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After two weeks sleeping in the Morris Minor, I got a Saturday job at the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. It paid me $8.00 and that was the total money I had available to survive on. $8 counting for inflation would have been $117.40 in 2024 according to the RBA.
Even in 1969, $8.00 was nothing like enough money to survive on – but because this was all I had to survive on, the $8.00 had to be enough.
So, $8.00 per week was enough.
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Margaret in the morning before we got married for the second and third times – 30 July 2009. I was overjoyed she had survived the long trip from Adelaide because her health was abysmal.
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Some decades after I had survived being made homeless by mum, I visited her childhood home in Bootle, Liverpool. Mr Smith had lived next door to mum when she was growing up. Mr Smith still lived in the same house when I visited in 2002. Mr Smith remembered mum as a young girl.
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The Liver Building is still the most impressive building in Liverpool. I stood in front of the Liver Building in 2002. It was built to house an insurance company. There are very few parts of Liverpool that instantly attract the label “pretty”. Liverpool is a gritty town where life can be hard. Those who live there are inherently kind because their lives have mostly been so very hard.
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Go with a clear, open and receptive spirit, and the universe will not treat you badly.”
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I had bought the Morris Minor on the very day that mum threw me out of home. To become owner of the car, I had to pay $5.00 per week.
At least for the first two weeks, having the Morris Minor proved to be a blessing because it ensured I had somewhere to sleep.
Once I started working in the Market, I had $3.00 per week to live on after I made the car payment.
Financially, life was hard.
Luckily for me, a friend decided to move out of home and he rented a tiny flat. He let me live in his flat for zero rent.
I was able to stop living in the Morris Minor and I had somewhere safe to sleep.
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My attendance at lectures was more miss than hit and miss. I needed to get the degree, but my physical environment was poor – and my morale was even poorer.
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The final exams arrived in the blink of an eye and I had barely attended lectures in any of my subjects.
I needed to pull off at least four miracles if I wanted to graduate with a Bachelor of Jurisprudence.
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I did not read for the exam in Politics. I decided I would trust what I picked up from the media and hope for the best.
I passed Politics 1.
****
I studied hard for Constitutional Law. I got a copy of the course outline and asked myself what questions I would ask if I was an examiner. I then wrote out the answers to those four questions. The exam was “open book” so I could take anything I wanted into the exam. I knew nothing except what was in my model answers to my model questions.
I passed Constitutional Law even though I needed a mark of at least 62.25% out of the 80 marks available for the exam questions.
Every question I had decided would probably be on the exam paper, was in fact in the exam paper. I had come out of the exam thinking I might have just passed it.
Clear thinking, a refusal to panic and simple determination enabled me to pull off the impossible.
I passed Constitutional Law at Monash in 1969.
I studied Constitutional Law once again at University of Adelaide in 1984. In 1984, I was the top student in the subject and was awarded the Howard Zelling Prize in Constitutional Law. Howard Zelling was a very eminent South Australian Supreme Court Judge.
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I studied the course outline in Property Law and ignored Professor Jackon’s “Principles of Property Law”. I could not understand what the professor was trying to say. I concentrated on the course outline, selected four model questions that I decided were likely to be set in the exam … and hoped. I knew nothing except what was in my model answers.
I got lucky again. The questions I had set myself were in the exam and I transcribed my model answers to my own model questions.
****
That left Administrative Law – the only subject where I had consistently attended the lectures.
I was given a Credit for my Administrative Law exam.
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If you are in a terrifying situation, this is my advice.
NEVER panic.
If you panic, you will always fail.
While you are making sure you are not panicking, think through a plan that involves the least work needed to obtain your goal.
Follow your least effort plan to the letter.
Never deviate from your plan just because you are in a panic and convinced the plan has no chance of success.
You have already worked out that your ONLY chance of success is to follow your plan. If you are going to fail anyway, follow your plan. You will at least have a chance if you do that. If you are going to fail without the plan, there is nothing to lose if you actually follow the plan.
Trust yourself and refuse to panic.
The worst that can happen is that you will fail knowing you have given yourself a chance to pull off a surprise success.
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Terrible situations can be overcome. Whatever you do, do not panic.
Add meaning to your life by acting with purpose.
When you add meaning to your life, the way out of the terrible situations becomes clearer.
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I will tell you more tomorrow.
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