First Term Reflections

Last Wednesday was my last seminar of 2014 and the end of my first term as a third year. Third year is the year that everyone says is the hardest, the one where you will have no social life and will be working non-stop to the point where you begin to hate everything and everyone. However, my experience has been almost the opposite.

First term of second year was one of the most difficult times I have ever experienced. The amount of work we had to do was incredible in comparison to first year. We had at least one deadline a week for 11 weeks and along with playing sports and making time for friends it all got a bit  much. Third year however I feel as though I have found my groove. Don't get me wrong I still stress and panic occasionally over not necessarily the amount of work that I have to complete but more of the fact that the work counts for a hell of a lot more this time around.

Since the second term of second year (barring holidays such as Easter and Summer and the weekends) my alarm has been going off at 5:50am every single morning. I lived a very monotonous life of getting to the gym by 7am, staying in the library until around 5pm and then headed home to chill or go visit friends. However, a few weeks ago it all became way too much and I felt horrific as I was soooo tired and stressed so I decided to change things up a bit.




I now get up a bit later, head to the gym a bit later and work in the uni's café where I do a lot more work in a shorter amount of time which gives me more time to chat to people, go to the cinema and take the majority of the weekend off to go shopping, out for lunch or just simply lie in my bed catching up with all the TV I don't get a chance to watch during the week. Bliss.

This year I have also socialised more with friends that I feel are on the same wave length as me and who I get excited to go for coffee with during the day. I think friends are a massive part of university life and it might take you over two years to find the right ones but you will get there eventually. Almost every weekend I spend out of the house doing something fun because otherwise I think I would go crazy. Many weekends during the term just gone were spent in Windsor shopping or at the cinema drinking Diet Coke and watching Benedict Cumberbatch's beautiful face. I am not the type of person who loves hitting the SU every week or go out drinking, I much prefer spending the day with friends having lunch, coffee and visiting new and old places and most importantly, not thinking about work.

Uni work has also become less stressful as I have a genuine interest in the work that I am doing. My dissertation subject is so interesting that I don't mind sitting down for two days going through all of the week's reading because it genuinely interests me. Also, I feel that I have definitely grown in confidence in terms of my ability and I start to question things much more. This year I have also decided to apply to do my Masters in history (not quite worked out which period yet, toing and froing between two subjects) which I would never have even considered in second year. My level of interest has increased so much that I have even considered attempting to pursue a career as an actual historian. Gosh how things change over time!

So it's safe to say that so far, third year has been my best year, despite all the work! Right, I better be off as I have a  mountain dissertation reading to do over the next few Christmasy weeks - oh the joy!