Friday 17 May 2013

What really happens after university

While I try and keep my rants humorous for your benefit, because no one wants to read a sad-ass blog of misery, I'm afraid there's going to be no shits and giggles in this entry. As most of you know, I'm coming to the end of my studies. Well actually, I'm finished now, I just need to graduate. And as most of you know, I have hated 90% of my time at university. Don't get me wrong, third year has been my best year in terms of socialising and making friends, and I've made some friends for life here, not just at university but also in my job, but in terms of the subsequent financial side and my declining mental health because of these last three, it's fucked me in the ass big time. While most people who I've spoken to over the years about going to university have said it's been the best three years of their life, it's really improved things for them blah blah blah, I'm here to tell you what it's like if you're shy, if you're anxious, and if you're only going to university because subconsciously, you don't want to grow up yet.

Again, I have made some wonderful friends at university, and I don't intend to ever lose touch with them. However, it wasn't easy making friends to start with. I spent most of freshers week and the subsequent few months crying because I had no friends and my friends from home were posting regular photos of them having a good time without me. And don't say "well you should have got out there and socialised" - no, because when you don't live in halls, no one invites you anywhere. And no one likes the annoying person who always asks "that sounds like fun! Can I come?!" The sad truth is, if you're shy and you don't make friends easily anyway, chances are you'll be the same as me. Sorry.

And while I don't want to get into the habit of slagging off my institution, I feel obliged to tell you that if you go to university, you WILL be fucked over. From what I've heard from other friends at uni its not just my institution, it's all of them. You'll be fucked over in terms of when you get grades back, unfair markings, unfair deadlines, hypocritical lecturers who don't accept "I have too much work" as an excuse for an extention but see it as a completely viable excuse to delay giving you your essays back, and don't even get me started on the dickheads that you'll be put with in group work.

 Even if you're not shy, and you just hate working with others, be aware that group work is the be all and end all of being at university. Their argument? Well, apparently you have to work with assholes when you get a job, so you may as well learn to tolerate them now. My argument? You get paid to work with assholes when you get a job, so you suck it up and deal with it. At university, you get nothing, just a fuckload of debt in exchange for working with assholes. Plus, it's your degree, you shouldn't have to work with pricks to get it.

Coming to the end of the year, you'll be faced with that philosophical question - "what the fuck do I do now?" If I had one piece of advice to give it'd be this: do your research. Know what you want to do really early on, research what you need to do and how you need to get there. I didn't research jobs until late in my second year and I found out I need more than a BSc to start out where I want to. And because I'm shy and have done far to much work with dicks over the last three years, I don't want to do anymore study. So now I'm stuck. With a BSc in psychology and no where to go. And I can't do the masters I want because they want 100 hours of experience with a client, and despite my course being one in counselling, it never had a placement. Awesome. So you'll be seeing me in McDonald's flipping burgers real soon.

1 comment:

  1. Omg, Now my first year is looking bleak, haha, quite a funny post... I'll have a big mac :)

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