End of Semester Craze

Hi all, this is Tegan again for the final blog post for Print “Hello World”. I would firstly and most importantly like to thank you all for the kind words and support on this internship journey.

So, it is week 12 of my last semester of undergrad (under the assumption I pass everything) and all final due dates are piling up. It is around this part of the semester that the library seems like a second home. But sitting in the library, with a stats assignment due tonight that I really should be focused on, I begin to reflect. It is interesting how much things have changed in the short period of time I’ve been here. First year, I didn’t know anyone from Psychology or even anyone at UNSW. I was an extremely shy person (still am, a little), and the thought of making friends was quite daunting. It was only last night, whens sat in the library level 2 beanbags for the first time in forever (I inhabited them in first year), did it hit me how much I’ve grown. From a shy, performance-driven first year, to pulling a late night with one of my closest friends I met in undergrad. Now, I am content with the fact that I might not get perfect marks, but will continue to improve from my last attempt.

Starting this internship, I felt a little apprehensive that I would fall behind everyone else because it seemed like quite a selective course. And even though it is a selective course — everyone enrolled is so incredibly kind and supportive of one another. It honestly feels like a mini-community. Even with the piled up assignments and the mini-conference looming in the near future, I am happy to go out having experienced this journey with such incredible people.

Speaking of the mini-conference, how is everyone feeling? I am quite nervous, especially since my supervisor is attending and I don’t want to do him wrong. We’ve had a bit of conflicting results to what we predicted from our experiment, so I think I’m going to find that hard to talk about. But I will be quite thankful for the familiar faces in the crowd. I am more than likely going to stutter and mix up what I should be saying — I am not a confident presenter. Back in high school, another person and I did a speech together. The fact that I introduced myself as “Tyler” and him as “Tegan” shows how badly I mix up my words, no matter how well I know the subject.

But Lenny’s presentation tips were VERY helpful. I feel a lot more confident having these tips. I will never underestimate the capabilities of Powerpoint ever again. I also feel like I’ve improved quite substantially at presentations since starting uni. As much as I hate them, the more I do them I find that I become less and less nervous. I appreciate that we’ll be able to get a bit of individual feedback on presentation skills before we begin honours. But beyond everything else, I’m glad that I’ll have the support of the other interns in my session to finish up the semester with.

So, with that light read, I think I’ll finish up the final blog. It’s been a blast. I wish you guys the absolute best of luck with your presentations and your final week of this semester. And Janice — I hope data collection is going well.

Tegan.