Scary Second Year

So second year has hit me... hard.

The past few weeks have taught me that I need to learn to say 'no' a lot more or just be a lot less interested in everything that goes on around campus. I have to admit that I am ridiculously nosey. I have learned this through deciding at the end of first year that I'd like to be involved in society committees and have some responsibility for second year, fair enough. However, my first year self cleverly decided, along with taking awful notes all year and barely reading a single book, that I could manage a role on FOUR society committees. Really?

Okay, I love it. I love every society I'm involved in: Oxfam, the campus Jazz band, CSM Netball, and the English Society. I love the people, the events, the socialising, the meetings, the organising. I also love sleep... But that isn't possible right now.

I like to be busy and this seemed like the best way to stay as busy as I can for the rest of the year. I have made a plan to chill out society involvement around serious hand-ins and especially around my exams, just in case I actually want to revise this year (next joke, please). I would definitely advise first years to get as involved as possible while they still have the chance and their marks don't really matter as much. My involvement in societies during first year gave me so much experience and I met so many new people just by turning up to things, it wasn't hard. P.S. Society and Sport involvement looks AMAZING on a CV (not joking, you get experience doing something you love) and I'm definitely ahead of the employability game with my experience. Just need to sort my grades out now...

Thanks,

K xo

The Magic of Music

Recently I've really been suffering from exam stress. Now, I don't usually stress about exams; I was heading to house parties the week before my A levels were due to start and never had a meltdown in preparation for my final exams. However, university seems to have cracked me. With 4 3 hour long exams to prepare for, which all fall within 10 days, I have been seriously FREAKING OUT. I've tried doing all sorts to calm down a little; running, long showers, shopping, talking to old friends. Nothing seems to have done it quite so well as playing with my jazz band for a couple of hours this evening.

As previously mentioned, I enjoy my music. I think that the best kind of music is that which you create yourself. I love the social element to a band, chatting with different people, but also the amazing feeling that you get when you work together as a group on a piece and it sounds absolutely magnificent, it's really the best feeling and you get such a buzz from performances. The best part of music is that you don't have to play an instrument to get this feeling either, it comes from singing too! 

So, if you've never been in a band or a choir, I seriously recommend joining one. Especially at university! You meet the best people.

K xo