Ten Things to Know About Moving Out of Home

The world is a big scary place, so here is a list of ten things to know about moving out of home.
(This list depends partially on the kindness and generosity of your parents, so bare that in mind!)

1. When you parents ask you if you are running low on anything, always say yes.
At first, it may seem 'cool' or 'AWESOME' to be able to walk/drive/take public transport by yourself to the store and buy shampoo and conditioner. Or toothpaste. But trust me, that stuff is expensive. And when you're on a limited student budget, the last thing you want to be doing is wasting your money on necessities. Why would you do that when there's partying to be done?! So if your parents are there, right in front of you, offering to buy you things. Don't hesitate. Don't feel bad. Just accept their generosity!

2. Never do laundry until there is no other option.
I don't mean turning your underwear inside out to wear it again (guys, we're looking at you!). No, I mean run yourself down to your last outfit, pair of underwear and socks and then do washing. If you're that stuck, I guess you could wear a dressing gown to the laundry and then get dressed in clean-yet-soaking-wet clothes. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

3. It is possible to survive on two-minute noodles and Mi Goreng.
Don't listen to your parents. Sometimes, they're wrong. Not often, but sometimes! See the thing is, if you're on a student budget and either 1) You can't cook or 2) The food provided by your college/Halls of Residence is terrible, then sometimes there is literally no other option. But you will get sick of noodles. If this results, switch to Oreos. It never fails.

4. You don't have to clean your room if you don't want to.
But bare in mind that if you want to have people over, this might be the best way to impress. Living away from home means that there are no parents to tell you when your room needs cleaned, so you're absolutely more than welcome to live in a pigsty. Welcome to university life!

5. You will never go to bed before 12am.
It's extremely unlikely. This is the situation that happens to me every, single night. At 9pm I look at the clock. 'It's still too early,' I say to myself. Five lives later in Candy Crush and after couple of episodes of the TV show of the week, it's suddenly 1am. Oh well, better go on Twitter.
The point of this is that apparently we need to be responsible adults and go to bed when we feel tired. YOLO!

6. It is possible to party every night of the week.
I just don't recommend it. Or condone it. It's just a fact. It is possible, just you need to limit yourself. Also, if you are going to do it...don't tell your parents!

7. You need to exercise.
Living away from home can cause you to put on weight for a number of reasons: your diet, alcohol and stress, just to name a few. And so, if you thought you were limitless and had an awesome metabolism in high school, don't rely on it when you start living off noodles and partying every week. Take up a sport or go running or swimming or be creative with your own ways to exercise!

8. Make lists of things you need to do.
Even better, invest in a calender or make your own. I guarantee that without your parents around to remind you, you'll forget about important events and happenings!

9. Your parents will always love you no matter what.
Well, mine will. I hope yours will too. Make sure to phone them, Facebook them or visit them. Because I can guarantee that they miss you a lot.

10. Remember to study.
Living away from home means that there is noone to nag you to study when you have exams coming up. It's up to you. And so, instead of studying right now (at 12:04am in the morning), I am blogging. It's obviously not the sensible thing to do. Mum...Dad...can you tell me to study please?!

No to Privatising HECS!

Dear Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne,

I am a current university student. I am in my first year of a 5.5 year degree, and I have no qualms in telling you that by the end of my degree, my HECS debt will be upwards of $45 000. Why am I telling you this?

Well, the thing is, I came to university under the premise that, when I graduated, I would have interest free loans to pay back later on in life. However recently I've read that you want to privatise HECS? What is this?

Do you want to prevent high school students from transiting on to university because they know that the fees for university would only grow if HECS debt was to be privatised? If you have a heart, then the answer is no.

At the current time, I am living away from home and studying at university. Already, just one year into my degree, I have the financial strain pressing down on me simply from living away from home. However, if you were to privatise HECS, then this strain would increase exorbitantly because I doubt that the loans would continue to be interest free. I highly doubt that there would be a high threshold set so that we don't have to pay back those loans until we start earning that amount.

