First of all, though I recognise that this is my own blog where I can (and will) rant about whatever is going on in my head at any given time, university is one thing I am weary of complaining about. I fought tooth and nail, stressing myself out severely, to gain the grades I needed to get into a highly regarded, academic uni and what’s more it’s in such an amazing central London location that means the resources available to me in the surrounding area of my campus exceed the resources of other unis. I am very lucky to have this opportunity when so many people unfortunately don’t. I would never give up my education and plan on staying in the education system for as long as possible, to utilise the amazing resources offered to me.
Unfortunately, this opportunity of university study doesn’t come without it’s trials and tribulations, and I am in the midst of a very testing time uni wise, which I and other second year pessimists are calling the ‘second year slump’. My personal definition of this phrase is that, whilst first year is all freshers and new people, questionable accommodation and generally getting a hang of things, and third year is all dissertation and (hopefully) you have your interests and specialities figured out in your head; second year is that awkward in between stage, like a teenager in the midst of puberty.
For me, second year has posed new challenges for me, which I expect I will be more than used to by third year, but for now, provide me with a considerable amount of problems. Living outside of uni accommodation and in our own flat has certainly given myself and my flat mates new challenges; managing bills, stroppy landlords and expensive rent hasn’t been easy. This is fairly manageable though when you live with the right people, which I certainly believe I do. However, the stress of the workload on top of all of this, certainly ups the ante on my fragile self, prone to getting stressed easily.
It has to be expected, but for me, the workload in second year is pretty overwhelming, especially when I’m trying my best to do every single assigned reading each week, which I have been guilty of putting off in the past. This doesn’t seem like such a mean feet, but doing those readings for four modules, which can sometimes amount to hundreds of pages, as well as managing being a flat renter, a blogger (oh hey) having a job and somewhat of a social life...well...I’m a stressed little bean. Not to mention the introduction of coursework deadlines which is my current main source of stress, it does get a little much. How I will cope when exams are on the horizon I honestly dread to think.
I know I know, cry me a river right? It’s not like I’m the only one going through this, otherwise the phrase ‘second year slump’ wouldn’t have been coined, which does make me feel better about my suffering; we’re all in this hell together guys. How dare uni get more difficult as the years go on, and how dare they ask more of us workload wise - the audacity!
Not only am I not the only one going through these feelings about second year, but I know there are people going through worse. Even though my subject of theology isn’t nearly as easy as sceptics would like to believe (that is a rant for another day), there are indeed subjects that have much more demanding timetables both contact hours and assignment wise. Medicine students of course come to mind - you made that decision yourself though guys, this is on you. There’s also the extremely demanding schedules of Oxbridge students, which I see firsthand with my boyfriend studying Maths at Oxford, who still manages to keep it together. Kudos to those and all who are managing worse schedules than mine, because if I’m this stressy with my current arrangement, I don’t know how they are still standing to be honest - I wouldn’t be, that’s for sure.
With this in mind, it doesn’t mean that if you don’t do a degree or go to a uni that society deems on the more demanding side of the workload scale, that your stress or worry is unjustified. Not only does there seem to be a general discrimination between science subjects and humanities subjects, in which humanities always comes out worse, but each person can mentally manage differing levels of pressure and work. Of course, uni is not supposed to be easy, and being academically challenged in my degree, though frustrating at times, is surely the reason I undertook the challenge of a degree in the first place; to expand my knowledge and increase my interest in a subject I already loved to begin with. This is proven with the fact I intend to take up a masters course after my undergraduate degree, and maybe even a PhD if things go well, so even when times get as tough as they are right now, it can’t all be so terrible if I’m willing to delve even deeper into the uni life, for years to come.
Other than getting that off my chest, there’s no real reasolution to this post. I am finding second year particularly hard to manage, I have to admit, and that’s okay. Being entrapped in the walls of the library for hours every day certainly isn’t how I would ideally spend my time, however, stepping back and seeing my problems in the bigger picture is helpful in realising that things could be a lot worse.
Don’t be too concerned, I’m not about to drop out to go on a ‘gap yah’ to find myself. That doesn’t mean things aren’t quite bad, but I wouldn’t give up the London uni lifestyle for anything. I won’t let second year beat me!
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I really am intrigued about how many of my readers are experiencing something similar, even if it’s not specifically second year, as I’m sure any year of uni, as well as sixth form and even GCSEs could apply to how I’m feeling lately - so do let me know if you relate, so I know I’m not going totally mad.
I love y’all
H x
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