Jace is a second year Human Geography student trapped in a mature-aged student's body. He likes cooking, maps and sitting on his hands during tutorial so he doesn't become 'that guy'.
Author: Jace Blunden
Navigating addiction: Alcohol
Let’s be honest, becoming a student and morphing into a steaming, name-taking booze monster is something of a stereotype. There’s not necessarily anything abnormal here, as UON’s Drug, Alcohol and Other Addictions counsellor, Michelle Lampis explains, “Most people drink a little heavier when they’re younger and reduce their intake as they get older. However, some people don’t”. While this pissed …
Know you’re product*
Do you have a Personal Brand™? I don’t mean preferring Nintendo to Xbox, your penchant for Converse All-Stars, or having Google tattooed on your face. I mean that buzzword that gets flicked around the place, often paired with ‘Thinkfluencer’ and ‘Webinar’. Some guy called Chris Ducker says that, “Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are …
Put down the phone: why you need a digital detox
Here we are, knee deep in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology is not just something we use, it is increasingly intertwined with every aspect of our lives, and it’s only going to dig itself deeper into our day-to-day functioning as time passes. Yet, while digital technologies are ingraining themselves into our lives to the extent the old real world/online world …
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Don’t drive yourself (crazy)
Uni is baaaaaaaaaaaack, and with its return comes a fresh new round of everyone’s favourite lark, Car Park Wars. For those who are new to our leafy campus, parking a car at Callaghan is akin to being a contestant on a post-apocalyptic gameshow, a hybrid of Survivor and Mad Max. For those of us who are seasoned veterans, we know …
Why summer is the perfect time to start your self-care routine
At the time of writing this, I’ve been off campus for well over four weeks and I’m terribly depressed. Not because my marks were bad, mind you, but because I’ve been so focussed on uni that its absence has become something of a niggling void, like poking your gum where a tooth used to be, or when hiccups disappear but …
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Why paying it forward can be the best step forward for yourself
The first few weeks of uni are a pretty exciting time. This excitement, however, is often tempered with a good glob of terror and confusion. And no one ever mentions that mozzie spray is sometimes more important than a pen and paper. You can feel lost geographically, socially and mentally. Luckily, UON has a small platoon of current students who …
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How to declutter your uni life
For most of us, uni is over for another year. Time to forget the last two semesters ever happened, cleanse your pile of notes and study debris with some soothing fire and develop a skin of rational ignorance regarding uni, at least until it’s time to enrol for next year. But what if this isn’t the best idea? No, no. …
How to stop stress from spoiling your relationships
The assignments are piling up, the coffee jitters are starting to affect my handwriting and I can feel the hot breath of exams on the back of my neck. I’m not having fun, and by the look of the hollow eyes and slumped shoulders I see around campus, neither are you. It’s usually at this point that I withdraw from …
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Levelling up: What you need to know about postgrad study
The uni rollercoaster is approaching that final, screaming, downhill flail before the end of the year. While many of us are simply looking forward to a break, there are an awful lot of you white-knuckling it through your last semester, and weighing up your post-graduation options. If you’re addicted to the uni lifestyle, avoiding the reality of workforce participation, or …
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I was a teenage washout
The paths we travel to arrive here are as diverse as we are. For every high school high achiever, for whom university study was an expected next step, an accepted reality, there is a student who greets university life as something of an anomaly. UON has an inordinate number of students who are the first in their family to attend …
Why Semester 2 can feel like a struggle
There’s something about second semester that just doesn’t feel right. Regardless of how organised, prepared and motivated I am at the beginning, how much I cajole and lecture myself, I just can’t seem to get my shit together. I usually begin the semester full of lofty ideals and ready for war. I leave cute little notes around reminding me to …
Group work: Make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger
We’ve all read ‘Group Work’ in the course guide and made this sound. When the group work bogeyperson rears its revolting head, try not to collapse into a heap of twitching protoplasm. Group work may be difficult, engendering horror stories terrifying enough to be told around a campfire, but it’s not just prescribed because the university hates you. As our …
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