A new semester has begun at Murdoch University. For some it is now time to reenroll, dig out that book list and start crawling out of bed for those blasted 10:30 a.m. classes. But for others, it is their first time experiencing some of what Murdoch has to offer.

For those lucky newbies I offer the following 5 pieces of advice. These are not pearls of wisdom that will ensure your success, the only person that can guarantee that is yourself, but rather some helpful information that I certainly wish I had possessed in my first few months. To all of you, old and new, good luck. Murdoch is a wonderful place and you are bound to have a good time.

1. Participate

Clubs, societies and guilds can all be found on campus. You don't have to join one but it is a great opportunity to meet like minded people that share your interests. The best part is, if you can't find a club you like you can always create one! It is a great chance to make new friendships and meet lots of different people. That's not to say that every club will be perfect, but if you join one you hate you can always quietly ignore their emails and never see those people again. Not that I speak from experience…

2. Look beyond the glass

Drinking heavily happens in those first few weeks. It's easy, in fact, to let most of freshers pass you by while you recover from hangover after hangover. There's no long term harm in doing that, unless you're drinking by yourself, but consider this. Alcohol is available 24/7, you'll only really get that freshers experience once. Or twice, depending on how badly you do in this next year. If you're an international student, put the glass down long enough to go on some of the tours and meet some of the people. It'll be worth your while in the long run.

3. Look beyond your books

It's terrifying how inadequate I felt when I was given my first assignment for class. I resolved to spend every evening in the library until I had finished. Hitting all your problems head on is the only way to solve them right? After my third consecutive late night I was prepared to admit defeat. I obviously wasn't smart enough to be here. I got back to my flat and lay on the couch in misery. That's when a new friend I had met through other people, Cameron, came in. He could see how miserable I was and it didn't take much prodding to tell him the full story. Within half an hour he had not only shown me how to succeed, he had taught me how to study smart rather than just by investing a lot of time in it. Burying yourself in work won't make you a better student. Taking the time to break a task down into manageable pieces really is one of the most important lessons I learnt.

4. Everyone has a story

One of the competition's for the Murdoch blog was to design a poster. With the help of my very awesome friends I was able to pull off something a little exciting and, as a result, I got to meet a lot of fellow students that I might never have run into otherwise. As they would write their belief on my poster it was amazing to see how their different experiences shaped their perspectives. Every single person you see on campus will have a burning desire to do something, a special talent and the potential to change how you see the world. But you will never know it unless you take the time to talk to people. It can be hard, believe me as an introvert I know, but persevere and you will meet some pretty cool people.

5. Explore

Murdoch is one of the largest campuses in Australia and that means there will be one or five secrets. If you're between classes, killing time, go for a walk down one of the many winding paths that exist. You'll find cool little studying spots, hidden cafes and even back routes to your classes. It is like being at Hogwarts with the cool, ever changing castle without the constant threat of dying horribly. I can't believe I just used a Harry Potter reference.

In summation this is advice you can live without but, hopefully, taking some of it onboard will enrich your experience. On the surface we all go to University to get a degree but just below that we have our own motivations for being there. I don't think it particularly matters what you study at Murdoch, you're likely to get a good education whatever the choice, but whether you enjoy yourself is solely your own responsibility. I hope you do!

When you first start a new job there is definitely a pressure to perform well. You're fresh, inexperienced and very young compared to some of the people in the office. You want to fit in, you want people to be impressed by you and you want to get promoted so that your bank account won't look like it had suffered  a personal GFC.

Something you will probably be given when you start at this new job is a company email address. This is usually quite exciting. yourname@bigcorporation.com. It has a nice ring to it and you get a strange sense of satisfaction at the personalised signature that every email goes out with. Maybe that bit is just me and maybe it says more about me than I would like it to.

You may even get an induction checklist, an exciting piece of paper that is meant to disguise that you are just another cog in a very replaceable series of cogs. One of the items on that checklist might be, "Set up email on phone". Seems fairly innocuous right?

Soon you are settled in and life is going well. You've got clients, a nice spot you like to go for lunch and you know that Kathy from accounting will be having a birthday soon which means a nice lunch out on the company money.

