My Honest University Experience

Hello, there.

If you have been following me for a little while you will know that I was in my final year of a criminology degree. 

I finished my degree a couple of days ago (yippee!). 

DISCLAIMER: I am going to be completely honest here. If you are one of the people I talk about then sorry, but not sorry also. 

A lot of people always ask me what university is really like, and I always find that a lot of people sugar coat things, and make it out like it's all party, happiness, and generally great times.

NEWSFLASH. 

This isn't true.

Sorry if I burst your bubble... 

Overall, university is a great experience. 

If you are thinking of going because you need it for a career then go for it. However, if you are thinking of going to uni to put off getting a job, or think you will "find yourself" (I cringe as I say that, ergh), or if you think it'll be an easy three years....do not go. It's a very expensive way to find out that none of those things happen or are true. 

University is hard. It has been a difficult three years. There is a lot of work, especially in your final year. If you don't work your ass off and commit to it fully then you won't get the grades you want. 

Hell, there will be a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. 

I have gone through some of the hardest times of my life at university. Dealing with being cheated on rather a lot, my mum having cancer, some nightmare situations this year that made me reconsider my entire degree, and some severe homesickness this year. 

I also made the decision to stop drinking back in October because I was starting to get a tad ill after drinking far too much (sorry, mum) over the previous two years. I found that this meant I essentially got left out of things - told you I was being honest - and actually meant that I didn't get on with my house mates any more. To be brutally honest, that has been absolute hell for me. I kept myself prisoner in my room, I was always scared to be in a room with them, and now I am extremely happy to be moving out. These are all things I never thought would happen to me, especially when I was really good friends with them beforehand. But advice I have been given is "you win some and you lose some". 

But it has also been a really great time. I've met (a few) people that I will consider lifelong friends, gained a degree, had amazing opportunities, and been able to develop myself in ways I wouldn't have done without coming here. 

The bad times were unbelievably shit, I won't pretend they weren't. Yet I have way more positive memories of the last three years, particularly more from my first and second year. 

The one thing I think I have learned most from being at university is that you can't please everyone, and you shouldn't try to. People are going to go out of their way to make you feel like shit, believe me it happens a lot. You have to be strong enough to know when to walk away, whether it be from a friendship, relationship, or anything group work-y. 

Oh, a second thing I learned (the hard way) is that you get out what you put in. If you put your everything into an essay then you will get the results. If you do them the night before you will (mostly) not do too great. 

Remember that you are coming to university to gain a degree, not to party your life away. 

I may consider doing a university Q&A sort of thing later on if anyone has any questions. I will be doing a "my degree in pictures" next week, so keep your eye out for that! 

I want to know what advice would you give to someone going to university/starting a new job/making a big life decision? Put your answers in the comments below!

As always, thank you for reading, and I will see you all next time!

PS. sorry for not blogging for a while, dissertations are hard.

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Dissertation?...DISTRESS-tation!

Well, it has been a while. 

Where have I been?

Writing a freaking dissertation. 

There are not enough words in any dictionary to express how much writing my dissertation has stressed me out and make me hate words. Actual words. Especially "euthanasia", "death" and "treatment" - as you can tell, I am writing an extremely uplifting essay...

As I sit here tapping away on my keyboard, the sun is shining, birds are singing, and it's warm. 

Yet here I am. 

Tucked away in my room doing this freaking dissertation and munching away through an entire punnet of red grapes and listening to Disney World park music, pining for the next 132 days to go quickly. 

Thrilling, eh? As is final year life. 

Considering I have typed 11,000 words - and done some nerve damage to my elbow in the process - I am feeling more stressed than I did about 6 months ago when I first put pen to paper to plan this bloody thing. 

This dissertation (or dissy for short, said preferably with a slightly unimpressed tone of voice) is restricting my (totally non-existent) social life, critical EastEnders viewing time, and most importantly...food time, which now often occurs after midnight.

All I want is a few days to play Sims, where dissertations do not exist (yippee!) and eat cheeseburgers without getting fat. Is that too much to ask?

I actually just purchased a stress therapy colouring book and a set of colouring pencils. Don't judge me. I am in no way artistic, and I can barely draw a straight line with a ruler, but colouring is just so therapeutic for me. So I have that to look forward to. Yay, procrastination!

I keep thinking that I see the light at the end of the tunnel with a huge Domino's pizza, an even bigger Ed's chocolate milkshake, and a lot of Netflix. 

Then something bonks me on the back of the head, sending my hurtling head first back to reality and I realise it is in no way over.

May 21st cannot come soon enough; no more dissertation, no more placement, and no more law exams. 

