My first year of university wasn’t exactly what I expected.
Neither was my second year.
Now I’m halfway through the daunting task of being a third year. The golden year. The year before I am scheduled to come down with a terrible case of Senioritis that will most likely take months and a very expensive post-grad trip to Europe to cure. So, I am hoping this year is gonna be a good one.
I think because I grew up religiously watching ‘Zoey 101’ that I had a fictitious idea of what staying away from home at school would be like. I thought I was going to wear my dorm room key around my neck on a chain like Zoey and be riding around on JetX scooters to get to class on time. Though I did wear my key on an old necklace chain for the first week, it fell off and I almost had to pay $40 to replace it. Also, there are those Lime Scooters in Waterloo, but it’s not quite the same. (^me during orientation week…who did I think I was?)
So basically I was just a little disappointed after my first two years at school.
Here is my list of ways to remind myself that it can’t be all play, and no work – there needs to be a balance. Maybe it will help you too!
1. Don’t Compare
The worst thing to do is compare your experience, in any situation, to someone else’s. I went home for Reading Break (before we got that glorious Reading Week) and saw all my friends from high school. They had all these wild stories about life in residence and staying up late doing this and that and I felt like all I had to share was what weird things were on the menu at my cafeteria.
(^said no cafeteria worker ever…)
I got a little nervous that I hadn’t racked up these crazy nights and unforgettable memories because I had spent most of my time in my room studying or on Netflix. Being honest, it took awhile for me to realize that it was okay that my experience in university (so far) looked drastically different than some of my closest friends. And it took even longer for me to be okay with it being okay – are you following?
It is so important to stop comparing apples to oranges. The most basic lesson we all learned in, like, third grade but clearly have forgotten. I mean sometimes it is a challenge with social media when everyone looks like they are partying like it’s 1999 and you are just trying to solve the square root of 1999.
It’s 44.7101778122 btw.
And yeah, I totally googled that. I am NOT a math major.
But you can do it. Don’t get caught up in the FOMO. Remember that everyone has different goals and different ways to balance (some better than others).
(^FELT this!)
2. Get Involved
Remember your guidance counsellor, and every other adult in your life, telling you to get involved. Try something out of your comfort zone. Join a club or team. Well, turns out they are right. *gasp* It’s breaking news really.
Getting involved in completely different campus activities kept me busy these past two years. I felt like I was apart of the school and not just someone who takes classes at a very expensive, very large institution.
(^very true, very scary, and very necessary to get involved!)
3. Remember the big picture
It is easy to forget you are in postsecondary education for an education. I know right, crazy concept. But, really, I came to Waterloo because of the reputation of the school and how special my program is. Of course, I wanted to experience what a typical university student does but I knew it wasn’t always going to be 50% academic, 50% wild uni life.
(^me after reading the majority of health journal articles…)
4. Be rational.
Sometimes I forget about all the fun events, hangouts, and memories I have made over the past two years and I feel silly complaining.
Remember that the ‘boring’ stuff, like schoolwork, needs to get done THEN the fun can happen. Try to organize your time so that nothing is left for the last minute and you don’t have to miss out on any spur of the moment plans.
(^I mean this rarely happens but it helps to be organized!)
5. Get Over It!
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter. I like to think that if it won’t matter in 5 years, why should I spend more than 5 minutes stressing about it now!
Don’t stress about having fun, cause then you will completely miss out on the real fun.
(^yes, yes I am!)
So get after it Warriors! Remember it can’t be fun all the time, but it definitely should be some of the time – it’s uni, not prison! Though you do have to pay to be here….