chloe
Okay, I’ll admit it, the title is a little bit dramatic but hear me out.
So, it is currently 13:37 on November 16th 2017 and I’m sat in my uni bedroom, hiding from my law seminar. It’s actually the fifth thing I’ve missed this week, I know, yikes. My attendance is poor, my notebooks are a mess and I feel like I can’t breath. Welcome to my university life.
Coming to university is something that I’ve been dreaming of since I started high school. It’s been a goal that’s always been scribbled in my brain as something I want to achieve. But now I’m here and I’m eight weeks in and I’m not unhappy but I do slightly feel like I might be dying. Now, let me give you a little bit of background, I’m a journalism student at the University of Lincoln. I have 17 contact hours a week, try and do three hours of work a night and then I have a physical job. 17 hours may not seem like a lot to you but it really is to me. I honestly don’t know how I survived 25 in high school.
My course is way more intense than I thought it would be. Along with the physical journalism stuff we do which is going out and finding stories, we also have to juggle law, politics and shorthand. I’m 100% sure shorthand was made by the devil. Now, I absolutely love the law and politics side to my degree, it’s what I’m interested in but it’s a lot. We have a lecture, then have to do chapters of reading and then have many exam style questions to answer and then a seminar every week. Along with having to keep up with the news everyday for one of my other classes, eating, sleeping, having some calm time, socialising and actually working, my life has become pretty hectic and I just feel like my head is about to go under water.
And as all of this has been getting on top of me, my mental health is pretty much none existent at this stage which is making my work ethic and attendance go down the drain too. It may seem like I’m trying to convince you to not come to university. But, I’m really, really not. Along with my struggles, I’m also having fun here. Now, that might be fun in the shape of huge Harry Potter marathons which I’ve done everyday this week. Or fun in the form of going out and getting drunk which technically I’ve only done once. But, I also feel like I’m “finding myself” here through the work that I love doing and the person I am towards other people. And I know that it’s going to be rewarding in the end. I feel motivated to do well. I love what I’m doing, I truly do. I’m just finding it a bit much is all. It’s only the first term of the first year so I’m probably just still finding my feet a little bit.
I don’t have many friends here and long for the day where I go home and see my family and Dani but the two friends I do have are great people who I do enjoy hanging out with. University hasn’t turned into the social scene that I thought it was going to be. And, my whole family thought I’d be really social here but I’m just not because that’s not who I am. I prefer to curl up in my room with a film and a book or travelling to a gig with Dani. That’s my idea of fun, not getting drunk every night.
But, anyway, if any university students have any advice on surviving, please let me know. And if you’re coming to university in September, know that it is hard but there are ways to manage.
