Final Autumn Semester & December Studying
My university did a rather cool campaign this year for study start. All of our campus buildings had posters on various walls of mixed up words that was the combination of something and each phrase explained common feeling in students. It has been quite a tough semester so I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how my final semester of normal classes passed before the thesis looming in the not so distant future. September, October and November passed in a blur and now December is upon us and the hectic exam schedule I had been expecting and dreading is upon me as well.
I want to talk about the start of the semester first. It felt weird to come back but I was also excited. It would be my final year of studying. I have been a university student since September 2013 and I honestly can't wrap my head around how so much time has passed. It feels simultaneously like it happened yesterday and like I've been studying forever. I am a very different student than when I started. Towards the end of my bachelor and all through my master, I have embraced being the active student and I have loved it. With each passing semester my appreciation for the professors and lecturers, the facilities and the way the university embraces and helps us, have skyrocketed.
I am often in awe when I remember that I get access to all of this for free and I get to sit down on my bum and listen to intelligent and passionate people who want to teach me what they know. Even if it might not always feel like it, every professor want you to succeed and most of them, especially the further you get in your education, they really appreciate interacting with us students. University is also a wonderful place to befriend and hang out with people and I've met so many interesting people, both from Denmark and international students and it has been a blast.
Even so, university can also take a toll on you. It's a lot of stress and expectations and we have a system around us that increasing expects more and more. Finish faster. Be smarter. Work harder. Every single student I know have a student job and while we can all lazy around at times, as a general rule I feel like we're working pretty hard. I wanted to highlight the six words that painted the halls this past semester and go through the definitions.
"Belone" - When you can't decide if you belong or feel alone
"Perfear" - When the fear of not being perfect overwhelms you
"Drumb" - The moment you go from happy drunk to plain dumb
"Drinxplain" - When you need to explain your embarrassing behaviour after one drink too many
"Grabcing" - When a fun dance turns into unpleasant grabbing
"Charmesty" - The moment you stop being charming and start being nasty
The two middle phrases touches on a subject very present with university students, which is obviously drinking and handling your alcohol. For many it's part of the university experience but it shouldn't have to be and when people are drinking people should definitely still respect other's boundaries. The two last ones relate to people exactly not doing that. I don't know if it's become an increasing problem or if it is because of the latest awareness of sexual harassment but this year we have got a survey on the topic. I feel for new students in particular, it's a good tool to be made aware you can contact someone if you experience anything.
Now, the two first one on the list are without a doubt the ones that resonated the most with me and like sexual harassment, it seems that people are generally becoming more aware of mental health and people are speaking more openly about it. Like I mentioned, being a student you instantly have a lot of expectations thrust upon up. Maybe they come from your parents, maybe they come from society or maybe they even come from yourself but most of us experience the need to strive for success. I would wager a guess that many strive for perfect. We hear about the people with a GPA over 12. We set unreasonable expectations to what we should be able to do. I'm very guilty of this myself. I want to be able to do so many things and when it doesn't always work out, I can feel like things crumble around me. University can be a ripe picking ground for new friends, if you're social and go to a lot of events, but even among a lot of people you can still feel lonely or out of place. You could technically show up to a hundred people lecture, sit quietly and listen and then get up and leave. You don't have to interact with anyone unless you want to.
I have never been the most social or outgoing person but I kept pushing myself to go to social events especially in the beginning. Even this year, I have multiple times struck up conversations with students in class I didn't know. I was a little worried about taking a whole semester of electives because I would be outside of my little "class" bubble of familiar people. I did find a couple familiar faces here and there but I sometimes also didn't know a soul. It was slightly scary but once I got over that initial fear, I really enjoyed getting to know these new people.
I don't feel like I don't belong at university. Quite the opposite now that I'm moving toward the tail end of my long stint in education. I feel comfortable here. I have improved immensely. I talk to people in class casually. I get on well with all my professors and I have repeatedly been thanked by them for my participation. I generally do well with my grades and I have learnt so much. So I'm a little scared to be moving away from this thing that has become a safe space for me but at the same time I'm trying to look at is as a new challenge. I only have one final obstacle in my way, the thesis, and then I will have not only passed through university but I will have conquered it. I'm trying to keep thinking of it that way.
I am trying to grasp onto that mindset to make it through this exam season. I had a rather tough exam period last year around this time and this one is set to be even more stressfull. Four 10 page written assignments to be handed in within eleven days of each other. They are not kidding around this time. I have enjoyed all of my electives immensely, even if I have had days where I didn't make it to class. I know I have learnt a whole lot about the four different topics but translating that into an assignment isn't always the easiest thing, especially when they need to be written so closely together.
