U-N-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y.

That word has been 'haunting' me for awhile as of now. Yeah, I am not a high school student anymore; I'm a high school graduate, waiting for my term at university to start.

University. It sounds a bit frightening, really. Though I have to admit I do enjoy this long holiday. I do not go to sleep until early morning (or late night, depends on how you see it--yeah, I take that one from The Ring because I watched that yesterday; pretty scary, I have to admit) and do not wake up until almost afternoon (that one I'm not really proud of). I haven't done anything too exciting so far this holiday. Except in the graduation ceremony, of course.

That 'trophy'? 3rd Honour Student. Not bad at all!

The ceremony itself was pretty horrid (poorly organised, really!), but overall I had fun. And I thank God that I didn't almost trip and fall when I went to the stage like I did in my junior high school graduation ceremony...took a lot of pictures too with my friends, teachers, and both of my parents!

To take a picture with both of my parents is as rare as seeing Sam Stosur win a match on grass nowadays, so I really enjoyed every moment.

As for university...well, I guess I'm among the lucky folks who can freely choose what and where to study. Some of my friends choose their majors because their parents want them to, not because they are interested in those majors. Not me, thank God. So here's my choice: Bachelor of Communications in Journalism, Edith Cowan University. I love Perth and I love writing, so...here ya go! When I first found out that the university had such an excellent journalism program, I squealed in front of my computer screen. I was like, "This is it! This is my place! MINE!" With any luck, I will start my term at the university next year. Next year? Yeah. Before going to the uni, I will take a Diploma in Mass Communications at Perth Institute of Business and Technology--that institute is owned by the university by the way. After approximately eight months of studying there, I will enter directly year two at the university. That's about four months and some good amount of dollars saved!

Going to Perth to study has been my core goal since I started high school. I planned this all very carefully from my year 10. What to study (I also considered broadcasting, sports science, public relations, and psychology before finally deciding to stick to journalism), where to study (I considered all public unis in Perth before finally narrowing it to two unis--ECU and University of Western Australia. I chose the former because from what I saw UWA does not offer a specific degree in journalism, just communication studies). And in 2011 ECU's journalism program was voted the best in the whole chunk of Australia, so...do I need any more reason?? :-D

(God willing) My future university. Those three letters--E, C, and U--filled my head a lot during my year 12 in high school.

With all honesty, I'm frickin' nervous with the prospect of me living abroad. But who isn't? So I try to be calm, and just think that of course there will be struggle but everything will be okay. After all, I've seen a lot of people studying abroad and most of them--if not all--succeed. They can do it, so can Mentari Sandiastri.

So I think I should end my ramble here for today. I just really, really missed writing on my blog and I wanted to practise my writing too a bit. That's all for today, then!