As soon as I come out of that exam I am getting in to bed and only moving to pee. 

Maybe once everything is over I can post some things about how to succeed at university. Maybe I will actually get my mind together and work on the USG. If you don't know what that is then you'll just have to keep coming back until you find out. 

As much as I adore you all, I am completely procrastinating now and should be getting back to my dissertation. 

If you have any tips to help me unwind, or ideas of things to do when university is over post them in the comments below!

Toodles!

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The point of exams?

Having sat through hundreds of exams in my lifetime, be that SATs, GCSE's, A Levels, University exams, pre-job tests, and general tests and exams throughout school, I have started to wonder what exactly the point of these exams are.

After watching THIS video, these thoughts just got even more structured.

What exactly is the main point of an exam? It’s not really a test of what you know, it’s more of what you remember. Ever had an argument and remembered a great comeback a few hours later? This is what an exam is like for me. No matter how hard I study, revise or force myself to attempt to remember things, I get a mental block spanning the length of my exam and end up more stressed than I was before I sat in my seat.

This sort of thing really hit me when it came to my GCSE Maths exams – although this was a good 5 or so years ago, this definitely still applies to exams today. I physically cannot do maths at all. As soon as I see a sum or equation, each separate number merges into one and I usually end up angry at myself or in tears. I managed to just scrape though my GCSE Maths with a C, and I still wasn't happy.

Although maths is a compulsory subject until the end of year 11 (16 years old) in the UK, surely there will be a massive change and gap between those who have minds more orientated towards numerical reasoning, to those with a more verbal and literal brain, such as myself.

On top of this, about 99% of things you learn for an exam have no application in the outside world. How many times have you had to use something you learned in maths in your school years? Yes, I get that some professions might actually use all of these things, but not everyone who goes through school will become an engineer.

Personally, I find literacy exams a bazillion times easier than anything with even a single number in. I can write for days about almost anything as long as I have a tiny bit of background information on it. Want me to write about the hidden meaning of a poem I have never read before? Sure, give me 10 minutes to read it. Want me to write about the history of a country I have never heard of before? Cool, just give me a few basic facts. Want me to fill a book with absolutely anything that comes into my head? Fantastic!

How can exams expect to test absolutely every individual who passes through the education system in a fair way? Like me, one person might be academically good at one sort of subject, and then be less than average on another.

This also applies to those who excel at art. Take my sister for example. She has an incredible eye for art, and can draw absolutely anything in a matter of hours. In fact, I am going to include some of her artwork below.

She claims, although I dispute this to a certain extent, that she struggles with slightly more academic subjects. This actually ended up stressing her out in her GCSE’s last year, because she excels at art, she didn't think she would do as well in her other subjects.

Although I understand that the introduction of subject choices in GCSE’s allow this to be slightly eliminated, and doesn't massively affect anyone until they can completely choose every subject for A Level exams, this doesn't stop the stress, pressure, and general being a pain in the ass of exams themselves.

Anyone who knows me will probably be reading this either shaking their heads, or feeling a bit confused as to why I am writing about exams because I “got good grades”, “passed my exams”, and “have nothing to complain about”, but that didn't come without a lot of hard work, stress, tears, and me being general all round hell.

Why should exams put so much pressure on one person whilst they’re still young when it’s very rare a job you apply for 10 years down the line won’t bother to ask for them, or only ask for a select few grades? Or when they become less of a fair exam and more of a memory test? Or when they don’t test you fairly based on which way your brain processes information.

There is so much pressure on kids these days to get good grades, to get good jobs.

The truth is that you don’t need a degree to do something you love, being good at something and enjoying every moment of it will make you richer than money ever could, and a good education doesn't make you better than someone who doesn't have that privilege.

The world is your oyster, so don't let a random letter next to a subject define you for the rest of your life. If you enjoy something, go and do it. 

The sky is the limit, and no one is going to stop you.

So, what do you think? Could exams be more individually orientated, do you think they’re fine as they are, or maybe you think that everything I have said is just a load of crap.

Keep swimming,

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Where do I go from here?

As many of you possibly know, mainly from previous posts, I am having one of those existential crisis moments. I have no idea what career to embark upon when I leave university...which is in a years time *yelp*.

When I graduate in 2015 I will have studied criminology and criminal justice studies for 3 years, which is an extremely long time to stick at something that puts you about £60k in debt and that you have learned to absolutely hate. 

When I first started university I thought it would be a great subject to study, but it fell a close second to my preferred subject of law - something I adored from A Level's but did not think I would get the grades to study. In true form I got considerably more than the required grades to study law but had applied to study criminology so I settled with that.

