A Series of Fortunate Events

So, dear readers, we approach the end of my tenure as your resident biological sciences blogger! I’m not ready to say goodbye yet, so I will leave my farewell post to the next one, which will give me enough time to think up of a clever title for it.

For this post, I’ve decided to summarise some pointers about my university experience generally. This will lead on nicely to my goodbye which will be more focused on the future.

So, university. At Leicester. Is it worth it? The answer is yes, yes a hundred times yes!

These three years of my life have been full of new challenges, pursuits, and interests. No doubt it has been frightening at times, but through learning how to live on my own and make my own decisions at my own pace, I’ve been able to learn so much about myself and how willing I am to overcome things. An example of this would be public speaking? Before university, I was okay — not a fan, but I could cope with them.

Now? The opportunity to present in front of groups that ranged from 1 to 150 has meant that presenting is something I enjoy and I am proud of.

Another example of how being at uni has helped me would be my confidence when it comes to befriending people. At university, basically everyone was a stranger to me – from my residential advisor to my next door neighbour at halls. I distinctly remember being alone on the first night, feeling quietly confident that I could absolutely cope with knowing very few people for the next three years!

Wrong.

The truth is that you are going to meet and befriend people everywhere. In first year, very little effort is actually needed – especially if you live in halls where you are instantly blessed with flatmates! If you’re like myself, and a little shy, just remember that nobody at university knows you are shy. Nobody who you run into on your first day will instantly label you as the shy quiet kid (as they probably used to in high school or college), so run with that!

The academic lifestyle at university is definitely more challenging. However, on reflection, I think the bulk of that challenge is less about the content — or the exams — but more about the independence and how you are tasked with fitting all the school work around all the other things you have going on. Although that certainly isn’t universal. Some of the content you learn in biological sciences blows your mind; if you can start exercising your memory to expand its capacity and subsequently help you learn the names of micro-organisms, you will save yourself a lot of future heartache!

Last but not least, I’d like to write about how worthwhile it has been being at Leicester specifically. Throughout my time here, I’ve witnessed Leicester win the premier league, seen one of my favourite singers of all time at the O2, and I’ve discovered a love for a new genre of music that will probably stand the test of time.

So this is my penultimate goodbye! If you have anything you’d like me to write about in my final post, just pop it down below! For now, I leave you with the promise that I’ll return and talk about the future and what I will take from my time as a student here moving forwards. I will also leave you with my song recommendation of the summer (it’s K-Pop; give it a listen!).