FINALLY! I have finished university. Well, I actually finished at the end of May, however term didn’t finish till about a week ago, so I am finally free. All I have now is to wait for my grades and then graduation. EEK!
My time at Arts University Bournemouth has been a strange one. Not only with going through life changing circumstances, but also the fact that there was a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. Covid affected every year of my university life. The uni life I had in the first few months of university in first year were horrifically different than what I ended up with. Online lectures, not really any friends and hiding away at home. Not the ideal university life.
Friends are something I have always struggled with. I’ve never been able to keep a friend longer than a few years. I don’t know what it is about me, or maybe I haven’t met the right people. I dunno. But university was the same. Who would have known if lockdown had not happened I may have kept the friends I had in first year, but I know I did completely shut down during those lockdowns. Again, who knows why. Mental health, I hate texting and messaging, trying to keep my relationship going when you are so far apart, and also protecting my family who were vulnerable. Maybe a compilation of all of the above. It’s hard especially when people are conditioned to think that you make “friends for life” at university. However, I have just not and that’s okay.
The course itself I still think needs improvement. I genuinely think it could be a 2 year course. There was also far too much essay writing over practical experience which was not really what it was advertised as. I also think they are far too anal over the paperwork. In reality some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes of the films are just ridiculous and would never happen in real life. But alas, we all did it and went through with it and I am now out the other side.
One experience I am grateful about university is that I met my boyfriend. We didn’t meet at university, but we bonded over the fact that we were both doing film production at different universities. Now he works at my university and living down here. So, I am incredibly grateful for all of that.
However, leaving university is kinda a big deal. Now the real world starts. I am looking for work as I want to have some more money behind me and also to save for a house. I’d also like to get out of working retail. It’s not the most fun job but its been good for some money whilst at uni and I worked hardly any hours which was perfect. However, for the time being, I have changed my working hours and increased them to get a little more money behind me for the now. Gotta save for my big holiday to Florida and Walt Disney World in September!
I do feel a lot happier now that I am no longer at university. It wasn’t for me, but I’ve done it. I get to wear the cap and gown in July and boom. I’m outta there. Not looking back, just moving forward and getting on with my life. There are so many exciting experiences to come.
University does not have to be the best experience of your life.
There is so much more to life than those three years and I know that all the exciting stuff is just around the corner.
