Saturday, July 06, 2013

The rants of a student

Hello there, buddies!

DISCLAIMER: if you are noticing some things in this post that you might have said to me, I would like to inform you that I do not dislike you, I just need to vent my anger to someone who understands....aka the internet. This is an accumulation of things that have happened over the last year, and this rant is not directed at anyone in particular. 


In this rant, I shall be discussing things that have been said to me due to the fact I am at university. This literally ranges from things at uni, to things at home. All you students will probably have experienced the same....and people starting in September, you have all this to come! I have found that people who haven't been to uni (this can be friends, family, random people, anyone) tend to have a very stereotyped image of students, and simply do not understand student life, or do not understand your situation. 

I want to also say that unlike my other posts, this post is completely spontaneous and hasn't had my usual extensive planning, so it is likely to be really broken and written just as it sounds in my head. If you can make sense of it then we are clearly on the same wavelength! All of your comments are welcome whether they be positive or negative. I am fighting my corner and defending my opinion here. Remember that word....OPINION. This is literally my blunt and honest opinion. Enjoy!

Ok the first thing I want to talk about is people's stereotypical idea that all student's do is drink. Well, although it is true that drinking culture is a very large part of uni life, students do a hell of a lot of work. We have to do all our own research for our essays (of which we have about 8 a year), study religiously for our exams, all whilst making sure we attend as many of our lectures as humanely possible, along with seminars and any societies we might be members of. Yes there might be a few times when we miss one or two, but we do try. Life isn't all about going out and getting hammered every night (expect Fresher's week, but there are no lectures then). People are just daft if that is what they think really.

Many people say that people go to university just to prolong having to join the "real world". Well, I will have you know that I have gone to university to INCREASE my chances of getting a job that I want and that will benefit me the most. Would you rather I had no further education and was stuck in a dead-end job that paid me basically in buttons, therefore meaning that it would be likely that I would have to sponge money off the government, which then would mean you would be complaining that I wasn't getting my ass up and finding a better job? Yeah, I thought not. (I warned you this rant would get heated). People like this I believe are very narrow-minded. Although there are some people who go to uni simply because they think it is all social bla bla bla, but those people get a reality check at the end of their first year and tend to drop out. 

On an additional point to this, people tell me that I went to university by choice, so I shouldn't be complaining. There are two issues I have here. The first is with the word "choice". Yes I "chose" to go to university, but I did not choose to be fucked over by the government meaning it would be so hard to get a job, get on the property ladder and move on with my life without getting this higher education. Yes, it would be possible - I have been very fortunate to be given several summer jobs, but none of these are permanent and would be suitable for a career, nor pay enough for me to move out. So all you people who say this to me, I pose you a question. Did you "choose" to be complaining about everything from jobs, to money, to your social life, or did you decide to do it because it is better for you? The second part of this revolves around me actually going to university. Here is a newsflash for you: university is hard! You live on your own, motivate yourself, and if you don't get your work done then you are going to fail. Living on your own is bad enough without having to pass work that is so difficult. It is nothing like A Levels, if you don't do the work it will come back to bite you, and it is very difficult to get a good mark! I would love to see someone who hasn't been to uni to do my work!

Another issue here is surrounding money. People seem to have this idea that students get all this money from the government to spend at our will. Well this is not true. The £9000 (yes, I have the joys of paying this after once again getting screwed over by the government) loan that I get for my tuition fees goes straight to the uni and I don't get to see it whatsoever. Then the X amount of money that I get for my other bits comes and goes just as quickly. My loan only just covers my rent for my house, so I end up with about £20 left over. Do not forget that I need to actually eat whilst at university, and I had to fork out about £1000 last year to live. Does this money come from the government? No. From my fucking back pocket. Then people wonder why students never have any money, and complain that they never seem to do anything. 

Carrying on from this is the fact that the tuition loans have been increase to 9k for all people who started in my year. Most of my friends are going in to their third year or above and pay only £3000 so they will have considerably less debt that I, or any person starting in 2012 onwards, will. To make this even worse, in the 2015 budget announcements, it was said that the interest for paying it back will be increased by quite a lot, therefore meaning that we will have to pay it back at a lot quicker rate, and more money will be coming out of my wages - sad times. 

Then there are the fact that people have issues over my after-uni plans. I want to go travelling after uni with a bunch of my buddies, which will cost around £10 000. Now, I have been TOLD that I should not be complaining simply because it is my "choice". Now, after having read the previous paragraph, can you see why I think this might be slightly unfair? Yes this is my choice, but people who don't go to uni get so many amazing opportunities to do so many things and by the time I have graduated they will have done so many things like that. I want to get some experience under my belt to make me as employable as I can be. Is that so bad?! I think I have the right to complain a little bit here, do you not?

Yes, I appreciate the fact that I am so fortunate to be at university, and have got the grades to get in. I also enjoy every second that I have there, and I have made the most amazing friends there who will not doubt be stuck in my life forever (sorry, guys). But university is so stressful, and there are things to complain about, just like I am sure some people who don't go to university. So if you want to write some comments about how I am unappreciative of what I have, and that everything I said is a lie, but this is all coming from first hand experience and is my opinion. I would love to hear yours, whether you are against what I say, or for what I say. 


VIKKI'S CORNER:
I think uni is a way of becoming more self dependant, you no longer have your parents to help you wake up in the morning, you have to cook your own meals daily (or use your own 
money to purchase a take away), you no longer have anyone to pick up after you if you happen to feel lazy, you do your own washing (which in the first year causes even more expense).



That is all for now.

If you don't agree with what I have said then sorry, but this is all just my opinion.

Toodle-oo.

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