Over the last two years I have grown very sick of it, and frankly do not wish to have a career in the criminal justice system or any related field. This has now posed a little bit of a problem for me, as I am back to square one; something I thought I had escaped 3 years ago! 

I put logic to this situation and wrote a list of what I enjoy and what I am passionate about. It went a little something like this:

1. Writing

2. My blog

3. Social media

4. The internet

5. Travel

The obvious thing that jumped out to me from all this was that the first and second things on my list essentially combined into one main aspect surrounding writing. 

So where could I go from here?

I thought a career at Google would have been fantastic, then upon further research discovered that there basically isn't an opportunity there for someone graduating with a criminology degree.

I considered other aspects such as Maker Studios - something I have seen from the Shaytards vlogs (take a look if you haven't heard of them, Shay Carl and his family are AMAZING). Yet again I came to a dead end because they recruit talent based on YouTube content - shockingly something I also lack.

Maybe I could go towards a Twitter or Tumblr career? I do not know. The possibilities are endless, I just need help in finding something I completely enjoy doing.

My ideal career would involve travelling and documenting it on my blog, but doing so for a big social media company. Obviously this is such a far-fetched idea that even I am aware it is pretty impossible. But it's worth a shot right?

What would your dream career be if anything were possible? 

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Degree dilemma

As my second year at university is fast coming to an end, it has occurred to me that I really need to start paving out a career path or at least have one in mind as a goal to work towards. So I sat myself down and had a little think about where I wanted to be in life in a few years time. It was at that point where it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I have no idea what I want in life.

I don't know about you, but that seriously freaked me out on so many levels I'm not entirely sure I can portray it all in words. I thrive on the fact I need control and a considerable amount of forward planning in my life; if something is written down on paper it has to be done. This is probably what pushed me towards my little breakdown at approximately midnight tonight - clearly the prime-time for a meltdown as the noise outside my window seemed to echo my thoughts. 

Considering I spent a few years before I ventured to the big mess that is university, and sat down and literally planned out on paper the next few years of my life, I don't think I could have got it more wrong. At that stage of planning it included getting decent A Level grades (done!) and passing my driving test (also done!), and finding my Prince Charming (still pending). And then it came down to the big daunting word of university. My 16 year old self freaked out probably a fraction less than my current 20 year old self is doing now 4 years down the line. What did I want to do at university? What job did I really want in the future? What would get the most pay? What am I really good at?

This is where I wish my 20 year old self could intervene - there is one question that I completely ignored and didn't even think to ask myself:

What do I love doing?

I feel like if I had asked myself that question I wouldn't be sat here at 1:15am freaking out about what I am going to do this time next year when my university career comes to an end. 

My 16 year old self realised I had always been interested in law. Naturally I selected this as one of my A Levels and was pretty happy when I became actually quite good at it, with my teacher saying to be one day that I have "the brain of the lawyer" (although I am not too sure whether that is a good thing or not...). 

The first year of my A Levels dragged but soon it was exam time. I excelled in my law and psychology exams, and did average on my French and English literature exams. It was at this point where I took the drastic decision of changing my mind from dropping French to dropping English literature. This is where my 20 year old self would most likely drop kick my 17 year old self. I continued doing law, French, psychology and also picked up a dissertation style project counting as another A Level. I ended up coming out of sixth form with the grades BBBC. Although these are pretty good grades, and I got more than enough to get into university, I still wasn't happy.

After hours upon hours of trawling through endless websites about degrees I found myself torn between two: LLB Law, and Bsc(Hons) Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies. At first I had my heart set on a law degree which I could then expand on with the graduate training programs and soon be a fully qualified lawyer.

Reality check time.

It wasn't that easy, and I soon discovered that it is almost impossible for that to actually happen. So I moved on from that dream. I realised that 80% of my law A Level focused on criminal law so it seemed only logical do take on a criminology degree. I passed my first year with a high 2:1 after getting two 1st's in my end of year exams and so I continued on to my second year.

That brings me to today - May 2 2014 - and I am only now realising that I am an idiot. Before you say it no, I am not being harsh on myself. I realised that I neglected to ask myself that one question 4 years ago which would have spared me a hell of a lot of anger, tears, and frustration. 

I had thrown away my dream because I thought it would go nowhere.

I had always loved writing; by the age of 10 I had a published poem and I had always been scribbling down little stories on scrap bits of paper. I got my first computer (way back when they were as big as an apartment) which at the time had only Microsoft Word, Paint, and that crappy pinball game on it. I found myself quickly learning to touch-type in order to write multiple stories on my new pride and joy. 

