I don't miss school. But I really miss uni. I keep in touch with a small handful of people I knew from school, but I have way more university friends than school friends. A lot of the guys at my school were really immature. But I loved university. I loved the academic culture and more adult social interactions. I found uni people to be WAY more open minded and accepting than high schoolers! There was no pressure to be "cool" and conform with social norms, if anything, I felt that personal individualism was much more greatly encouraged.

When Transformers first came out, even as a primary school kid in the 1980s, I had other kids who would look at me playing with my TFs at school and go, "You play with Transformers? That's for babies!" Sadly I went to school with kids who were pretending to be teenagers, then later at high school with teens pretending to be adults -- and they were quick to tease you for not conforming. It wasn't until I was in Year 9 that the teasing stopped and it become more acceptable to be a TF fan. But when I was at university, I was made to feel so comfortable with being myself -- that was when I started carrying Transformers toys around and playing with them in public. I used to bring a different TF toy to campus every day, and people (students & staff ) would marvel at them and sometimes ask to try transforming them.

I found that being a nerd at my school was shunned upon, and even after Year 9 while it was more acceptable, it wasn't openly embraced and encouraged like at university. I remember when Douglas Adams (author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) passed away, 2 weeks later on May 11 there would be Towel Day where everyone was asked to carry a towel. So I came to uni with a towel, walked into my tut, and all these girls sitting there gave me a weird look as to why I had a towel on my shoulder. I told them it was Towel Day and explained it -- the girls and the tutor thought I was being a bit funny/eccentric... then a few seconds later another student walks in with a towel on his shoulder -- we immediately high fived each other and had a good laugh. Later that evening I met up with a PhD student friend of mine, who also had a towel on him.

I really miss uni... some people shake their heads at "professional students," but I can totally understand why some people never want to leave university! If I won Lotto, I'd seriously contemplate becoming a professional student. Part of me still regrets not staying a bit longer and doing my Honours Thesis... but I left after completing my Graduate Diploma to start working. My family felt that I'd been in university for 'long enough'.