THE UNIVERSITY SERIES | 10 Things That I Learnt During My University Life

Now that I am officially a University graduate with a full time job, I have had some time to think back to the three years that I spent at the University of Sunderland and reminisce about all that I have learnt during my time there. Here is a run down of the 10 biggest things that I have learnt:

1. Unscheduled naps will happen; no matter how much sleep you have had the night before, you will find yourself sneaking off to your room when you think everyone is busy for a sly little nap but even sometimes you aren't that lucky and you will fall asleep alongside the rest of your flat mates in the middle of the living room.
2. Don't know what to eat? Have pasta; your cupboards may be stocked high with goodies but you will always find yourself having pasta at least twice a week, with sauce, without sauce, with cheese, without cheese, with mayo, without. The possibilities for a pasta dish are endless.
3. "That's £4 please.." "Oh, that could of been four drinks"; in Sunderland on student nights it costs a measly £1 for a single vodka and coke which often leads me to be looking at my shopping and working out how many drinks I could of bought on the next night out. I know I'm not the only one who does this either.
4. Motivation, what motivation?; deadlines are everywhere and no matter how much work you have to do, no matter how much fun it can be and no matter how easy it is, you will have zero motivation until about an hour before the deadline where it becomes a mad rush to complete it.
5. Being head of the chunder chart is no fun; being at the top of the chunder chart leads to hours upon hours of ridicule from friends, flat mates and everyone else who hears of the drunken shenanigans that you have gotten up to.
6. No TV, make your own entertainment; I can guarantee that if you don't have a working TV set then there will be a point where everyone in the flat goes a little bit doolaly and has a mad half hour. In my flat this year we have played tag, locked each other in our rooms, broken a bean bag and wrapped one member of the flat up in toilet roll. What did everyone do before TV?
7. Going home is like a holiday; perks of going home? free tv, endless supplies of foods - and not a single bowl of pasta in site . But the best of all is being able to get your washing done without having to personally pay for it, after all, paying for a wash and a dry is equivalent to three drinks. Madness.
8. Toilet roll is expensive; every flat has a toilet roll thief, well its either that or someone is eating it. Put a whole role in at 9am, by 1pm the toilet roll is gone - sometimes the tube is there but the majority of the time there is no sign that there was ever toilet roll in the bathroom.
9. "Do you have a pen?"; there is always that one person who comes to every lecture and seminar without a single pen with them, they will always turn to you and ask to borrow one of yours. Sometimes being well equipped isn't always the best.
10. Netflix is the cure for everything; long day, use Netflix. Hungover, use Netflix. Procrastination, use Netflix. Netflix is always there when you need him.

So there is just 10 of the things I have learnt through University. Remember if you want to ask questions you can either leave a comment below or use the hashtag #theUniversitySeries to send them in.

                                                    Bye for now my little pumpkins

THE UNIVERSITY SERIES | Those First Day Nerves

I know first had how nerve wrecking your first day at university can be however I discovered a few little tricks to feel just that little bit nervous.

1. You are all in the same position. You are not alone, there will be hundreds of other people in the exact same position as you, all trying to find their way. There will also be students from previous years, members of your faculty and students union ready to point you all in the right direction.
2. Get to know others on your course. I found a Facebook page created by a fellow student, they created the page so that we could all get to know one another before we started formal lectures. We even arranged a course meal for the first evening of freshers. And believe it or not, I found this incredibly beneficial as I made friends with a lovely girl on my course, who I later lived with for my final two years at university and it meant that we went through the whole university experience together.
3. Be prepared. I can't stress this enough. Be prepared for your enrolment, and introductory lectures whether that means ensuring you have sufficient stationary or have the right documents ready, at hand. Just be prepared.

Coming up next time on the University Series is a packing list of items I believe to be essential for surving the university lifestyle. 

                                                       Bye for now my little pumpkins

THE UNIVERSITY SERIES | An Introduction

It is coming up to that time again where those who have made the decision to attend university have began to prepare themselves for the start of term. I have just graduated university in July, and I know all too well how nerve racking the whole experience can be so I thought I would create a mini series of blog posts called the University Series where I will share what I've learnt, tips for surviving those first day nerves and the do's and dont's of university life.

I will post frequently during the last few weeks of this month, continuing on throughout September. However, if there are any questions that you have about university life and I haven't covered it just leave me a comment and I will answer the best that I can. Alterntively, you can send your questions to me via the hashtag #theUniversitySeries over on Twitter.

                                                       Bye for now my little pumpkins