to fail it.

I began writing this little tale with a far different conclusion about Studylink in mind, but in all honesty, the challenges of jumping those hurdles and fighting for the right to study are ingrained in my head. They’re part of me now, part of the foundation for the person I’m becoming today, and I wonder if I’d see university as the same wonderful gift if I didn’t have an appreciation for just how hard it can be for some people to get there. For everyone who breezed through the student loan application process, there’s probably someone else who had to fight tooth and nail for the opportunity to study.

I don’t blame the people working at Studylink for any of this. There must be a good reason there’s such a big screening process, but in the few years where I banged my head against the bureaucratic wall, trying to slip forms and notes through the cracks I made in the brickwork, it was horrible. It’s interesting to reflect on the experience now, and it has reaffirmed that what we are doing here today is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and should be taken advantage of.

This was a bit of a heart-pouring rant, but it did need to be said, and I hope that at least a few of you get a little bit of a different perspective or at least identify with what I’ve said here today. I’ll try to keep things less sombre in future. We’re going to need all of the silly jokes we can get with exams drawing closer.

By Tom Vasey 

So, we’re in the second half of Semester 2, quickly running out of time before those last assignments are due and exams come knocking. Obviously this is the time when things are going to ramp up and get significantly harder, but fortunately, there are plenty of ways to cope with stress and manage the mounting challenge.

In my own case, I’ve got four assignments to finish before exams begin, and those exams are crammed together in the last days of October and the beginning of November. That’s obviously going to be a busy month from here on in, but I reckon it’s manageable because we have some ways to handle it.

Many of these are obvious methods of handling stress, and probably common sense, but I also thoroughly recommend various mindfulness exercises, which aren’t exactly common knowledge. Having worked in a mental health centre for a couple of years, and studying Introduction to Psychology this semester, it’s only recently I’ve been able to see what mindfulness can do for folks who suffer from anxiety, but it’s not widely known about. Anyway, with all of that out of the way, let’s dive into our methods.

1. Taking regular breaks

I’m from the UK, so I swear by a good cup of tea from time to time, but really there are multiple ways to take breaks that don’t involve it at all. Taking some time out to walk the dog, read a book, browse the internet or just go to the gym can all be great ways to take a little break. This is important because it breaks up the time studying or working on assignments into nice, manageable chunks, and give your mind time to recover. A 20-30 minute break every hour or two usually works for me, and gives the opportunity for your brain to recover a little bit. Obviously trying to keep studying for hours straight will just cause you to burn out in no time at all. Do the right thing by yourself, and take some time for you. Trust me on this, taking time to prepare and recover is every bit as important as the time you spend actually working. If you’re burning out and can’t actually absorb the information you’re taking in, then what’s the point of studying in the first place?

2. Get a good night’s sleep

This is kind of a follow-on from the first point. Getting a good night’s sleep can be easier said than done sometimes (especially if you happen to be living in the same house as a screaming baby, to take a perfectly random example). Still, it is deeply important to get a good eight hours, even if you have to spend some of that sleeping on the bus or train (not at the wheel though, if you don’t mind. Traffic in Auckland is bad enough as is). This serves the same purpose as taking a short break. It can allow you to rest, recuperate and absorb the information you’ve been trying to take in that day. I mean, obviously you shouldn’t sleep straight through your classes if you happen to have 8am lectures (I’ve seen that happen enough times this semester myself), but you should make sure that you’re getting as close as you can to that 8-hour sweet spot. Setting reminders on your phone is a good way to ensure this, especially since that’s probably also what you use as an alarm clock in many cases. 3. Never ever cram

I crammed once. Years ago, I woke up realising that I had an exam that day, and I was forced to hurry up and get as much information as I could stuck in my head as possible ahead of the 10am exam. Cue four hours of horrified studying, coming across new concepts I’d never before seen and almost immediately forgetting about them again. It was a complete and utter nuisance and I would never want to do that to myself again. Fortunately it was a paper under the Bachelor of Arts so it wasn’t a big deal (please don’t hate me, I love history!) but I swore to myself that I would never again let that happen. Five years down the line, I’m holding to that promise. There is no way to absorb information a few hours ahead of the exam unless you get really lucky. If you’re studying on the day of an exam or assignment, it should be just for clarity and revision purposes. If you’re just being introduced to new concepts on that very day, something has gone dreadfully wrong.

It's probably fair to yell “easy for you to say! You don’t know until the date of the assessment!” and that’s true! That’s why I’m saying this right now, because the horror of running into something foreign and alien in your final exam is like finding a fly in your soup, if the fly is made of missed marks and the soup is your final grade. I’ve had better analogies.

4. Mindfulness

By Shannel Milne 

Going on 2 years now I have lived at WSA which is one of AUT’s student apartments. It is literally just round the corner from the City Campus. Over the past few years I have had a love hate relationship with the apartments. I met my closest friends here, made many memories that technically I can’t even remember. Living at WSA has given me the time and space I needed to transition from a teenager living with my parents to an adult who can survive living alone. One thing I have noticed is that you can interact and participate as much or as little as you please. You can put yourself out there or do your own thing. So anyway here is my pros and cons list for living at WSA:

Pros

You can sleep in as you practically live on City Campus.

It’s super easy to make friends if you participate in the activities.

You can walk to town without needing to Uber.

There is usually a weekly Pak’n’Save trip planned, they only take 6 people so you have to get in fast.

There is a fair amount of security. The main gate and doors lock at a certain time and you’ll need a swipe card to get EVERYWHERE. Also there is actual security walking around.

 At the end of every university year WSA gets the residents to design jumpers and everyone can vote for their favourite option.

FREE FOOD.

Cons

The washing machines and dryers are $3 each, occasionally broken and usually all occupied. (My advice, save your washing for visiting your parents or use the machines at 2-3am.)

The fire alarms go off. A lot. Just last week it went off at 5:30am on a Saturday…

You are allowed guests over but you have to sign them in and after the first night, it costs $20 for every additional night.

Inspections. Inspections and more inspections!

If you intend on throwing a party you’re going to need a liquor licence, which also means you are only allowed 15 people round for said party.

The RA’s have a master swipe card and can come into your apartment. This is helpful if you’ve locked yourself out but it does feel like an invasion of privacy.

There are a lot of rules, it’s kind of like living with your parents which is great if you have just moved out from home. It is an okay place to learn how to live alone. I have no doubt, missed bits and pieces from both lists but I think you get the general idea!