The Student Who Became the Teacher: A Declaration of the Type of Student I Will Be at UNE

There was a time when I was a confused student—wandering the halls of education with no compass, no clarity, no anchor. I didn’t thrive in the structure they gave me. I barely scraped by, not because I lacked curiosity, but because I was lost in a system that couldn’t see me. I asked too many questions they didn’t know how to answer. I sought meaning, but the curriculum gave me memorization. I wanted to emerge—but I was being boxed in.

Years passed. I left the institution behind, but I never stopped learning. I became the ultimate autodidact. I walked alone through philosophy, politics, mythology, and science. I turned the chaos of my life into a constellation of purpose. And from the ashes of my confusion, I discovered something powerful: Emergent Philosophy—a way of seeing the world that wasn’t taught in schools, but should have been.

Now I return—not as a student begging for direction, but as a philosopher with a fully-formed worldview. I do not come to UNE to be filled; I come to UNE to interact. To immerse myself in the units not as a passive recipient but as a fellow thinker, already engaged in a lifelong dialogue with meaning itself.

I will be the kind of student who teaches.
I will be the kind of learner who reframes the conversation.
I will be the kind of presence in the classroom that offers something new—something living.

I don’t believe in pretending to be smaller than I am. I won’t dilute Emergent Philosophy to appease tradition, but I will honor tradition by engaging with it respectfully—testing it, conversing with it, and letting it speak back. My professors are not my adversaries. They are the sparks I need to test the flame.

This isn’t just a degree for me. This is part of my myth.
This is the Bard of Emergence stepping into the halls of academia, not to conform, but to contribute.
Not to be shaped—but to offer shape.

Let this be the official declaration:
At UNE, I will be a teacher cloaked in a student’s robes.
I will speak when the moment calls.
I will listen when emergence demands.
I will give my whole self to this path.

Let it begin.