Moving to uni is the perfect opportunity to reinvent yourself. Sometimes we think reinventing yourself is a kind of awkward thing to do. As if everyone else would know how doobie you used to be, and that they’d see through your new sheen of me-ness. Well, maybe. But also, whatever.
You can recreate your self in increments, you can recreate only the nerd side of yourself, you can recreate the bottom half of yourself. You can do any of these things, but if you do all of your reinventing at once, you run the risk of losing your you-ness to your new new-ness.
If you are finding the whole separation of the path from the woods of recreation, watch an inspirational reinvention movie, like Anastasia, Pitch Perfect or Avatar (not the Last Air Bender).
There are many ways to get onto the path of reinvention. In your uni years you’ll make a great deal of friends; good friends can support you through that weird limbo phrase of reinvention; great friends will tell you how that new feather boa makes you more you than you’ve ever been before, but in a new way.
If a feather boa is a bit too not-the-new-you, buy some super bright clothing and wear it to uni, WHAT IS WITH ALL THE GREY?! If you are either poor or bored with Hallenstiens, try going to op shops, Dunedin has heaps: there’s the North D opshops, the George St array, and the Princess St set, as well as the South D ones. Adventuring through the dusty, stained shelves of opshops, plunging your hands into sacks of buttons, that’s a one-way ticket to a cheap life experience. Perfect for the memory bank of the new you. Op shopping is a great way to recreate your look, and to find clothing that you’d never wear. The most important rule of thrifting is to not have any particular piece in mind and to not take yourself too seriously. Voila, a newer, more budget, you.
More extravagant ways to reinvent yourself include going to Bali for a spiritual journey to re-align your chakras. Taking acid or drinking too much coffee and re-aligning your chakras. Join a club – such as the kayak club (confusingly named the Otago Uni Canoe Club) – and re-align your chakras. No this is not a subliminal message from the OUSA Re-Creation Officer Josh Smythe. He’s just got his finger on the pulse of all us nervous, broken, sweaty, poor, slightly alcoholic, caffeine/sugar dependent students.
As people who constantly “recreate” themselves, we just want to tell you not to be too disappointed when you find that post-reinvention, not much has changed. This is most likely because you are you, so you’ll be reinventing yourself in a very you way. It’s not that you haven’t reinvented yourself, it’s more that you’ve given (tricked) yourself a way to be proud of who you are. Rather, you are just realising something that is core to your true self. And finally, the best way to figure out the real you and reinvent yourself is by doing a BuzzFeed quiz, then you’ll learn a lot.
Our closing clichés today are:
- DO WHAT YOU WANT
- BE TRUE TO YOU
- CHANGE IS INEVITABLE
- BEING CHEAP = MORE MONEY FOR THINGS
- BREATHE INTO IT
Choice. Haere Ra,
Mammy Zo and Aunty Kell.