“Peek – a – Boo”, says Life at ANU

I started my ANU chapter about a year back as a woman–identifying, international, postgraduate student. My identity remains the same but the associations with them have certainly changed and so has my attitude towards them. If you’re a woman–identifying student at the ANU yearning to bond and be amazed by empowering women, I can relate to you. I’ve had the chance to attend conferences and lovely tea parties organised by Women in Leadership (WiL), and the Women’s Department of ANUSA and PARSA, and connect with some of the most incredibly fascinating women – within and outside the university. These connections have often inspired me to kick-ass at all the crazy number of things in my list, especially during some of those lowest days in life. It’s a pretty simple narrative that runs through your head when you meet and greet other women – if she can, I can. And if I can, you abso-freaking-lutely can!

If you’re a postgraduate student who is usually worried about the “bigger” issues in life and you face daunting expectations from professors just because you’re not doing a Bachelors anymore, I can relate to you. I’m still left with that thesis to propose and dip my feet into the graduate job hunt. But then you’re also not the only one and you see this and stand up again when you’re sitting in a Shut Up and Write Session with other postgraduates swimming in the same waters as you – with lots of caffeine in them and thinking of a song that best describes your status at thesis writing. It may be hard to believe at first, but at the end of such events you’re walking home having made some new friends, inspired and knowing why you’re in this (also, a new playlist in some cases). Here again, PARSA and the WiL society have played a huge part in keeping me going. I’ve had the chance to choose from a wide range of events that have either helped me change my LinkedIn profile picture or unwind at MOLO.

If you’re an international student who has for the first time stepped out from the protective cocoon of familiarity and constant and into a totally new place you are to call “home”, I can relate to you. It’s like you’re inside a kaleidoscope and there are just so many new things, people, cultures, lifestyle differences, attitudes, perspectives and choices to see, make, absorb, live and get used to. And often many of these experiences resemble your past world but then you’re still just about peeping into a completely different one – it’s exciting but also overwhelming. Embracing this change gets hard (No shit) but it is also one of the most beautiful transitions you award yourself. I have grown and gained so much more by choosing to step into this unfamiliar world. I now have another place I can call home and know I belong to. I now have the courage to let go and face the unfamiliar. Or at least I like to think I do! This is one of the biggest lessons being enrolled at ANU teaches you and when you graduate, you will value this process just as much as you do everything else, maybe even more. (If you’ve also made it till the end of this post, you will surely get through all your readings and your coursework. Good luck!

By Aarti Sharad Seksaria