On Uni

You hear a lot of horror stories about University and some of those stories are true. I knew a friend of a friend who spent £1994 in Wetherspoons over the period of two nights. Needless to say he dropped out of Uni soon afterwards. The media portrays events like this all the time In films such as 21 and The Social Network, it appears more common than it actually is.

The stereotypical student, according to the media, balances several jobs to pay the bills, struggles to meet university deadlines and spends most nights out at parties, pubs or clubs. In my experience, this isn’t true of many students. I commuted into Uni for each of my lectures and workshops. I didn’t like the accommodation the university provided or the fact I wouldn’t have a say in who my flat mates would be. You need to understand I am not condoning other peoples life choices, but what is right for one person may not suit another. There’s a train of thought that if you didn’t sleep around, get drunk every other night and take drugs then you did Uni wrong. How mad is that? I attended all of my lectures (as a reward for this I was given a bursary of £1000 off my the fees for the second year), met my deadlines and achieved a 2:1. I had a somewhat active social life, especially in my third year and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at University.

Would I do anything differently if I could go through University again? Yes. I wouldn’t worry about my grades as much as I did in my first year as they are not calculated into the final results. I would be more outgoing and start being social sooner and I would have a healthier diet instead of visiting the McDonalds at Waterloo Station so often that the girl behind the counter would recognize me and ask if I was having my usual.

I loved my experience at London South Bank University and the people I met there and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.