Firstly, those of you currently taking A-levels and GCSEs have no idea how lucky you are. The workload may seem like tons to you at the moment but wait until you start university. Lecturers go through the bare minimum and you have to look up extra information in textbooks that weigh a ton and cost a bomb. You may be thinking why I didn't just get them out of the library, well I would have but there was nothing there except for the chemistry one. Which brings me nicely onto my next point- any budding bioscientists- DO NOT PICK A CHEMISTRY RELATED MODULE, IT IS NOT CHEMISTRY, IT IS PHYSICS!!! Those of you who did A-level physics and maths/further maths will probably find it okay because it includes things like quantum mechanics, Schrodinger's wave equation, etc. Also, be prepared to do a lot of work online so those of you who are distracted by social networking sites need to toughen up and not be drawn in by the temptation of tweeting. Oh and the worst thing of it all has to be essay writing. It is nothing like the long exam answers you may have had to write in A-level exams for psychology, biology, sociology etc. The referencing isn't as bad as most people say in my personal opinion but it is the research which is so grim. There never seems to be anything relevant and authors of different journals contradict each other so you never know what is correct. Also, microscopes should not exist -_- The reason why I'm probably listing the endless bad things about university is that I've spent all weekend working on the most tedious essay I have ever had the displeasure of writing :|
Now moving onto the more positive things about university life. You have to put yourself out there when opportunities arise because you will be pleasantly surprised. Now I'm not exactly a wallflower but I'm not incredibly confident either. For instance, I always find myself stammering in presentations that I have to do in front of a class. However, I have decided to throw myself in at the deep end by mentoring year 11 girls and being a student ambassador at university. As part of the student ambassador selection process, we had to attend an assessment session and in groups of 4-5, we had to do a verbal presentation without visual aids on why we chose to come to the University of Manchester. In the past, I have struggled with eye contact and relying heavily on a script but on Tuesday, I wrote less than 10 words on a piece of paper and made decent eye contact but still bloody stammered! However, I was pleasantly surprised the next day when I received an email saying that I am one of the 75 successful candidates chosen from 150 applicants. With the mentoring, I myself have gone through many of life's challenges but have been lucky enough to have someone there for me most of the time. As cheesy as it sounds, I want to be that someone for a young person with bags of potential.
Aside from university and working with young people, I have discovered that cafe crawls are the best thing since Starbucks' caramel macchiato. My friend and I have made a pact to visit every cafe on the university campus during our time at the university and so far we have had the pleasure of visiting the Aadvark Cafe (only in Manchester would you find something so cool) and realising Costa Coffee is like a House of Mirrors. To avoid the tons of work I unfortunately have, I've been watching Gavin and Stacey and can admit that I'm addicted. Uncle Bryn and Nessa will get me through university, I just know it. Hopefully my next post will be before (OH OH OH MERRY) Christmas ;)
Until next time, whenever that will be, take care my sheep!
Mancunian Sheep x
P.S. Oops, just realised that this post has no photos or links, it looks like a bloody essay so here you go...
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