Baby Studying

The most important recurring schedule at this stage in my life is coming to it’s yearly break. That is my tertiary study. I was thinking about what I’ve learned about tertiary study and the “journey” it took me to get there.

I’ve always wanted to go to university for something, as a child it just looked like such an achievement to be able to do so. I stuck through till the end of my secondary education even if admittedly it was a very lazy last year. I done this so even if I didn’t feel like studying, I’d still have the option to someday when I decided to grow up.

Well, my secondary education had come to an end and I hadn’t signed up to go to any university. The application process seemed daunting — there were loans, commitments, more study and general confusion about university applications to top it off. I couldn’t motivate myself to do all this while struggling to study for my end of year exams. I wasn’t ready.

I decided I’d continue working at my current job (a Domino’s Pizza store). I asked my boss if I could become a full time worker and work 40 hours per week, however he stated that he would only be able to give me 30 to 35 hours per week. This seemed reasonable as there were limited hours to be shared at the time. In light of this information I accepted the offer and hoped that if someone were to leave then my hours would be bumped up, it seemed like the logical thing any loyal employer would do.

Over the next year there were several people who left the job or transferred to another store meaning that more hours had become available. As a worker being loyal to his employer I was hoping that I’d get loyalty in return, however that wasn’t the case. I didn’t get the extra hours I had hoped for, I had actually started to lose hours so the replacements could get more hours.

There wasn’t much I could do once I realised I wasn’t being valued as a worker, a human-being and was being disrespected. It seemed I was rather thought of as a tool to make money and not a person. The worst part of the recession was upon me — I couldn’t find a new job which meant I was stuck working there.

My income was not steady enough to move out from home and push my life ahead. I then made myself a basic plan to push my life ahead:

  • Hold Onto the Job:
    It’s crap but it’s money in the hand. I can keep looking for another job while working but don’t simply drop it without another job to go to.
  • Go to University:
    The chances of being employed and the amount of doors open to me will increase if I’m qualified. There will also be better doors available to me, doors that I’m interested in and doors that will make me happy.

Waikato University Logo

I decided I’d study Software Engineering at the University of Waikato. This subject choice was a relatively simple choice to make, during my gap year I had enjoyed my time scripting for a San Andreas Multiplayer server named littlewhitey’s SA:MP Server and learning about programming in a language namedPawn.

The 8 papers that I chose for my first year of study were the following:

  • ENEL111-10A: Introduction to Electronics
  • COMP103-10A: Introduction to Computer Science 1
  • STAT121-10A: Introduction to Statistical Methods
  • ENGG180-10A: Fundamentals of Engineering
  • ENMP102-10B: Materials and Process Engineering
  • MATH101-10B: Introduction to Calculus
  • MATH102-10B: Introduction to Algebra
  • COMP104-10B: Introduction to Computer Science 2

After taking action I had to wait until 2010. The year I started my tertiary study and put my life on a better path. I haven’t regretted my decision to take this action, it has presented some difficult hurdles but not anything that cannot be overcome.

In the next week I will complete my last week of my first year of this exciting journey. The last week of teaching will then be followed by a 3 week exam period which will require me to knuckle down (damn calculus) so I get a 100% pass rate.

The time I’ve had at university has allowed me to undertake my interesting perspectives of things. I hope to continue developing that perspective and be able to put it to a good use.

I’ll also have you know that I recently quit the job at Domino’s Pizza. It was becoming too difficult to study and work at a disrespectful place.  The kicker to this is that I got a call 3 days later to allow me to work at a new store opening in my home town. I’m looking forward to working at my new place of work: time will tell me how it works out.