Yes I was a misguided fool, but it was hard. Like many others, I’d come straight from school. Straight from the life of being ordered what to do and when to do it, and if you didn’t, well, look out! I particularly remember Miss Jenkins. Miss Jenkins would put you in detention if you sneezed. Imagine what happened the day I forgot my homework and sneezed! I remember thinking how could someone so lovely be so vindictive? Yes Miss Jenkins, if you’re out there, if only you hadn’t been so beautiful, maybe I would have passed Maths. (Yes, still misguided!)

I digress, sorry. It really was a whole different kettle of fish altogether. If I didn’t know what autonomous was before O week I sure did once term had started. Here I was, a bull in a china shop, enjoying this unlimited freedom, this eternal world of possibilities without parents and no one telling me what to do (back in the UK when I was deciding on a Uni, you were considered a weak feeble pathetic excuse for a teenager if you didn’t get a map, mark a line at least 200 miles from your parents’ house, and then look for places further outside the line. Mine was about 300 miles from my home town, so…obviously not weak!).

In the back of my mind I knew I should be on top of the essays, but I could always do it tomorrow! Imagine my surprise when I found out I’d missed the deadline for my first assignment and no one had reminded me about it. (If you can remember your shock when Bob Dylan went Electric or perhaps on finding out that Milli Vanilli were lip syncing, or for the younger readers, the fact that Lady Ga Ga is a talented songwriter, then you’re getting close to my bewilderment). It’d happened to heaps of people in their first term. We all felt hard done by. How could this happen? Why wasn’t I reminded, nay, nagged to get on with it, to knuckle down and get it done?

Detention (n) – To be kept in school/prison because you have done something wrong
Vindictive (adj) – Unforgiving. Inclined to revenge
If only you hadn’t been so beautiful, maybe I would have passed Maths – 3rd Conditional used with ‘If only’ (3rd conditional formed using subject + past perfect, subject + would + have + pp)
…you hadn’t been…, I would have passed
To digress (v) – To move away or deviate from the subject
A different kettle of fish (idiom) – Totally different from something that you talked about/experienced
Autonomous (adj)– To work on your own. Independent
A bull in a china shop (Idiom) – Unpredicatble, troublemaker
Weak / Feeble (adj)- Not strong
Pathetic (adj) – Sad, useless
To be on top of things (Idiom) – To be aware/in control/dealing with something
To find out (phrasal verb) – To discover
To miss a deadline (not ‘lose a deadline’) – Collocation – ‘Deadline’ – A fixed date where something has to be finished
To go Electric – the phrase used when Bob Dylan switched from his acoustic guitar to an electric one
To lip sync (v)– To pretend to sing a song by moving your lips to the words (can also be used as a noun)
Bewilderment (n)– Shock, surprise, confusion
Heaps (n)– Lots of (informal)
To feel hard done by (idiom) – To fee you have been treated unfairly
To be nagged – To constantly be told to do something – to nag (v)
To knuckle down – To make the decision to concentrate and get your work done

And for all that it’s worth, you can read part III on our Sydney Business College blog – I’ll post this soon!

 

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