I promised myself I'd go to sleep at midnight, after gathering research for one of the 3 papers, each worth half my mark, all due three weeks from now... My hour expires in 58, no make that 57 minutes. But instead, I choose to write about the long Monday I just had. Because today, I realised, I am invincible.

I spent the long weekend planning what to do on the long weekend. I have two midterms this week, one of which I finished this afternoon. I didn't study for that midterm. I studied for the one on Friday. I didn't get any of my readings done. Instead, I ate meat throughout the long weekend. And if you know me at all, you would know that I'm not exactly the most carnivorous person in the planet, but for some reason, I keep ending up with meat. If it's not steak, it's steak pie. Or ribs. Or lamb. I have learned to like meat over the past weekend.

I didn't finish my 3102 assignment over the long weekend either. I finished it this morning, whilst cramming for my 2102 midterm, and chatting with my best friends. I got into an exhilarating rush while in my morning commute to uni, forcing in as much as I could from the lecture notes I had printed out but never read. Before I knew it, it was 2pm. I had finished my 2102 midterm, confident with all my answers as the test had come out the way I was expecting it to: filled with basic economics I could have answered in high school. I'm not usually one to talk about my tests with such confidence since I've preconditioned my brain to expect the worst from tests so as to avoid any disappointments, but that test has to be the exception.

I rushed to the Education computer lab to print out the assignment for my tutorial, and made it just in time to see my tutor walk through the hallway before entering the room. The class discussion for that tute was interesting, as usual, and for the first time, I had something to say. But being my shy, insecure self, I decided to keep my comments to myself. It's hard to speak with a foreign accent. It makes me feel like my English is going up in wires.

I made my way to Circular Quay, in this unusually cold and windy day at around 6pm to have dinner with Japs, Eric and Lecris at Waterfront. I decided to treat myself, for no apparent reason, and despite the fact that I have been treating myself over the long weekend. After talking to Japs about all the things we both needed to do for uni, I decided to call it a day and walk towards Martin Place, which ended up a lot longer than expected, as two of the three gates were closed. Twelve minutes til the next train, so I had time to breeze through my readings. Then this guy started talking about a loser in Martin Place at this hour. I look up and see my cousin.

These are all the things I love about Sydney. I'm making mistakes, but learning not to take things too seriously. I'm alone, but I'm discovering the beauty in new people almost every single day. When I get home, I'm tired and dying to get some rest. But as I wait for my cold feet to warm up, I realise that all the things I fill my days with make me feel so alive.

Today's an off day. I can't seem to do anything right.

Postcard 1: Sunday Boat Harbour Surf Extravaganza

Top 5 things that tell me a lot about a person:
1. Music tastes
2. Camera faces
3. Shoes
4. Attitudes towards food
5. Humour

I love university life.

It's not just getting to live the fabulous single life without the responsibilities that I love about it. It's picking up pieces of wisdom in the most unexpected places.

I like to think that Economics has taught me to make better decisions, or at least weigh out my options throughly. The ever-so-important opportunity costs always haunt me, never failing to make sure that I realise that everything I do comes with its necessary consequences. That possibilities are denied once an opportunity is chosen over another.

I'd have to say that the best thing I've learned in a long while came from Shelly, my Policy instructor. I decided to show up for lecture yesterday, and was surprised to find 20-25 students in the room, instead of the initial 150 or so that were in the first class. It isn't that the lectures or boring, it's that the insanely thick weekly readings and powerpoint slides are more than enough to compensate for missing classes. Anyway, back to that piece of wisdom I picked up. We were talking about the environment. Thirty years ago, hardly anyone cared, or knew anything about the environment. Fast forward to 2008, and almost everyone knows and cares about the environment, or at least they say so in polls. Then Shelley wrote carbon footprint across the blackboard, and asked, "Which of the two generations have a larger carbon footprint?"

We talked about tobacco too. Thirty years ago, people had an idea about the negative health impacts of smoking. Now, everyone has a clear knowledge of the human and environmental consequences of tobacco. "Who smoked/smokes more?"

It can be quite simplistic to think that knowledge, education drive change. But the examples of the environment and tobacco don't even show correlations of the positive effects of education.

Because as humans, sometimes knowledge isn't enough to let us know when we should stop. We need more than knowing because sometimes, it feels good to go against what we know.

And maybe that means we need someone, something to tell us that enough is enough: that our capacities have been filled to overflowing.

***
I wanted to end off there, but I wanted to talk a bit about tobacco. People smoke less (at least in Canada and Australia), not necessarily because of the increase in knowledge and research. It could be due to a number of factors, namely: the significant increases in the prices of tobacco products, and legislation that makes it inconvenient to smoke pretty much anywhere and everywhere.

I'm exhausted.

Since gumawa ka ng list of things you want to do...

Things I want to do when I get home:
1. Go to Corregidor, Batanes, that beach in Bataan (keeping it as limited as possible, to keep this list as realistic as possible)
2. Volunteer at Habitat for Humanity
3. Plant trees
4. Have churros at Dulcinea
5. Bike around Luneta Park with my siblings

There are many, many more things I'd like to add here, but I doubt it'd be in anyone's interest to read through them all. I'm not too difficult to please.

It's official.

Hahahhaa :P