Here I am now, almost 21 years old using my blog as a place to vent to a load of people on the internet who probably don't care about this endless rant about my life and want my old posts back. I started this blog almost a year ago to rant to anyone who would listen to me, but I found that it reignited my love for writing and I am now working on an original novel.

Why am I not perusing this as a career after university? Why do I keep letting my dream float out the window? What can I do to figure all this out?

That is currently my state of mind - a never-ending list of questions rolling around in my mind just waiting for someone to answer them. It seems I am not the one to answer them considering I can't even figure out what I want for breakfast in the morning. So if anyone could actually help that would be great.

I need to figure out what I want in life, and why on earth I chose to do this stupid criminology degree instead of something to do with writing. Maybe I should also figure out why I am such a mong at the same time, or create a revolutionary cure for cancer, or discover that there are actually blue polka-dotted frogs on Pluto. I mean, is it too much to ask to be a somebody? 


As always thank you for reading, and I promise once these dreaded exams are over that I will be publishing more frequently again.

All my social media bits and bobs are over on the right at just the push of a button - don't be lazy like me, click them!

I will speak to you lovelies soon.

Big life decisions

Hello there, buddies!

As per usual I am suffering with writer’s block…typical for a Sunday – it never seems to happen any time else. I dislike Sundays…maybe I should have been writing about the fact I hate Sundays? Hmm…

Anyways, crazy person ramble over (sssh) I thought that today I could just ramble on about big decisions I have going on in my messy brain for after I finish university.

Yes, I know I still have two years left, but this is the sort of time when I feel like I need to figure out where I going in life, what I want to achieve, and where I want to be. So naturally, my blogger brain took control and thought that talking to actual people would be a bad idea, and telling you guys is a much more logical mechanism… I am not actually sure whether me typing away to myself is going to solve any of the problems and help me come to any conclusions faster, but we shall see.

I have had these thoughts going round in my head for a couple of months now, so they are considerably clearer than what they were. But basically I have no fucking clue where I am going in my life. I am probably going to get frustrated and not end up publishing this for a while so bear with me.

I know that the last couple of weeks have been slow and not my normal type of posts, so I do apologise for that, but I am hoping to get an all-round feel for my blog, and see how well certain things go down with you guys. I don’t want to give out the image that I am just a person who complains all the time, because I am not, so adding extra posts in like these ones seemed like a good idea. At the moment I am just trialling them to see what the success rate is going to be like, and so far so good! You guys also managed to get me to the front page of Google search results for my post regarding Ask.fm the other day, so thank you so much; that meant the world to me!

I am also going to give a little shout out right now to one of my lovelies who I have been speaking to on Twitter recently! This lovely is Sunny Williams (@notthatsunny) who replied to a Tweet I put out about Harry Potter last night! She is so cute and brand new to Twitter so get following! I also got a reply from Matthew Lewis (the gorgeous man who plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films) on Twitter last night, so I went fangirl mad.

I have gone completely off topic now….

Ah yes, life decisions.

In September I am going to be starting my second year at uni, as you probably know by now considering I bang on about it allllll the time, and I have been mulling things over about where I want to go after I finish. Literally everything from what job I want to do, to whether I want to take a year out after uni. Then I started thinking about things for the next two years, too. Gah, my mind is boggling.

So I am going to attempt to logically talk them through on here in the hope that they make some sense to you, and in the end to me too, and hopefully you guys can help me out a bit?

Just a warning, these are going to be so here there and everywhere and in absolutely no order at all. I am going to try to be chronological here so that I am not jumping from what I want to do next week, to 2015, then back to this year. That could get confusing…I have written a list and I hope to try to follow it, but you guys know what I am like…

The first thing on my mind is about getting a job for this year and next year when I am in Plymouth. I mean I seriously need the money, like badly. There are so many places I could apply, but most of them are shops and my 4 years’ worth of experience is all in hospitality, so I am fucked there. If someone could pay me to write I would literally be in heaven. I don’t even care what I would be writing about, as long as I get paid. Gah, I sound desperate…Long story short, someone give me a job down in Plymouth. I will be spending the 11^th handing out CVs to every single place with an open door. Prepare your shit, Plym.

Then I am trying to decide whether I am going to do the same thing that I did last year and not go back to Swindon until Christmas then come back to Plymouth for new year, or go home in my reading week for my birthday. To be honest, I would much rather stay in Plymouth, especially because I think I have International Relations lectures that week…and I can be in Plymouth for longer with my friends. Hmm, decisions. I am hoping some of my friends would be up for being back in Plymouth for new year too, so that I am not alone. That would be so sad – getting drunk on my own… +James Martin  new year in Plym-Plym?

