Last. Caution.

The headline of Cenite's tutorial handout today read: Last tutorial.

Is this really the final core class we will take? We will never again be housed - all 180 of us - under one lecture theater roof!

Mass lectures are okay, but I guess the thing I'm going to miss is interacting with people who aren't in Journ or PPC, whom I seem to see everyday anyway. Then again, this is probably the beginning of the end.

This is the last exam that counts towards my honours classification. Well, technically I have three papers, but you get the point.

I've really enjoyed school, and today's tutorial put it all in perspective. The question asked was essentially "Are you hopeful about your future?" - asked by Cenite in response to the overwhelming sentiment of resignation he sensed amongst our cohort.

Most people, he noticed, seemed to treat work like an obligation; something which treads on your morals, your self-belief, your feelings and aspirations.

I looked around the room, half-expecting loud protestations that we weren't a bunch of rudderless koyak kayaks.

Yet the room was eerily silent; some had their heads bowed, others smiled sagely, agreeing with his observation.

I spoke. I said that work cannot simply be a chore; that we must expect more of ourselves, our colleagues, our education, our potential, our ability to change the world - by making small differences.

All around me I sensed the suffocating patronizing of my classmates who surely were thinking "Okayyy, he's lost it". Some looked down, others continued smiling sagely.

I think that most of us in CS are dreamers. Or at least we were. Because who chooses to study communications when they know it pays peanuts, and you don't know how good you are before you actually study it? We're risk-takers. We're idealists. We come in believing.

And that's a good thing. Surely six months of internship cannot have tempered that desire? Yes, a decision is made.