Alex White
Alex White - Bachelor of Laws and Media
TELL US ABOUT YOUR LAW DEGREE JOURNEY FROM BEGINNING TO NOW
When I graduated high school, I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I had a much more clear picture of what I didn't want to do. I randomly watched a documentary about public defenders in the US around the time OPs came out and I found that I had a real attachment to these people and how they were helping to implement justice and rule of law. So I got the marks to get in, and thought "let's give it a go”. Three years later I'm still enjoying it, so that's a positive sign.
I've never really had a moment where I think I don’t deserve to be here because I put in a lot of work to get into law and to stay here. I think at the end of the day everyone gets the same piece of paper that says you have a Bachelor of Laws. I don’t have any doubt or regret about studying law even after three years of assignments and exams. I'm sort of lucky that I don't surround myself with people who would make me feel bad about how I'm tackling the degree as well. So that's another thing, it's good to be in a very healthy and positive environment of other students who just want to do their personal best and to help encourage others to do their best. I like being in that environment, to be with encouraging people. Nothing can top spending university and life in general with good people.
Moving forward, I would like to try and pick up my marks slightly. I know what my personal best is, what my goals and commitments are, and how I can improve things. I hope things will be a bit better than in my previous years at uni. I can do so much more before the exam period to avoid stress from happening. More practising exam questions, et cetera. I should get into the habit of preparing for those more challenging exams.
So far I've really enjoyed being at uni and being a part of the law society for this year as well as other things I've been involved with. It’s all been very rewarding because I'm contributing to something outside of my degree. Which is nice. But yeah, at uni there's a lot of really great things you can do. I don't have too much at the moment that I would change, but I'd rather be focused on what's ahead for me.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE ADJUSTING TO UNIVERSITY?
I was pretty nervous. There was only one other person from my high school who came with me to do law at QUT straight out of school. I remember my first lecture, it was such a weird position to be in because it was just pretty overwhelming with so many people that you don't know there in the lecture hall. You really do have to make the effort to meet new people, make new friends, get to know them and to have lunch with them because you want your university experience to be fun and social right? To me, it felt like that was a very natural organic thing to do whenever you or anyone starts somewhere new. Initially, you'll feel by yourself, but you'll meet and make new friends.
Sometimes though, you realise that you need to be the person to approach others, you have to make an effort to create more than a 10 minute bond, like ones that aren't just going last for a lecture or a tute, etc. To really have those connections with people and have a social life at university, you really have to put the effort in to be a genuine friend and that definitely takes time. In my first three weeks, I'm thinking "I'm never going to meet anyone, whatever." This sort of thing happens to everyone, and everyone is nervous starting uni, but with time it just gets better, and you will make those new friends for sure. For me personally, every year since first year has gotten better.
I don't have huge regrets, but things like clubs, societies, competitions and things like that, I reckon yeah, it would have made my earlier years a bit more interesting, but I wouldn't say that I would change much. My first two years at uni I did less extracurricular things; there's nothing wrong with that, it's your life after all. But it was hard when you began uni, and you're still trying to find your feet. But the thing is, you still have many more years at uni to try new things out. So don't worry if you miss out on things, you still have the opportunity to try stuff out at a later time.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE GOING ON EXCHANGE?
I went on exchange last year, and I know it is the most annoying thing because everyone says this, but doing the semester exchange was the best thing ever!
The exchange was initially a bit daunting because there was no one from QUT who went to the uni that I went to, which was in Denmark. So that was like starting from scratch. But my uni was really great because we were a pretty small cohort and we travelled all around Denmark and the rest of Europe together. I also liked traveling by myself, which was a new experience, especially in countries I've never been to before. There were a few challenges but you learn a lot about how you handle different scenarios. I actually had my phone stolen from a hostel in Frankfurt on my first night away and had to navigate out of that on my own. But I also loved meeting these other students from different countries and people from Denmark. I really do value the experience, the bonds and friendships I made with those people.
Those bonds are also quite different from the bonds I have with people in Brisbane because you can see your Brisbane friends anytime you want. But with my exchange friends you do have to put in more effort to maintain those close connections. We try to FaceTime every month and schedule it around different time zones. But it is a huge payoff, for example, I went and visited Barcelona in January of this year to meet up with an exchange friend and that was very cool because you feel like you’re seeing the city more as a local rather than a tourist, plus free accommodation!
Humans of Lawbry interview conducted by Gideon Caturla
This interview was conducted in the 2020 series of Humans of Lawbry.
Humans of Lawbry was created by Helen Driscoll in the 2015 Torts Illustrated.