Cameron Gray

Last night was a freezing 2 degrees and I ended up getting a slight chest cold over night, so this morning as I was just about to ride to Uni for my photography class, I started coughing, sniffling, sneezing and feeling like rubbish, had trouble breathing and basically not feeling great. I decided at the last minute that riding 10km to class on a frosty morning with a chest cold probably wasn’t going to end with smiles so I chose to go back to bed and spend the day keeping warm and relaxing.

At around 1pm I was sitting at my laptop doing some research on a new camera I’m looking at purchasing for a project I’m working on, my girlfriend didn’t have to start work until 3 so she was sitting at the dining table sorting through the recent few days of junk mail that had piled up to about a foot high when she came across a letter addressed to me from the University of Tasmania where I study.

I thought, oh crap I wonder how long that’s been there, knowing that letters from the Uni’s head office are always important and usually require a fast response. I opened it up not knowing what to expect, but suspecting they wanted more money from me for whatever reason.

Well to my pleasant surprise it was a letter from the Vice-Chancellor of UTAS saying that I had been invited to join the International Honour Society for being rated in the top 15% of students at my uni (the academy of the arts).
I read the enclosed documents and found some of the members of the IHS include actor Bill Cosby, astronaut Roberta Bondar, former president Ronald W. Reagan, former swimmer Ian Thorpe and a heap of others.

I knew I’d received some hi distinctions and a few other distinctions (mainly in photography and digital media) over my 4 years at uni but growing up I was always a C+ student, always tried hard but never good enough. In fact art was my worst subject. I remember thinking about it just a few nights ago in bed and feeling a bit depressed over it.

I just wanted to come on here and share my little slice of happiness with my RedBubble friends. Even when I’ve felt absolutely lost and wondering if what I’m doing is of any value, to me or to anyone else, the RB community has always had my back and inspired me to keep going. To be a better person.

A very nice surprise to make me feel warmer on this cold Tasmanian afternoon.

– Cam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Key_International_Honour_Society