A little less than 3 years ago a girl in her late teens packed her bags and went on a plane to Liverpool. With 2 full suitcases, her mum by her side and expectations about the future she was ready to start the last journey of her education: She was going to University. That girl was me.
Now I am sitting here in a city that I now call home with my last assignments handed in, my last exams written and no lectures to go to. For many people that might seem like a relief or even a blessing sent from heaven. I see it as a pit stop in my life and I can't wait to refuel and keep on going with the race because at the moment I am just in stagnation without reason to be stuck.
I finished university two weeks ago but it didn't hit me until now. I was too busy getting caught up with the issues of my life that I kind of completely forgot the fact that after 15 years of education I could finally stand up and say proudly: I've finished my degree. Yes, I haven't got my results yet but regardless what marks I get I have still done my best and that is what I should be proud of.
For many of you, 3 years might not seem like a long time. Time goes so quickly that we don't seem to pay attention to the years flying by but university is different, university changes you. You start off as a person, just leaving home, no clue what dissertation means or why people suddenly are happy to get 60% on an exam. You end up being an adult, dealing with job searching, considering your future and realising there is more to life than the 2:1 you got on your exam.
To make this as painless as possible I won't sum up my 3 years since that has been done constantly in the blog but I am going to share with you some of the things I've learnt during university (obviously nothing that has to do with Media because lets face it, I haven't actually learnt anything)
1. Planning saves you a lot of time but can sometimes work against you
I quickly realised when starting University that there is always something that goes wrong the day before the deadline. Because of this I started my assignments and my revision a lot earlier than most of my fellow coursemates. For me, this worked in my favour. I was done with my essays days before the deadline, sometimes even weeks and had plenty of time to go through it but also to make sure I could hand it in on time. So when everyone else was stressing I could sit back, put on Gossip Girl (or whatever TV-series I was following) and not worry. However, this sometimes led to people thinking I could do things for them. Not that anyone asked me to write an essay for them but I was suddenly the one people would ask to figure things out about the assessment, lectures etc even though they could send an email as much as I could. Being done before everyone else also meant sitting all those days seeing your friends freaking out on Facebook and you freaking out because they are talking about that they wrote something completely different from what you have but you can't change anything.
Planning saved me a lot of time and stress but it gave me a lot of "freaking out" time. You pick wisely what you prefer.
2. No one likes a show-off
Working hard also comes with average/good results but also being able to say "I've already finished it" when everyone is stressing. This is great for yourself but no one likes to be told that they haven't started their work as early as someone else. I have to admit I wasn't one of those who kept quiet about being done before everyone else but I know now that next time it's probably better to keep it to yourself.
3. Dare to ask for help
No one knows everything and everyone knows something. Even if you need help with the tiniest thing there will be someone that can help you with it or at least guide you in the right direction. Having to ask for help is not a bad thing, it just means that you are willing to learn from other people and that is the only way we can actually learn. I also noticed that by asking lecturers for help they knew who I was and considered me as a student that is keen on improving. This made them view me as an ambitious student that they were happy to help.
5. Real friends tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it
During my lifetime I've made a lot of so called friends. People I spend time with, laugh with, share secrets with etc. I've called them friends because I saw them as people I could talk to. I quickly realised though that as soon as something got difficult or I showed another side of myself they disappeared. In University I made friends that saw more than one side of me. They had to go through me being stressed, fights I had with other friends and see many other sides of me but they still stood by my side. They didn't always say what I wanted to hear but that is what makes them real friends. A real friend should be able to tell you what they think. You might not want to hear it but you're not going to be angry with them for saying it because you know they are saying it because it is the right thing.
Now I am sitting here in a city that I now call home with my last assignments handed in, my last exams written and no lectures to go to. For many people that might seem like a relief or even a blessing sent from heaven. I see it as a pit stop in my life and I can't wait to refuel and keep on going with the race because at the moment I am just in stagnation without reason to be stuck.
I finished university two weeks ago but it didn't hit me until now. I was too busy getting caught up with the issues of my life that I kind of completely forgot the fact that after 15 years of education I could finally stand up and say proudly: I've finished my degree. Yes, I haven't got my results yet but regardless what marks I get I have still done my best and that is what I should be proud of.
For many of you, 3 years might not seem like a long time. Time goes so quickly that we don't seem to pay attention to the years flying by but university is different, university changes you. You start off as a person, just leaving home, no clue what dissertation means or why people suddenly are happy to get 60% on an exam. You end up being an adult, dealing with job searching, considering your future and realising there is more to life than the 2:1 you got on your exam.