Ok, now seriously thinking ahead like two years, I am starting to wonder what the fuck I want to do with my degree like job-wise. When I first joined university I was dead set on joining the police as a full police officer. I have done quite a bit of work with the police over the last year and I have to admit, I am a teeny bit put off from joining it! Which sounds reaaaaally bad, it is nothing to do with the job itself but I think that it isn’t overly suited for me. I don’t know – I am not going to completely rule it out, but it isn’t my first choice anymore. I then thought that I could get the good bit of being in the police by joining as a PCSO so I am not a full officer…still not entirely sure how I feel about doing that, but you know. I have always been interested in youth justice and whatnot, and I have good connections with the Youth Offending Service down in Plymouth and also down here and I would love to work in that area of the criminal justice system, so hopefully they are going to be looking to employ new people in 2015 so that I can go straight in to a job (that will never happen). I am also looking at pursuing this writing this, but writing about my field of study…damn you, blog, making me reconsider everything. 

Now we come to the conundrum that is literally on my mind a lot – where I want to live after I graduate. Now I know I am not going to be able to afford to pick and choose, but everything I am about to say is me thinking in an ideal world. None of it will probably happen because I will be skint. I am, and have been for a while, considering a massive move over to Australia. I have been doing research and there are quite a few job opportunities for me over there, and I have friends and family there who would be able to keep me on my feet for a bit. Gah the temptation. The only thing really holding me back is money to be honest. Then me being more logical and thinking realistically, I am looking at either staying in Plymouth or moving over to somewhere like London. But we shall see where I end up – I will go wherever I can get a job really.

Then I have the whole “do I want to take a year out after uni to go travelling” situation. I was looking at taking a gap year before university, but chose not to as I knew I wouldn’t go to uni after. So now I am thinking of taking some time after uni to get some experiences under my belt by travelling and working abroad for a year or two. Only problem here is that it is crazy expensive to take time out when you don’t have money behind you. I am lucky enough to have finally got myself a job here, so I could easily save the money over the next year, so I will make the decision at the end of university I think. It will depend on job prospects I think. What do you guys think? Should I take time out?

In slight relation to this, I have come to the sudden realisation that I can now afford a major holiday when I graduate – which will be awesome. I was looking at going to Disney World in Florida with my friends, but then we looked at travelling Europe and whatnot. But after seeing the events of Comic Con and Vidcon in San Diego and LA, I think we might he heading over there instead. Would be awesome to actually get to meet the YouTubers I watch and get to go to Comic Con – so many things could be ticked off my Bucket List because of that.

I have so many more decisions that I want to tell you about, but this post is nearing 2000 words already so I should probably stop.

If you have any advice you wanna chuck my way that would be awesome!

If you enjoyed this post and want to see more of me then click “Join This Site” to subscribe to me and see more of my posts!

I am also taking suggestions for future posts so get them in!

As always, that is all for today, Lovelies.

Toodle-oo!

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I have some news!....

Hello there, buddies!

I have some really cool news for you all!

If you read my posts a lot then you will know that I am a student at university. Also, if you follow me on Twitter you will know that you have the option to view my posts from there. 

Through this I have been given an amazing opportunity to write for an online student magazine called student Noodles. You can view the site by clicking here. 

Student Noodles is an awesome magazine for university students with so much cool stuff on it from posts all about uni, some amazing discounts on items, and also reviews on things. It really is an awesome site and you should definitely check it out.

They have given me the opportunity to write a series of articles about university entitled "University Survival Guide". How cool is that?!

Basically, a few times every week there will be a new post about one aspect of uni. My planned posts rang from before you go to uni right up to your last day, so there is something for Freshers and returning students. Of course, my lovely readers who don't go to university don't miss out because there will be some bits in there for everyone. 

The planned way I am going to do it is use my introductory paragraph direct to my blog, then give you guys the link for the full article over on the Student Noodles website. Panic not, there are no viruses or spam that I will be leading you to, it is simply to give you an opportunity to read my entire article and to have a rummage around the website!

So, when you see the banner like the one above, you know that you are going to be seeing some of my featured work!

My first post may be debuting any time soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it!

I am so happy and very lucky to be offered this amazing experience and I definitely want to take you guys along with me on this journey.

I would absolutely love to get you guys involved, so do please leave comments if you are going to uni and you are worried about something,or you just simply want to ask a university-related question, as I will be sure to answer them and I might even do a Q and A post where you can be featured on the post also.

You can do that by either tweeting me @LovelyChubly with the hash tag #UniQnA so that I know it is related to that! 

Hope to hear from you guys soon, and I hope that you will all read my posts!

Toodle-oo!

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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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