And you know what... Why us? Why us when you politicians get paid holidays left, right and centre which come from OUR tax dollars. Why the university students of today? Why should it be us to suffer? We aren't the ones who have 'broken' the budget. For that, you have only yourselves to blame.

Therefore, the privatisation of HECS is not a good thing for the future of education in Australia. You expect every kid out there to have parents who are wealthy enough to pay their way through university or pay back their loans when they're done, however, this isn't the case! Privatising HECS would widen the gap between rich and poor, because you're basically saying that only the rich deserve to go to university.

As a past public school student, I take offence. The only difference between kids who go to private schools and kids who go to public schools is the amount of money their parents can afford to pay. You have astounding, bright and incredible kids who come out of public schools and go on to top their university course because they've worked just that little bit harder to be there. Especially in Queensland at the moment, where getting a good OP depends on how your cohort does at QCS. But let's not talk about that.

Let's talk about the fact that you want bright and educated individuals entering the job market in Australia. Now tell me how this is going to happen if these bright and educated individuals end up living on the street because you privatised HECS? Even worse, what if these bright and educated individuals decide not to go to university in the first place because of the loans which will only grow each year during and after their degree finishes?

What then? Are you really doing what's best for Australia? Or are you doing what's best for you? Selling off HECS won't fix the budget problems. Instead of receiving payments each year from individuals earning over the threshold and paying their HECS back, you'll receive a lump sum payment for HECS which I guarantee will be spent as soon as you get it and won't fix any problems.

So please, for the sake of past, present and future university students, don't privatise HECS. It's not worth it.

Kind regards,

Georgina

I hate university election time.

It’s that time again. The time when you turn your eyes to the ground and try to walk along as inconspicuously as possible. You try to find shelter in the UQ Union area, but everywhere you turn you are accosted by those annoying individuals who have given up their souls in exchange for blue or yellow shirts that yell societal conformity.

It’s time to vote.

It all started today, and we unfortunate University of Queensland students have to endure another two weeks of incessant campaigning about stuff we really couldn’t care less about: Who gets to run the UQ Student Union in 2014. But come on, the campaigners have to realise that the only reason that half of us will vote will be to get the free food vouchers. We care about that! But first, we have to wait out two weeks before the big vote. The decider. The one day where you make a decision THAT WILL EFFECT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. Lol jokes. It’s just a vote about who’s going to run UQ Union.

Today, a friend asked me to meet her in front of the Lolly Shop. It’s basically the typical place to meet on campus, right? So I, in my innocent and forgetful state, stupidly agreed to meet at the UQ Union area. I dragged myself out of bed (because why would I bother getting up when I don’t have university on a Monday?!) I tried to mask the fact that I hadn’t washed my hair in a couple of days by wearing a hat. I put my sunglasses on even though it was cloudy and I packed an umbrella. I was ready.

And then, just as I arrived at the university…it hit me. I saw the blue shirts first, sporting the name REFORM in capital letters. I managed to make it to within 50 metres of the Lolly Shop, and then it happened all at once. Swarms of Fresh supporters in yellow shirts ran up to me, waving flyers and telling me that they would bring Max Brenners to campus if once again elected. The Blue shirts tried to drown them out by telling me that they’d give me free breakfast for 8am classes.

And then there were the socialists, yelling ‘FUCK Fresh! We want a democratic Student Union.’ People were dancing and blasting music and overall, the experience was really just too overwhelming for a Monday. I didn’t need fifty people from each party telling me why they were better, stronger, faster, or fitter. It’s just a university election. You’re not running the country; you’re running an educational institution. It’s not survival of the fittest in the campaign world. You’re turning it into a competition between UQ students to see who can avoid the campaigners for the longest period of time.

Obviously I lost. Maybe I’ll just skip university for the next two weeks until the elections finish. It’s just way too much pressure for week 2.

Barbie Girls of Today

My astonishment at the way some companies choose to market their goods to little girls has just reached a new level.