I’m just about to enter my seventh first semester of uni. For one reason or another, my path through tertiary education hasn’t been conventional. But you know what? That’s A-OK.

¿Hablas Español?

To begin the story, I didn’t get into the highly coveted Arts/Law degree straight up. Insert Plan B of acing my first year of straight arts and transferring into law school later. So, how did I do that?

I was always going to study French and linguistics, but that left one empty slot: ¡Hola SPAN1001! And with that, I got my D average, sent in my application to the law school and received an offer of transfer – the day after watching Legally Blonde live on stage. Coincidence? I think not!

Learning languages forces you to interact with others and in turn, I made many friends. While I was originally doing Spanish just to get into law, I did enjoy it and because I didn’t know what else to study, I ended up pursuing it until the end of third year. Had I got into Arts/Law straight out of school, I may have never embraced the opportunity to formally study Spanish.

Then On To Honours

Doing French Honours was always on the cards. I assumed that I would find a topic to do with France, go there on exchange and finish up with a beautiful paper all in perfect français!

Well, I did do French Honours and I did go on exchange – just not to France. I went to Montreal instead, and enjoyed it to bits. It was a great opportunity to see another side of the world. My thesis was also written in English. Admitting that I wasn’t physically able to produce a piece of quality work in French was humbling to say the least. On reflection though, it was the first time in a while that I actively chose to do something that would make my life a little less stressful.

But A Seventh Year?

Starting a seventh first semester was never something that I envisaged doing.

I spent the 2016-2017 holidays volunteering at the Animal Defenders Office. Wanting to keep it up over the year, but not wanting to tire myself out too much, I finally made the decision to drop down to three courses. This meant that I wouldn’t be finishing uni with my closest law school friends next month. It was definitely something that crossed my mind when making the decision; we’d been through a lot together.

They’ve already started planning their graduation outfits and I’ll admit that it’s going to be difficult flicking through their graduation photos. I was meant to be celebrating it with them.

But to counteract these negative thoughts, I’ll just have to remind myself that everybody’s time at uni is different. Undeniably, your friends can make it more fun and are a vital part of the experience, but at the end of the day, it’s a time to concentrate on yourself, focus on what you want out of life and do things at your own pace.

Sure, you may face a few closed doors, but you just need to find those open windows. Indeed, the views that you’ll see will be pretty amazing.

P.S. I’m actually writing this piece from Montreal. As things would have it, I organised a legal research internship through a contact I made at my exchange uni. An opportunity to come back to Montreal to help further my legal career couldn’t be any more perfect. I’m also now writing thesis number two which will have Canada as its focus. See, everything works out in the end!

Alana Cunningham is a proud Canberran who loves music, travelling, learning languages and food.

(Lead image: Legally Blonde/Metro Goldwyn-Mayer)