Recently, I have found myself reflecting on my time at university. As my five-year Education/Arts degree comes to an end this semester, I am constantly reminiscing about the wonderful people I have met; the ideas, concepts, and skills I have learnt; the politics and failings of this institution; and the large number of Courtyard coffees I have consumed while writing an essay, report, or Honi Soit article. In a way, Honi became a home for me, a familiar space to find my voice as a student, history-lover, and writer.
Most prominently, Honi has deepened my understanding of the importance of student publications in helping students find their voice as writers. Indeed, this newspaper is a notable platform where we can express the ideas taught in tutorials or debated over lunch outside Fisher Coffee Cart to a wide and interested audience. Honi allows us to grow into fully formed writers and thinkers before we throw our graduation hat up towards the Quad’s gargoyles.
Personally, Honi dramatically helped me find my voice as a writer of Sydney women’s history, granting me the opportunity to adapt essays I spent hours researching for at Fisher into a digestible piece for all to enjoy and learn from. In fact, a Sydney women’s history piece was the first article I pitched and published for the paper. I vividly remember the excitement that occurred when I first saw this article in print: to see not just my ideas being disseminated to a wide audience but also how the Honi editing team had so wonderfully turned my messy arial Google Doc into a stylish article complete with illustrations and a funky title. Suddenly, I was a real writer!
However, the best part of writing for Honi has been feeling like part of a community in this often isolating institution; the newspaper allows us to connect with other like-minded student writers, a necessity in our increasingly fragmented society. Importantly, through this community, Honi allows us to learn from others and so transform our way of thinking. From learning about the forgotten histories told from those engravings on the lecture theatre desks in the John Woolley Building, to reading about the endangered state of cheese in our contemporary zeitgeist, Honi is arguably where I have learnt the most about the world at university.
Like many of those who have come before in the paper’s almost one-hundred year history, it has been a privilege to have the opportunity to write for such a renowned and dedicated platform throughout my student life. Honi has indeed been a home for me here at USyd; apart from Courtyard coffees, this newspaper will be the thing that defines my precious student days.
