The Lola Conundrum: University Life

I was reminiscing today about my first year at University & thought hey write a blog post about that experience! Cheese! I moved to Nottingham for University, since I lived in Birmingham this wasn't far, and I've always been really independent so I didn't miss home too much whilst I was there. My friends who lived 4/5 hours from their hometown felt more wary than me throughout the year - probably because if I did feel overwhelmed by my life at university, I could just hop on the motorway for an hour and I'd be back home, they didn't have this luxury!

How to sum up my first year at university? Wild. I think that speaks for most people. My birthday is in July, so I only turned 18 2 months before I moved to university. Over the summer time, I worked my booty off and ended up only going out once with my friends to clubs. So when I moved into my halls and they said 'we're going out every night this week' I was like 'whatttttt?' and after 2 nights I was like "Wooooooooooop" - Wildchild. I don't know how it even happened, but I ended up with a signature drink of 'rum - straight up', and I liked it?! Cannot look at a bottle of Bacardi now without feeling disgusted with myself haaaa!

Night out tips? I would say 'drink a glass of water between each alcoholic drink' but thats not going to be likely to be followed through! But yes, Flats! It's university! You can wear cute dolly shoes and still look as good, but not as stupid as someone in 5 inch heels! Plus you can stay out longer with your friends! If youre anything like me, heels are my type of hell. They are beautiful and I love them, but my god they kill my feet after an hour, university clubs are nasty places, very dirty and your beautiful heels will get destroyed, even black ones! Major one, clevage or lot-of-leg, show one not both, you'll look like a whore. JOKE, but it can be a bit OTT if you have a mini skirt on and your boots are wide open for everyone to see. Nice bodycon dresses show off your legs and figure whilst keeping the boobies a secret!

Lectures? Well unfortunately if you've studied your topic for A-Level, it's very tedious, because you're learning a lot of the same topics again, just the lecturers add in more research aka more depth. This is because if e.g. my course, someone didn't study psychology but wanted to do it at university, they would need to be caught up on all the basics of psychology. This may be the same for courses like business, law, criminology. Not all sixth forms/colleges offer these courses at A-Level so the universities have to assume that some people do not know the basics, zzzzzz. Snorefest! I literally lived about 40 minute commute to university, and I can tell you now I would not get out of bed if I knew the lecture was on a topic I knew previously. It was always a waste of time, especially in first year at my university I think they expected no-one to turn up so put all the information of the online learning site.

Luckily, you only need 40% to pass, and that year I just missed out on a 2:1 but a fraction of 1%. Very irritating, but hey I didn't exactly work hard for it. Thank god I upped my game in second year (post coming). Now I'm striding through my third year like a crazy stressed headless chicken but loving it.

My one tip? 1st year is designed to be an experience for you. They expect you to party a lot, they expect you to not show up for lectures - workshops? no. turn up, they take attendance. Anything not in a lecture theatre - turn up. So enjoy yourself, obviously when you do have assignments, put in some effort because otherwise there's no point in going! I know someone who has failed first year 3 times because they just party too much. If your life hits that point, stop and think to yourself? Why am I doing this?!?! Plus with cost of university going up in the UK to 9 grand a year, it's a pretty expensive thing to waste away (for your second & third year). SO have fun in your first year, make friends, make mistakes! It's your time to be independent and grow as a person. Then the second September hits, and it's second year, buck up your ideas because these assessments go towards your degree. HOLLA!