O'Week: How It Changes When You're Not A Newbie

O’Week changes depending what year you’re in…

Uni’s all over Australia are about to kick off their O’Week’s, and if you’re just starting uni, now would be a good time to pencil it in to your calendar. O’Week is about starting the year with a bang, by introducing you to clubs and societies, meeting new people and completely immersing yourself in campus-culture. Depending on what year you’re in, your opinion about O’Week will change, and you’ll notice it.

1st year – the excited puppy

Yes, that’s you. You are the puppy. You’re a fresh-faced school-leaver with a clean slate, so O’Week is the place to be if you plan on jumping in with both feet – which you should. You and the rest of the newbies will run around campus eating free food and collecting bags of freebie pens that you definitely won’t use, but hey, free stuff. You’ll also join a bunch of clubs and then unsubscribe a few weeks later when the novelty starts to wear off, but you’ll stick with one or two and get involved with them. This is a good thing! O’Week for 1st-years is about throwing yourself into the thick of things and finding out what you enjoy. Go forth, young padawan.

2nd year – the scavenger

By the time you hit your second year of uni, you’ve had enough time to realise how precious food is, and how difficult it is to manage your money if you’re doing it for the first time. O’Week is a 2nd-years freebie heaven – free food, stationery, lollies, coupons, discounts, giveaways, raffles – if it’s a tangible object and it’s less than full price, you’re probably about to swoop on it. There’s no shame in it, take advantage of every student discount and free packet of noodles available to you – student budgets are real, so take a big bag with you and reap the benefits of societies trying to recruit you through handing out Mi Goreng. That’s dinner sorted 

3rd year – the fence-sitter

You’ve been here for three years now, and you’re aware of what happens at O’Week – the question is, can you be bothered checking it out? I mean, you’ve got work in a few hours, and uni starts next week so you want to make as much extra money as you can before you have to cut down your work shifts for classes. Your friends are keen to check it out, but you know it will be the same as the last time you went and you’ll walk away with a free pen and a uni-bar coupon that you’ll forget to use because it only lasts for one week. Eventually you’ll pick a day to look at the stalls, get a free chocolate milk and go home. You’ve done this all before.

Group chat: Wanna go check out campus?

4th year – the old-timer

By now, a school-leaver looks like a toddler with a smartphone. You forgot it was O’Week and showed up to campus to buy your textbooks, only to realise you’re well into your early-twenties and first-years are ev-ery-where. Luckily, you know your way around campus so weaving through buildings to get to the bookshop is easily done and you won’t get side-tracked. You might check a few things out if it suits you, but you’re not focused on it. You know what clubs you enjoy being a part of, so the novelty of trying new things has worn off. You’ll probably head home and get a head-start on your readings.

Everyone is different, and O’week is for everyone, no matter what year you are in. Your priorities just shift over time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But still, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of free ramen either, if you can get it 

Enjoy O’Week!

Amy.