Tag: Exams

• How To Relax These Holidays Without Succumbing to Existential Dread and the Great Void of Nothingness

  December 15, 2022 8:52 pm Comments Off on How To Relax These Holidays Without Succumbing to Existential Dread and the Great Void of Nothingness

   
  So…your exams are done…now what? Maybe you were the first of your friends to be done, or maybe you were the last. Or maybe, you were one of those enviable people who get to say things like “what exams? My last assignment was a group presentation!” in which case, tell me what subject IMMEDIATELY. Either way, you’re staring down the long, long stretch of uni break in the short, short days of Canberra winter. And you have practically nothing to do except to scroll TikTok endlessly (or if you’re a real adult you’re watching them when they get reposted to IG reels 3 weeks later).
  Here are the basics: keep a regular routine, eat healthy(ish) and go on your silly little walk for your silly little mental health. After you recover from your silly little bout of hayfever, resist the urge to fall victim to endless scrolling on your phone. 
  To do that: read a book, meditate, and do yoga, all at once! Read The Art of War while holding downward dog and think to yourself “wow! I am so grateful to be alive today!” on loop for twenty min-
  Haha. Just kidding. While reading, meditation and yoga are all pretty good ways to de-stress, they’re not for everyone. Sure, you’d be able to do it once, but as far as building a holiday routine or habit? Not sustainable. Instead, pull up a chair, get comfortable and tell me about yourself. Uh. Not that close please, no knees touching until at least the second date. Wow…looking closely, you have really expressive eyes…do you get that often?… Ahem. 
  Anyways, you probably fall into two categories of people when it comes to de-stressing during break, so let me give you some advice on how to relax:
  Are you the type of person to have a study plan for your exams? Do you write-in commitments (even hangs with your friends) into your calendar? Is your calendar, by any chance, synced so you can access it from any device? If so, I’ll pay you $50 to teach me your ways and also…
  Organised, structure loving, maybe a little more anxious than you’re willing to let on: You’re going to have no problem at all establishing a regular routine in your break. You probably are working, picking up some more shifts, or asking for additional responsibilities. Either that, or you’ve already enrolled in a Summer course, or God forbid, an Autumn course that’s already commenced. 
  For you, relaxing is just another thing to put on the agenda: time blocked out. You’d enjoy things that make you feel productive, even in your down time, lest the guilt of doing nothing consume you. Now… delete that email that signs you up for another commitment. Instead, book a day trip by yourself or with friends, really packing out your whole day with activities (if you’re doing this with friends make sure they’re the kind of people that won’t mind sticking to The Plan). Maybe you’ll do brunch from 9am-11am with a 15-minute travel time (oh but with an additional 7-minute leeway just in case) to get to a ceramics class at 11:30am. If you’re not keen to spend that much money, why not host brunch instead at home? You can wake up at 7am or 8am to start making pancakes. Each friend can host their own ‘workshop’ activity, sharing a skill with everyone else.
  And after a thoroughly exhausting-in-a-fun-way day, spend the next two days recovering by reading a book or playing a video game curled up on the couch, guilt free(ish). You had a Special Big Day, you can now justify spending some time to yourself, for yourself.
  On the other hand, are you described as the chaotic friend? Do you enjoy doing 101 things at any given time, so that you’re never really left alone with your thoughts? Do you want to spend your down time ‘well’ but feel guilty for ending up just scrolling on social media for 6 hours? 
  Spontaneous, fun loving and driven, you have a lot of passion for a lot of things and find yourself with too many options and not a great system for making choices. Advice like “pick up a hobby” to keep yourself busy during the break is intuitive to you. However, picking the right hobby? Not so much. Where is your crochet hook exactly…?
  So how do you get some structure in your break while still having the spontaneous fun you love? Well…do something new every day but at a certain set time each day or each week. Try and estimate how long it’ll take—if it’ll take 4 hours then only give it 4 hours! Time limits on things you enjoy doesn’t really sound like an intuitive way to have fun…but it is (Source: trust me bro). If you start crocheting a granny square cardigan (one of my projects that I’ve been meaning to do since uh…let’s not talk about that) but you’re saying to yourself “I’ll do it anytime; I have the whole holidays”. You will not do it any time. You simply will not. It will be just yarn kicked under your bed. But if you’re like “I’ll do it at least 4 times a week and always while I watch an episode of something after dinner?” Then it’s more likely to get done and actually become a source of fun instead of you getting to the end of the break and going damn I really did nothing…
  That’s not to say to not give into spontaneous lunches with friends or random 3-hour walks to contemplate life. Just make sure you still get a sense of purpose from the time that passes in the holidays too!
  Make things to look forwards to every day in the holidays! Time will pass regardless of whether we’re ready for it or not; and I know I’d much rather pass it in a way that makes me feel fulfilled and actually do memorable things. And this time, I SWEAR my crochet cardigan is getting finished…
  Maybe I’ll make it a vest instead.

