My first term of second year at university ended rather abruptly due to the flooding in Lancaster! Despite being a week shorter than expected, it was still full of stories to tell and lessons to learn. Somehow I think it managed to be even better than my first term last year (yes, the first term of being a fresher! I thought that term would be impossible to beat!)
Let’s get straight to it – here are the two main things this term has taught me…
The right people can make any situation enjoyable
My days are full of lectures, working in the library, meetings and then probably back to the library. I can’t remember a single time I worked in the library last year, now I’m there until maybe 7/8pm consistently. These longer days are only made possible by spending them with the right people.
The thought of working in the library for 3-4 hours isn’t fun, but agreeing to go with a friend and then go for a drink after makes the evening as a whole good fun! Rushing from meeting to meeting can be exhausting, but if those meetings are with people you enjoy spending time with, it can help energise you. After a long day working, it can be difficult to give maximum effort at sport training, but having a good relationship with you team makes it easy!
Worry less, laugh more
It is so important to be able to laugh at yourself. You can’t control everything, not everything you do has to be taken seriously, sometimes you have to just relax and laugh.
Last month I agreed to be one of the faces of Global Entrepreneurship Week around the university. I was more than happy to help support the events and so I gladly went along to a photoshoot. A week or so later the sample promotion was sent over…
I looked over a rough copy, suggested a couple of changes and agreed for it to be printed.
A week later I saw my face everywhere! There were over 15,000 little versions of me all around the university. That alone would be too much for some people, it wouldn’t help that within the first day it was pointed out to me that in the printed flyers, it looked like I was wearing lipstick…
Alongside all the mini-me’s there was one, not so mini version….
I soon saw myself on a learning zone window – a version that was bigger than me.
A number of people asked what I thought, expressing they’d be embarrassed… I loved it!
I know the picture isn’t great and that I literally am everywhere, but I’d rather laugh about it and when I would receive pictures and messages like this…
… I certainly did laugh!