Three students. Three routines. One La Trobe.
This blog was written by Semester 2 Storyteller, Shubi.
Everyone’s university week looks busy on paper – classes, deadlines, the usual chaos. But zoom in, and no two people are living the same week at all. Some weeks run on caffeine and back-to-back timetables. Others are held together by one small ritual nobody else even notices.
I decided to find out just how different. I reached out to three final-year students, from three different degrees and backgrounds, and asked them the same four questions about their week- no script, just their honest answers.
Turns out, “a normal week at university” depends entirely on who you ask.
Meet Georgia: Friends, food and a lot of laughs
Georgia is finishing her Bachelor of Podiatry, and her week runs on a simple, solid rhythm: drive to university, meet her friends, go to class, grab food, hang out, head home.
When I asked what she looks forward to most, she didn’t hesitate. My favourite part of her answer was how sure she was about it.
Her friends.
“We always have so much fun together and somehow manage to make even the longest university days enjoyable,” she told me.
Her five words for university: friends, food, jokes, laughs, walking. After years at La Trobe, Georgia’s found something worth holding onto – the people who make the ordinary days good ones.
Meet Jalaj: Classes, work, gym, friends, chaos
Jalaj, known to most as Jay, is finishing his Master of Financial Analysis, and his days are proof that a packed schedule doesn’t have to feel like a punishment. Mornings start with a dash to class, then it’s coursework, gym, work and – energy permitting – more time with friends.
His weekly reset is tennis: an hour where deadlines disappear and it’s just him, the court, and good company.
My favourite part of Jalaj’s week, though, has nothing to do with tennis or the gym. Jalaj arrived in Australia from India last March, unsure what to expect and quietly overwhelmed by how different everything felt. Now he lives on campus and helps organise cultural nights and social events for hundreds of residents – which means he’s no longer just living the res life experience – he’s actively shaping it for everyone around him. It’s a good example of how res life gives students the chance to step into leadership roles and genuinely support their peers, often before they’ve even realised that’s what they’re doing.
His five words: classes, work, gym, friends, chaos. Somewhere along the way, a new country slowly became home.
Meet Evelyn: Camera, coffee, deadlines, A’s and BIG
Evelyn, a final-year Business Analytics student, has a routine built around getting ahead of her own second-guessing. She’s a morning-class person on purpose – start early, “before my brain has time to change its mind.”
From there: her usual Agora latte, a full day in the library, and a bag packed for every possible scenario – laptop, notebooks, chargers, snacks, and a lunch she packs and, in her words, “enjoys.”
My favourite part of Evelyn’s week has nothing to do with coffee, though. Since high school, she’s kept a quiet habit of watching how the trees around campus change with the seasons. At La Trobe, that habit has become a weekly ritual – the same trees, watched every week, like a slow, peaceful show only she’s following.
“It feels like a very slow, very peaceful TV series,” she said.
And then, of course, there’s ice cream – the one thing on her list that asks for zero patience.
Her five words: camera, coffee, deadlines, A’s, big. A whole semester, somehow captured in five words and a lot of quiet routine.
Three weeks, one campus
What struck me most, comparing these answers side by side, is how differently a “normal week” can look depending on who’s living it.
For Georgia, it’s friends, food and lovely conversations that follow. For Jalaj, it’s a full schedule and a slowly-built sense of belonging in a new country. For Evelyn, it’s coffee, trees, deadlines, and the small rituals that make a big campus feel familiar.
Same university, same semester – three completely different weeks.
Maybe that’s the real takeaway. We arrive expecting to remember the big things: first class, first assignment, final exam. But it’s often the small things that stay with us – the friend you always grab food with, the coffee order you don’t think twice about, the weekly tennis match, or the tree you’ve quietly watched change since March.
Three students, three routines, and three different ways of making La Trobe feel like their own.
So, what are your five words to describe La Trobe? Maybe it’s time to find out.