The cost of education

So yesterday was an interesting day. First off, I got a message from a friend saying that I’ll be sitting on the same table as Kirstie Clements, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, at the St Catherine’s Old Girls’ Association event next week. Safe to say I was pretty darn excited and will definitely be going out to purchase a new outfit before the big day.

Secondly, I went to lunch with a friend at Miss Chu‘s vietnamese tuck shop on Exhibition Street in the city. Thankfully, this time around we didn’t consume the $100 dollars worth of cocktails and dumplings that we did last time. Just a meagre $40 dollars worth. Phew.

And thirdly, I meandered into RMIT to attend the Networked Media lecture in building 12, which leads me to the crux of why today was so brilliant on the one hand (for all the reasons listed above), and so frustrating on the other.

Our Networked Media lecture ran overtime and, as a result, my meter ran out and I received a parking fine in Franklin Street next to RMIT. I was approximately eight minutes late in returning to my car, and still managed to get a fine. To put this meagre $72 fine into perspective, let’s add it to the accidental parking in a clearway back in January ($322 for the towing + a $140 from Stonnington Council for parking in the clearway), and the three speeding fines I received in one week (how am I meant to reform my driving habits if I’ve already committed all three offences by the time I get the first fine in the mail?!) for going 55km/h in a 50km/h zone in February (each approximately $170) – all of which I only just managed to pay off two weeks ago.

In other words, day ruined.

This got me thinking, that parking inspector must have been standing there waiting for my meter to tick down to zero – he gave me a ticket literally the minute my meter ran out. So theoretically, it cost me $72 dollars to attend my lecture yesterday. Add this to the cost of lunch ($22), and the $5.50 an hour I paid for parking on Exhibition Street during lunch and then in Franklin Street during the lecture, yesterday was a sad day for my bank account.

I thought that my education was meant to be free? Well, at least until I earn over a certain threshold, in which case the Australian Government may take a percentage of my income to pay off HECS-debt. Apparently, education is not free. Apparently, attending a Networked Media lecture at 2.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon can actually cost you $72 dollars. Apparently, the Melbourne City council don’t make enough money off fining experienced fully licensed drivers, so they target poor, lowly P-plater university students instead. And apparently, I just can’t catch a break in relation to my godforsaken automobile.

I should just sell the goddamn thing.