To make this as painless as possible I won't sum up my 3 years since that has been done constantly in the blog but I am going to share with you some of the things I've learnt during university (obviously nothing that has to do with Media because lets face it, I haven't actually learnt anything)
1. Planning saves you a lot of time but can sometimes work against you
I quickly realised when starting University that there is always something that goes wrong the day before the deadline. Because of this I started my assignments and my revision a lot earlier than most of my fellow coursemates. For me, this worked in my favour. I was done with my essays days before the deadline, sometimes even weeks and had plenty of time to go through it but also to make sure I could hand it in on time. So when everyone else was stressing I could sit back, put on Gossip Girl (or whatever TV-series I was following) and not worry. However, this sometimes led to people thinking I could do things for them. Not that anyone asked me to write an essay for them but I was suddenly the one people would ask to figure things out about the assessment, lectures etc even though they could send an email as much as I could. Being done before everyone else also meant sitting all those days seeing your friends freaking out on Facebook and you freaking out because they are talking about that they wrote something completely different from what you have but you can't change anything.
Planning saved me a lot of time and stress but it gave me a lot of "freaking out" time. You pick wisely what you prefer.
2. No one likes a show-off
Working hard also comes with average/good results but also being able to say "I've already finished it" when everyone is stressing. This is great for yourself but no one likes to be told that they haven't started their work as early as someone else. I have to admit I wasn't one of those who kept quiet about being done before everyone else but I know now that next time it's probably better to keep it to yourself.
3. Dare to ask for help
No one knows everything and everyone knows something. Even if you need help with the tiniest thing there will be someone that can help you with it or at least guide you in the right direction. Having to ask for help is not a bad thing, it just means that you are willing to learn from other people and that is the only way we can actually learn. I also noticed that by asking lecturers for help they knew who I was and considered me as a student that is keen on improving. This made them view me as an ambitious student that they were happy to help.
4. Some friends aren't for life
We all go through phases in our lives where we get to know people. Some of these people will disappear the second you move on from that stage in your life. We've all been through it. Kindergarten, primary, high school and even some people from sixth form. You spent years with them but only actually talked to them because you didn't have a choice. But as you get older you get a choice because you have met a lot of people and you are constantly meeting more. This means that you can't expect to be friends with everyone for the rest of your life. Some people are just not meant to be there forever. They might add to your life in a positive way for a bit. If they do, appreciate the time they were in your life. If they don't then there is no reason to keep them around you because in the end you shouldn't surround yourself with people that don't contribute to your life in a positive way.
5. Real friends tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it
During my lifetime I've made a lot of so called friends. People I spend time with, laugh with, share secrets with etc. I've called them friends because I saw them as people I could talk to. I quickly realised though that as soon as something got difficult or I showed another side of myself they disappeared. In University I made friends that saw more than one side of me. They had to go through me being stressed, fights I had with other friends and see many other sides of me but they still stood by my side. They didn't always say what I wanted to hear but that is what makes them real friends. A real friend should be able to tell you what they think. You might not want to hear it but you're not going to be angry with them for saying it because you know they are saying it because it is the right thing.
6. The University experience is different to everyone.
We all learn different things in University and in life. This means that I can leave a lecture remembering that my lecturer lives in Crosby whilst someone else can walk out remembering that cute guy on the third row. We don't all want the same things from University. Some people might want to party every night whilst someone else just wants to sit in her room reading books. No one can tell you that your experience is the wrong experience because we are all different and we all look at things differently.
7. Don't regret anything that made you smile.
This is as cliché as it sounds. We all make mistakes in our lives. Some things that we are going to have to deal with afterwards and some things that don't actually make any difference. I have made many myself and often thought that I regretted it afterwards but as you let it sink in you realise that it did make you happy so you have no reason to regret it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't admit that you've done something wrong if you have but don't be to harsh on yourself. If it made you happy at the time it means it was the right thing to do.
8. Someone else's happiness can be your happiness.
There comes a time around exam time when people are starting to sort out the upcoming year and you might not. This makes you feel upset, frustrated or even confused. This happened to me. I had no idea what I was doing so everytime someone got a job or accepted to a Masters I couldn't be happy for them. That was until I realised that there is no point for me being angry at them. If I'm happy for them at least they'll end up supporting me. Also if you think about it, them getting a job just means one less person applying to the next job that might be your dream job. Be happy for each others success because moping around doesn't take you anywhere.
9. University doesn't prepare you for life. You do.
People tend to think that University is going to make you grow up. By spending 3 years in higher education you will learn how to deal with issues, become more mature and want to learn more. The truth is, it doesn't. The only thing that prepares you for life is life. We seem to think we can prepare ourselves for what's ahead of us but we can't. It is impossible to know what will happen tomorrow and it's impossible to know how you will react to it. So as much as I wish University would prepare me for life the only way it has prepared me is that I've learnt that there is no way to prepare and we just have to live our lives as it comes. I'm not saying we should live our lives with that attitude that we can die tomorrow but we should live with the attitude that there is no reason preparing for some kind of disaster or miracle because when that day comes we'll react completely different from what we thought we would.
I could probably list 100 more things that I learnt during University but in the end no one actually takes my advice. I probably won't myself. University has taught be that we constantly learn new things. Most of the time these things can be applicable to yourself and as long as we sometimes stop and evaluate what we are doing we can improve as people. In the end, I'm still that girl who packed my bags and went on a plane to Liverpool. I just have a bit more luggage.
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