The Psych Diaries

“So…what are you studying?”

Ah yes. That question. The singular icebreaker question that will haunt you throughout your student years. It’s a simple enough question, and for us psych students, the answer is just as straightforward. We study a bachelor of psychology. What isn’t so easy to answer is the follow-up question: “Oh, so you want to become a clinical psychologist?”

That question has always made me pause. Did I want to go down the clinical pathway? Yes. No. Maybe. Often, I found myself fumbling as I tried to explain that yes, that would be nice…but it was a little more complicated than that. It’s a long, long path. Competitive. A huge emotional and financial investment. I mean, I’m just trying to line up my ducks well enough that an Honours year might be feasible. That is, if statistics doesn’t screw me over before then.

It’s always seemed to me that people don’t really see undergraduate psychology as a destination in itself. It’s treated like a blurred middle zone. A necessary step to funnel you into Honours and then, if all goes well, Masters. It’s a long-standing joke that the undergraduate degree is practically useless unless you can get into postgraduate positions.

But I don’t think that’s true.

Whether you have your heart set on academia, helping others or just have a deep curiosity for the mind, there’s so much to gain from these years.

I made The Psych Diaries to honour the awkward, chaotic, I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-going-to-do-with-this-degree years. You might not ever get the chance to meet most of your psych cohort. Every semester, it’s a flurry of new faces and names. But it doesn’t mean you need to let reports and stats drive you insane alone.

I hope as I document my own journey, you’ll find something useful in this small corner of the internet. Grab a template, use my notes…eventually I think I’d like to open submissions for student-led psych content. Who knows? The not knowing is the best part anyway.

-T.