From one to another...

I am CJ Curry. This is the Experience. And you're getting bored shitless.

EPISODE ONE FIVE NINE: RETRO SPECS III

As I approach the final days of college, I've decided to look back on them. Mostly by taking fragments of my memories, photos and old blog posts and piecing them together in what I think and hope is a quasi-coherent and possibly clear retrospective of my college life. For your big fat information, of course. Here is my account of 2011.

From the New Year's party, I knew that 2011 was going to be The Year Of The CJ. I also decided to log the year by making a 365 Project - a photo a day for a year - so this is probably the most coherent year in my memory. Indeed, January is still crystal clear. Couple of hot tub parties after my New Year's bash, then work for two weeks. Cricket on the weekends, and visits from some Tasmanians, followed nicely by a drunk Australia Day and a Ratatat gig.

The shortest month of the year was mostly taken up with student leader training. It being my first time in the top job, I was understandably nervous. But I pushed on, and entered my third O Week. Again, I had the most fun at Moat Party, and again, lost my inhibitions. For the first time, I was stared at. Not necessarily a good thing.

Early March, I built the Hungry Beast. Late March, I got into Minecraft. Early April, I bought a Nintendo 3DS. Late April, I took a trip to Tasmania. It was quite literally the first time I'd visited Tasmania in my entire life, and ditto for Hobart. So that made it the only state of Australia I'd never been to until that point (I still haven't hit Brisbane yet, but I have hit Queensland). The trip was amazing and eye-opening, but I still want more. Some day.

New to 2011 was Masterchef. This was a program that the Study Support team had tried to kickstart in 2010, but it fell through for various reasons. So Jenn and I decided to kick it into high gear and turn it into something new and different. Jenn was the brains behind it all, I was the brawn executing it all. It went down an absolute treat, and I was asked to repeat it in Semester 2 and beyond. I loved it, and I obviously wasn't going to say "no".

Another ball and a Cut Copy gig later, it was exam time again. I spent just as much time socialising as studying, but I got some good marks. July was possibly the worst and the best month for me - I had my wisdom teeth taken out, so I was holed up for a while with StarCraft II, but after that healed I was all "movie movie movie". I made some pretty damned good friends working on Isidore and I've kept most of them. I am very OK with this.

One Re-O-Week later, classes kickstarted again. I also got first-hand experience with census collection - not something I want to repeat in a hurry - and kickstarted Masterchef again, this time with feeling. Unfortunately, something was wrong. The unthinkable happened in mid-September - so few people saw it coming, but in hindsight, most people saw it afterwards.

I had decided that I wanted to do the job again, because there were so many unanswered questions in my head about who I am, and what other people are like. So I lined up another interview, and got the job again for 2012. Time for a rinse-and-repeat - except for the fact that instead of 9 mentors I now had 16. Let the fun begin!

After October, I met so many new people in one way or another. I met some of Mike's friends, got to know Minette and her friends more, became crazy close with a girl (but had no attraction to her - and vice versa), jumped into my fifth college ball and met people there, and met my new mentor team properly. Sadly, the last event of the year was cancelled for me as I fell very very sick... but that didn't stop me Zombie Shuffling again!

November exams whooshed past, and I elected to stay at college for the second summer in a row. Things got fairly boring around college, so I opted to spend as much of it as possible off campus. I found a semi-good hangout place in Boldrewood Pde, another in the heart of the city, a third back in my home town, and a fourth in Preston. Exactly what I needed, when I needed it most.

All this is not to mention all the other awesomeness that happened this year: a Disney marathon, several IT Crowd outings, college sports such as cricket and squash and the ring road relay, the college play, Nerd Party, various Nazi Zombies sessions and the awesomeness that was Jenn's 21st. Also, buying a ticket to the Big Day Out in 2012!

Huge appreciations are to be made to the following people: Nicole, Paolo, Lucas, Jess, Jenn, Bella, Aldo, James, Kieran, George, Maeve, Natt, Kez, Katie, Stacey, Minette, Michelle, Megan, Charlotte, Liam, Tom, Ben, Rachel, Kasey, Annemarie, Holly, Caelan, Emma, Mike, Leslie, Rishi, Ebony, Erin, Steph, Dan, Sam (three of you), Alex, Jen, Nick, Amber, Sean (three of you), Theresa, Meg, John, Anna, Carl, Cass, Mackie, Ronnie, Livy, Mia, Kirsten, Mel, Bridgett, Stuart, Lewis, Josh, Nick, Maike, Kamilla, Daniel, Campbell, Chelsea, Eshan, Portia, Jansu, Chris, Simon, Josie, and about three others I can't write down here for one reason or another.

P