  Maddy Wang

• Everyone’s Job is Difficult

  April 9, 2021 12:56 pm Comments Off on Everyone’s Job is Difficult

  I recently came across a TikTok by a primary school teacher. She responds to the weeks of summer vacation that teachers get and how some complain that this makes the profession easier. “I didn’t choose your career for you. Sub for my class one day – just one day! See what I do for 180 days.” One user commented, “I can do your job for a day. You talk to first graders on a computer… I’m a psych nurse dealing with serial killers. Do my job for a day.” Others responded similarly. The comment section was a battle of professions – people sitting at home, behind their screens, competing to prove how difficult their work was. The video creator, Miss Franklin, later responded with the following: “What everyone should learn from this trend – EVERYONE’s job is difficult and has their own advantages/disadvantages. Respect one another’s profession.” The whole argument seemed so silly to me. Why was this teacher associating “respect” for a profession with how much others acknowledged its difficulty? 
  In our introductory lecture this semester, my Psychology lecturer mentioned that the subject could arguably be considered more difficult than some natural or life sciences. This is because it studies human beings who change their behaviour following new research they read, speculations, and predictions. I learned from my Economics lecturer that famous physicist Max Planck supposedly told John Maynard Keynes that Economics was too difficult for him for similar reasons. 
  Why are we so fascinated with proving the difficulty of our work? Is it because we need to show that we can do work that is harder than what the ‘average’ person can do, if such a measure even exists? Is this how we channel our yearning to reach our full potential, leave a mark that transcends us, and ‘be special’? After noticing this trend, I began to suspect that the need to prove the difficulty of our work is rooted in toxic hustle culture.
  “I am so burned out. I barely slept this week.” 
  “I’m such a typical stressed college student. I had to drink a bunch of coffee to cram for my finals.” 
  “Who says an Arts degree is  easy. I’ve been studying all day.” 
  Let’s stop looking at stress and burn-out as badges of honour. Let’s stop the “I’m so overworked, it’s terrible” while secretly feeling hints of satisfaction at the thought that we have “done enough” or done things that are “hard enough” to feel worthy. Let’s stop trying to validate the amount of time or money we have spent on honing our craft by convincing others of its difficulty. 
  I feel very privileged to have been brought up knowing that my parents will support me regardless of the subject or career I choose. I know not everyone can afford that freedom. We often hear from relatives and family friends who think differently. Some question or look down on my decision to pursue the social sciences instead of a STEM subject. Others assume it is because I didn’t have the skills to do anything ‘better’. In the past, we have gotten caught up in defending our choices and agreeing that difficulty is subjective. All professions and subjects are difficult, and difficulty depends on each person’s skill set. 
  Recently, I’ve started realising that by feeding into this discussion, I may subconsciously be contributing to the idea that difficulty matters. Even if there were one objective measure of the difficulty of subjects and professions, would it indicate value? If being a first-grade teacher was ’easy’, would it be any less important? By protesting against the idea that STEM subjects are more difficult, more valid, or more respectable career choices, I may end up feeding into a culture that assumes that difficulty is equivalent to value or worth. That acknowledging difficulty is somehow equivalent to respect. It is not hard to understand why. Many of us have been conditioned to work harder, put in more hours, and push ourselves to reach our full potential. We sometimes fall into the trap of assuming that competing in fields that are traditionally considered difficult is the best way to achieve, fulfil, and realise our potential.
  The value of a profession and the worth of the human who pursues it does not depend on how little vacation they get or how many hours they have worked overtime. By associating pride with difficulty, we blind ourselves to the fact that our lives are being swallowed by a culture that rewards placing work above all else. Instead of trying to one-up others and glorifying exhaustion, we should start shifting the conversation. 
  We should redirect our focus to the satisfaction we get after our work has made its desired impact or the fulfilment we feel at the end of the day. We should stop comparing how ‘difficult’ our jobs are and appreciate that teachers are just as crucial as electricians. We should understand the joy that actors bring to our movie nights and thank humanities students for studying the storytellers who have enriched our past. We should thank psychologists and doctors for their contribution to health and still recognize the importance of journalists, homemakers, and museum curators. Hustle culture, toxic productivity – whatever you want to call it – has dug its roots deep into our conversations, language, and behaviour. By recognising why we say and do things, we could start freeing ourselves from it.

  Nayantara Ranganatha