Hello!

The name is Bree, I’m 23 and I am currently doing a double degree at the University of Wollongong (I’m cherishing the rhyme while I can). I’m studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts, majoring in Visual Arts & Design, and a Bachelor of Communication and Media, majoring in Digital and Social Media; aka an excruciatingly long way of saying that I’m working on becoming a graphic designer. When I’m finally graced with the opportunity to graduate, which at this rate will be in the very distant future thanks to our good old friend COVID-19, I want to specialise in creating graphics for digital based mediums. This is actually something I do already as a casual job but I want to fill my brain with enough knowledge to intimidate my future competitors, cause let me tell you, any creative career venture will test your competitivity (I don’t think that’s a real word but I never claimed I was studying the English language).

I assume most of my classmates are within their second year of University, considering this is a 2nd year class. However I’m in my 3rd, meaning I got the opportunity to have one glorious year of being on campus before the world ended, which may be unique compared to other introductory posts you’ll see. I was actually starting my second year when we were told to flee for our lives and not to come back until it was safe again. While terrifying at the time, I assumed we’d be back within a few weeks but alas, here I sit almost a whole year later in my bedroom within the ever-unpredictable Sydney area praying for the day I can go back to campus permanently.

I can’t even fathom what life was like prior to COVID-19 anymore, let alone what I was like prior to University; it seems like such a distant, euphoric memory. The freedom we all took for granted is so unbelievable in retrospect.

All the way back in 2018, I was working as a full time retail worker, struggling to work my way up in the management tree. My manager was a misogynistic asshat that took pleasure in my suffering, being one of only two permanent female workers in a store of roughly 40 employees. So prior to University, I was at my wits end, looking for anything to free me from a life of failing to impress a bunch of lazy corporates that only cared for dollar signs. University was my ticket outta there, so my view of the place was high on a pedestal and remained as such until the doomsday clock struck midnight just a couple of weeks into my second year.

I’m the first in my family to attend University so to my family, this experience is extremely confusing and alien even without the Pandemic impeding on our scheduled programming, I decided to ask my dad what he thinks of when he hears the term ‘University Student’ and in classic father fashion he replied, without the miss of a beat, ‘A student that attends university.’. Classic dad reply but I guess he isn’t wrong.

The follow up, however, did stump him for a moment:

‘But dad, I’m a current university student yet I don’t physically attend university. Does that still make me a university student?’

He chuckled for a moment and wracked his mighty dad brain for the perfect dad joke response as dads do. But I was shocked with what he actually chose.

‘I guess not… you’re a student of the internet now.’

I realise he meant it to be funny, but when you actually think about it, once again he’s not wrong. A university was the physical place I used to attend to learn and receive an education, but now I attend an array of websites and apps to receive, relatively, the same education.

Will the Pandemic transform the classroom forever? Will we have ‘University Students’ as we once knew ever again?

~Bree