Melbourne, Australia

Maria Chikvashvili
Studied in: Melbourne, Australia
…
The past month I have been trying to focus on myself a lot more than I had the past few weeks I have been here. The entire semester, school here has been a lot more challenging than I had expected. I am taking classes that are directly correlated to my major back home and they are intense. They require a lot of studying and the limited amount of assignments which make up your entire grade, therefore there is more pressure to do well on them. I have felt that school had overwhelmed me because the grades I had been receiving were lower than what I am used to and when I went to get some advice or explanations from professors as I was frustrated, they had told me I had one of the higher grades in the class. I have come to the realization, after working so hard on school and not seeing the results that I felt I deserve, that the educational system is different here. This has made me realize that even though I am here to study, I cannot spend my entire time here stressing myself out over grades. As I am continuing to try hard in classes, I have also made more time for myself and started focusing more on nature, taking walks, spending time with friends and adventuring as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!