But something is nagging at you. A little niggle in the back of your mind. You sit at home after a long day, checking your phone and answering your client emails. There may even be one from your boss, asking for your figures from last week. Sure, you could answer it when you get in the next day but what the heck? You have your phone and the figures are just a click away.

A few weeks later and things have maybe deteriorated a bit, one of your clients is a monstrous beast from hell that seems to think your every waking hour should be spent thinking of them and that time spent dreaming of things that aren't their profits is a cardinal sin. Your phone might go off at 3 in the morning, the client is an insomniac and knows you check your emails at home and has sent you an updated graphic to use. This one was designed by his grandmother who saw a play once. At 3 a.m. it is not a pleasant picture. The next morning it has not improved.

Nevertheless, you deal with the problem and soon the client is happy again. Or at least placated enough to go back into their den. Still, your mind is one edge. Now, whenever your phone buzzes in the night you check it. You can't afford to miss an email as it might mean losing a client and that would mean you were directly to blame. For not checking your emails. At three in the morning. Time you are most definitely not getting paid for.

Now we have the problem.

It may make sense to have your emails on your phone so that you can deal with fires that might occur when you aren't in the office but you need to set the expectation that, just because you have the ability, does not mean you will also use it to perform work out of the hours you are paid for. This isn't an argument against all the extra stuff that sometimes needs to get done, that has a time and a place, but rather a suggestion that you should remember that your leisure time is yours.

Doing work for free at home might work for some but it will also lessen the time you give yourself to relax and unwind. Turn the phone off, sleep without thoughts of what might happen and finally feel that knot that has formed in the back of your head unravel.

It has been nearly a year since I last put something on this blog. Nearly 365 days of silence. Yet life went on. I had a job, quit, found another job, still in the second job, found a house, kept that house, was adopted by a cat, went on adventures, got sick at various points in the year and generally got on with the business of being alive.

So why then, if there was so much going on, did I not take the time to write any of it down?

The truth is, I wasn't sure how.

This blog was tellingly called, "Inside the mind of a student". An unimaginative but accurate title that conveyed the flavour and style of content you could expect. Would anyone have cared or related to my struggle to understand credit cards? Would someone on the other side of the world, looking for advice on whether or not Perth was the city for them necessarily care that I do not understand how promotions or raises work in the real world?

The temptation was then to simply accept that I was no longer a student and could no longer really offer an insiders guide to University. The one thing I always wanted to be, was genuine and I didn't think that giving Uni students advice on which campus eatery was the best would be any good given that I haven't visited Murdoch in over a year. Yet comments still sporadically appeared, people saying that they liked a post or asking for a more in-depth description of some point. I loved them for it. It dragged me back and reminded me how much I had loved writing this blog, how much I didn't want to abandon it.

So what goes here then? I have had many people give me lots of different opinions on what they would like to see me write about. All of them kind and all of them did not suit. Someone recommended that I turn this into a blog that teaches people how to make simple, healthy meals that are cheaper than fast food. Those exist though I don't know how to make them. I strongly urge that person to make that idea a reality. I'm just not the one to do it.

Instead what I offer is this, a blog about life. Specifically, life as I find it. It probably won't illuminate any of the great mysteries and it certainly won't help you differentiate between a fixed rate mortgage and throwing your money in a hole. It will offer exactly what it does, nothing more and hopefully nothing less.

In this way I will take a bit of the pressure off of myself to be genuine. I don't need to just talk about experiences unique to students but can talk about ones that I have experienced in the life that comes after academics. Murdoch was the place that nurtured me, helped me to find a part of who I am and always supported my dreams. I'm sorry to leave it as a topic but I hope that I will have the opportunity to revisit it one day.

To everyone that has been reading up to this point, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope that I can reward the loyalty by making this next chapter of this blog worth reading.

1. A roof over at least most of the house - good for rain
2. A garage - these are handy for cars. Cato does not own a car but I hope she will invest in one soon.
3. Doors - For safety
4. Windows - In case we lose our keys to the doors
5. A fridge - if I know Cato she is going to want a place to put food