Friday 24 February 2012

Time is going by so quickly

Sat in bed this morning, I thought back to the first time I came to Southampton - it was for the Southampton Solent University open day.  Wondering around the campus, I could see myself coming here. It looked modern, exciting and meant I'd finally be able to escape the lack of independency I received at home. Solent was the last university I looked at, after choosing to visit university's closer to home first. But when none of them had that spark about them, I realised I would at least have to look at this university, if anything just to rule it out. It turns out it had the opposite effect, and three years later I'm still here, in the final few months of my degree.

I remember the course talk I went to on the open day - I was won over the minute I heard we got to visit Paris and New York. I can't even explain the excitement. Funnily enough, the lecturer that gave us that talk is now my dissertation tutor!

As with every open day, there was a tour of the student residency halls. This is where I suddenly lost the excitement I'd felt half an hour before. The halls smelt strange, were tiny and seemed really dingy. And I would have to live here. Going home that evening, I found myself on the university website, browsing through the different options of living arrangements. The fact that I was bothering to try and see if there was anything better instantly told me that it was the university I wanted to go to. So I decided to just think positively, be open to the experience and chose a hall of residency to live in for the following year.

All I can say is thank goodness I did. It was easily the best experience of my life. I met some amazing people, many who have dramatically changed since then, both for the better and for the worst. But I wouldn't change anything about it, and would recommend it to anyone looking to have an epic first year of university.
Since then, I can’t say I’ve ever looked back and had any regrets about moving away from home or the university I chose to make my home for the following three years.

And now, I’m only months away from completing the course. Wow. How has the time passed so quickly? I’ll admit that I am a little scared about what happens from here. Can anything actually compete with how good the last few years have been? I really hope so.

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