New city? New life? Part 3

Related tags: General advice, Blog

I've had three essays to do this past week: three extended, intricately researched essays displaying original thinking, wide-ranging secondary reading and well-structured arguments.

It is fair to say that it has been a challenge. What with all my other commitments - friends, boyfriend, part-time job, clubs, societies, eating and shopping - there has been little time to squeeze in the required reading and writing sessions. Universities blab on about cultivating a life away from home, establishing support networks and keeping yourself busy. However, they then throw essay after essay at unaware students, just when we have settled into our new lives - sending both the meticulously planned social and not-so-organised academic lives into disarray.

With no one save my laptop for company, I sealed myself inside my room for seven days. Using my bed as my workspace, I had papers strewn randomly all over the floor and books from three different libraries bursting with fluorescent Post-it notes - in short, it was carnage. That's not even mentioning my unchanging uniform of pyjamas and horrendously untamed bed hair.

Thanks to unrelenting self-discipline, which saw me allow myself only the bare necessities (toilet breaks and essential water to ward off brain malfunction during gruelling ten hour days), I managed to produce said essays. It helps that I still don't have the internet installed in my poky flat, so the illicit temptations of endless web browsing couldn't possibly lure me away from my work/endeavours.
However, my boyfriend feels neglected, my friends have disowned me, I have lost about half a stone and the food I had bought to eat is growing flesh-coloured spores of mould. This student lark is tough at times!

It seems rather ridiculous that only a few measly weeks have passed since the antics of Freshers Week and the enthusiasm surrounding the new academic year. Today's universities promise to ease students slowly into new and unfamiliar courses and encourage us to take on enough activities to keep a small army occupied. Yet the demands of university life are often too much for young, vulnerable students to deal with.

The pressure to cope with the workload is complicated by the need to have active relationships with peers, remain financially stable and commit oneself to numerous extra-curricular activities. At a time when graduate recruiters expect more and more from student applicants, all of these factors are crucial to success at university. A balance has to be established, but this can be extremely difficult.
My cold turkey approach delivered the goods but compromised numerous other facets of my life. It's neither the path I'd recommend nor one that I will be following in future.

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