3 Things University Taught Me

Hey everyone!

So far in my first week of my four months of holidays, I’ve managed to be rejected from the job I interviewed for, live without a deadline, unlike my exam-having friends, and not much else. Sure, I’ve been reading, but that’s about the most productive I’ve been. Oh, and I washed my hair this morning. That’s something, right? It’s nice to not have dirty, greasy hair. I definitely left it far too long between washes, but at least it’s clean now. From all my not-doing-anything, I haven’t been writing at all. I’ve not even come up with any ideas for any posts. I’m sitting here writing this, struggling to get words down. It’s like trying to fill out a 280-character tweet. It takes planning, effort, and absolute determination. But I will push through. I will. Today I wanna talk to you about what I’ve learned from my first year at uni, other than what my classes taught me.

First off, I learned that I am rubbish with time management and that I need to get better at it. There have been so many close calls when it comes to deadlines. I always made the deadline, but it was almost always down to the very last minute. Now, every morning, I write a to-do list, even if there is nothing I have due. I even put things down like ‘make bed’ and ‘eat’, because sometimes I forget. I find the to-do list insanely helpful with remaining on top of things. It doesn’t always work to get me to do work, but for the most part, it does its job well.

I have also learned that I’m not as rubbish as making friends as I thought. Sure, I don’t have their phone numbers or know where they live (that sounds a bit more ominous than I intended it to), but I know their names and can talk to them about uni and stuff. It’s nice to not feel so alone at uni, especially when the rest of your school friends go to different universities. I haven’t seen them since I last went to uni two weeks ago, but that’s okay, at least I’m not alone when I go there.

Another thing that university has unintentionally taught me is that I am better at things than I thought I would be. I never thought I’d be able to deal with all the assignments at university, especially because of my lacking time management skills (that I’m trying to improve). I think that I’ve proved to myself many times over that I can juggle six assignments at once, and get at least a passing grade on each of them. I’d thought before going into uni that I would drown in the massive workload, as everyone else stood on the boat, SS We’re Better Than You, watching and laughing at me sinking further and further under the waves of task sheets. Wow, that was an image. Don’t know where that came from. Anyway, I’ve learned that I can swim through the waves of assessments with a bit of difficulty, but considering I thought I’d drown, staying afloat is an achievement.

I guess you could say I’ve learned a lot in my first year of university, even if all of it wasn’t entirely intended. I did learn things that were set, obviously, but that wouldn’t make for an interesting post, now would it?

What have you learned about yourself this year? Do you go to uni as well?

Love, Nicky x