You know that splendid cocktail of euphoria, cringe and delight you get when you come across an old artefact you’ve forgotten about? Recently, I pulled open a journal from two years ago and was delighted with some of the treasures I came upon. Here’s unedited 19 year old Eric during some of the messiest and most neurotic times of his life – faithfully recorded by pen and paper.

Sun, 4^th March 2018

If it weren’t for GAMSAT and being 6 lectures behind, today would’ve ben a really good day. But since that is the case, today was quite dreadful deep down.

(Back when being 6 lectures behind was worth stressing over… oh, how things will change.)

Wed, 28^th Mar 2018

Not a great day of lectures. The 2^nd Epigenetics lecture by the super fast talking lecturer was quite confusing + the neuro one was done by the old guy again… who didn’t finish. Again.

Running club was pretty good. Did 5-min tempo then 2-min rest x4. Think I really need to be getting some long runs in… I’m thinking Fri night 12-13km then Sun 8-10km. Gonna aim to be doing 30+km per week for the half mara in May. Should get around 6-10km of that from running club which can also be my tempos. Maybe some Parkruns as well.

(Context: the half marathon I’m referring to here is the Great Ocean Road 23km Half Marathon. This was my first ever road race and I became hooked on running since. It’s interesting to see where it all started.)

Mon, 2^nd Apr 2018

Today was probably one of the most efficient study days ever. Got up at 7:20, procrastinated for around 10 mins + did morning stuff then went straight to work at 8am doing pathways. Worked really well.

Was able to get through enzyme kinetics + hormonal regulation as well. WOOOHOOOO.

(wooohoooo…)

Mon, 16^th Apr 2018

Pretty important day today. Woke up feeling pretty sick but still made my way to uni to do the CAL3 tutorial. Couldn’t focus due to my headache so I left after an hour or so.

As I was walking back home I called mum cos I felt like talking to her and sat down between Babel + Bailleu. I was feeling kinda stressed as I was feeling so sick + could feel myself failing my midsem on Fri… but listening to mum’s voice just made me start crying. I started realising how much she loved me by sending me here and how grateful I really am to be in my position… and also for her and Lana providing for my stay.

Took a nap after I took a long route home and started feeling better. The codral + lemon water started paying off. Got some study in at night. Today was a life-turning moment and I’m determined to destroy uni now.

(I believe this was the last time I properly cried – nothing like a week of assignments to bring a sick neurotic student to tears.)

Fri, 1^st June 2018

This is risky but I’m gonna try doing a bimodal sleep pattern – 6 hours at night + 20 min nap. I think it’ll be more efficient but I’m also worried I won’t get as much memory consolidation cos I miss some slow wave sleep (SWS) but should be alright.

(Let’s be honest, every anxious student has tried some questionable biohacking for the sake of grades.)

Tues, 5^th June 2018

Listened to a guy talk about cold showers on the Asian Efficiency podcast and decided that I’d commit to it. Think I can last a week or so at least.

Feeling extremely unprepared for MCB – literally know nothing from half of Topic 4 and most of Topic 5. Gonna need to pull some late nights I feel.

(I lasted a solid 2.5 days with cold showers.)