It’s fair to say in my final year of university, that first and second year were awful!
Before starting university, I debated putting it off because of covid, yet came to the decision that I didn’t want to defer how long it would take to complete my progression into a career. After having nearly completed my time at university, I question was it the right choice. Of course, the flip side is everything happens for a reason, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for my choices.
It created a whole new level of resilience, but also a stress and anxiety I hadn’t experienced yet. I spent the majority of my first year in my dorm room glued to a laptop for online lessons and I lived my university life through a webcam. It quickly became unhealthy, I didn’t socialise very much due to covid, my workspace invaded my personal space. I went from my bed to my desk, next to my bed, that was it. I would spend hours pausing pre-recorded lectures and met nobody on my course, essentially, I had no clue how university worked and what the university had to offer.
Second year was much the same, however towards the end I started to have in person lessons and met people I had only known by their teams’ icon. It was ridiculously scary and anxiety provoking; I had second year expectations with first year experiences.
Now in my third year I am learning how to effectively use office hours, how to take notes in lectures and balance a social life against a work life. Bearing in mind that in third year the demand is high, but I don’t really know what I am doing because I am just beginning to learn. Its hard because it’s something we experienced through no fault of our own, through nobody’s fault really, but it happened, and we are having to live through the consequences that I’m not sure many employers and teachers understand when we make first year mistakes in our last year.
The other aspect is that the university you grow up imagining, making lifelong friends and memories went out the window. Now in my final year I have met people I wish I knew in first year, but sadly it’s out of our hands. With all this in mind I question, was this really a university experience? A whole cohort of students paying fees but cheated out of support and experience.