University // The Three Realities

Hello, and yes it has been MONTHS since my last post!

But with good reasoning! My final year of university took its toll on me and life just consumed me whole! Fear no more, I am back, and we are going to get back onto track of this blogging stuff, okay?

Source: Aspiring Bloggers

Having just completed my third and final year at university I thought now would be a brilliant time to reflect on my experience and give you all the inside scoop to what university is really like, living in halls, moving to a house and commuting; that’s right, I did it all.

As I’ve said a thousand times before, university is an extremely overwhelming experience and no one breezes through it, there are ups and downs, the good grades and the bad; but with all of this said, I would not change my experience for the world. 

I learnt more about myself than I ever could have imagined, made amazing memories and met some even more amazing people who I couldn’t have survived the three years without. Through all of the homesickness, suffocating deadlines and crippling hangovers, there are moments that will stick with me forever, making university such as prevalent section of my life. So, without further ado let’s break this down, shall we?

Living in halls of residence

Source: Facebook

Halls of residence is HIT OR MISS. It’s Year 1. You’re excited, nervous, scared and you’re thrown into a flat of strangers who you now have to live with and share a kitchen (in most cases) with for the foreseeable future. When I moved into my flat I thought “Okay this doesn’t see so bad, I can live with these people!” Most universities try to match you with people who have similar interests/hobbies/subjects but this wasn’t so true with me. As an English/Journalism student I was grouped up with two teachers, a geographer and about 5 business students…surely there was a problem with the algorithm here?

With that said, I was blessed with a group of girls on my course which I had been speaking to for weeks before moving in day and low and behold I bumped into one on the bus home from our first freshers night at 3am. I guess you can make friends in the weirdest circumstances, ours just happened to be scoffing ‘burger van’ chips & screaming “omg it’s you!!” From then on, I didn’t spend much time in my own flat and became an adopted member of her own. Moral of the story? You’ll find your people, do not panic if it’s not the people you’ve been thrown together with! You’re in a community of over 2000 students, I’m sure there’s a good 4 or 5 you’re going to be pals with.

Moving into a house

Source: Alan Batt

Okay, so now we’re moving onto the big guns. Signing tenancy agreements, picking who gets what room and making the cleaning rota up. Moving into a house with people is the peak of independence at university, you have communal toilet roll, share butter and milk (never cheese!) and god forbid you left the front door unlocked. At this stage you’re most probably living with a group of people you’ve befriended over the last year, however it was a different case for me. I was moving into a house of 6, getting to know 3 people and let me tell you, this is a much more intense environment than a 12-bed hall of residence. But that isn’t such a bad thing!

In my experience we were able to have weekly movie sessions (we chose Harry Potter & then went to the studios as a house day out). The only thing I found hard, was going from having so many people around all the time to not that many! It could feel quite lonely at times if people were out doing their own thing or hanging out with each other, but fear not…I found Greys Anatomy; which I am still yet to finish!

Commuting

Source: Survey of Renters

In all honesty this was the part of university I was most nervous for. I feared that by not going to all of the social events and not being able to meet up whenever and wherever I would miss out on all the weekly gossip and what not. WHO WAS I KIDDING. It’s final year, who has time to gossip!! We would spend most of our breaks crying about having 5 deadlines in one day or having 3000 words due the next week.

The commute wasn’t that bad in all fairness. Yes, it took 2 hours there and 2 hours back but that’s like 4 episodes of Killing Eve so I wasn’t complaining. Of course, it was a pain when trains were delayed or there was traffic which doubled my travel time but, it was never the end of the world. If anything, it was more exciting. I quite enjoy a train journey, people watching, planning my day in my head and just having some time to myself, and then getting to university and seeing all my course friends was a refresher after a stuffy train ride…every cloud!

Well there we go, my university experience in three different perspectives. What’s next? I’m not quite sure, I’m trying to avoid the inevitable breakdown and 21^st century crisis of ‘What am I doing with my life?!’  for as long as possible, so for now it’s Waitrose, wine and witty summer books…and blogging! I have managed to tick two things off my annual bucket list this year so far and my third is to dive back into regular writing, so watch this space.

Until next time,

Shannon xx