I have one down out of four. I finished writing and proof-reading it with Mum's help today and I might just do one final once over before I hand it in before the deadline at noon on Monday. With that one in the net, I have one more to hand in on the 12th and two (yes, two on the same day!) on the 14th of December. I have nothing written for them yet. I have loads of notes from class and I have vague ideas for most of them but that is still a long way from finished. I will need to work my butt off in the next thirteen days to get this done. I've tried to stay on top of everything and map it out a bit. I had a little too much fun with the calendar below but you have to make it as easy to yourself as possible. I won't be home in the flat for much of December and I wanted the danandphilshop calendar photo to be a source of support. It's a tight schedule but it is possible, which is important. You need manageable expectations and all that jazz.
At noon on Friday the 14th of December, I will be done and I won't touch anything thesis related until the new year. I will get to have a latter half of December filled with cosy family Christmas time and hanging out with a very special little lady who is joining the family next weekend. We have been watching and keeping up with our little Robin through Facebook updates from the breeder and I have met her once but I don't think it'll feel properly real until she's back in the family house. I'm very excited and I have no doubt that Mum is going to use playing with the puppy as motivator when I get frustrated with my studying. I'm okay with that to be honest.
Each of the remaining three exams will have four or three days to be accomplished. I will need to put in proper hours. I had hoped to be a little more on top of things but I have found it difficult to work on stuff this past week after classes finished. I suppose the stress factor hadn't quite kicked in yet. I can feel it breathing down my neck now that the calendar month has switched over. It's December already. This year had definitely been a bit of an odd one but it had been full of so much stuff. I'm a little more sceptical towards what 2019 will bring, as it will naturally have to be big changes but that's a topic to worry about at a later time.
My focus for the next thirteen days will be these three remaining exams. May I have luck, motivation and stehvermögen on my side.
I want to talk about the start of the semester first. It felt weird to come back but I was also excited. It would be my final year of studying. I have been a university student since September 2013 and I honestly can't wrap my head around how so much time has passed. It feels simultaneously like it happened yesterday and like I've been studying forever. I am a very different student than when I started. Towards the end of my bachelor and all through my master, I have embraced being the active student and I have loved it. With each passing semester my appreciation for the professors and lecturers, the facilities and the way the university embraces and helps us, have skyrocketed.
I am often in awe when I remember that I get access to all of this for free and I get to sit down on my bum and listen to intelligent and passionate people who want to teach me what they know. Even if it might not always feel like it, every professor want you to succeed and most of them, especially the further you get in your education, they really appreciate interacting with us students. University is also a wonderful place to befriend and hang out with people and I've met so many interesting people, both from Denmark and international students and it has been a blast.
Even so, university can also take a toll on you. It's a lot of stress and expectations and we have a system around us that increasing expects more and more. Finish faster. Be smarter. Work harder. Every single student I know have a student job and while we can all lazy around at times, as a general rule I feel like we're working pretty hard. I wanted to highlight the six words that painted the halls this past semester and go through the definitions.
"Belone" - When you can't decide if you belong or feel alone
"Perfear" - When the fear of not being perfect overwhelms you
"Drumb" - The moment you go from happy drunk to plain dumb
"Drinxplain" - When you need to explain your embarrassing behaviour after one drink too many
"Grabcing" - When a fun dance turns into unpleasant grabbing
"Charmesty" - The moment you stop being charming and start being nasty
The two middle phrases touches on a subject very present with university students, which is obviously drinking and handling your alcohol. For many it's part of the university experience but it shouldn't have to be and when people are drinking people should definitely still respect other's boundaries. The two last ones relate to people exactly not doing that. I don't know if it's become an increasing problem or if it is because of the latest awareness of sexual harassment but this year we have got a survey on the topic. I feel for new students in particular, it's a good tool to be made aware you can contact someone if you experience anything.
Now, the two first one on the list are without a doubt the ones that resonated the most with me and like sexual harassment, it seems that people are generally becoming more aware of mental health and people are speaking more openly about it. Like I mentioned, being a student you instantly have a lot of expectations thrust upon up. Maybe they come from your parents, maybe they come from society or maybe they even come from yourself but most of us experience the need to strive for success. I would wager a guess that many strive for perfect. We hear about the people with a GPA over 12. We set unreasonable expectations to what we should be able to do. I'm very guilty of this myself. I want to be able to do so many things and when it doesn't always work out, I can feel like things crumble around me. University can be a ripe picking ground for new friends, if you're social and go to a lot of events, but even among a lot of people you can still feel lonely or out of place. You could technically show up to a hundred people lecture, sit quietly and listen and then get up and leave. You don't have to interact with anyone unless you want to.
I have never been the most social or outgoing person but I kept pushing myself to go to social events especially in the beginning. Even this year, I have multiple times struck up conversations with students in class I didn't know. I was a little worried about taking a whole semester of electives because I would be outside of my little "class" bubble of familiar people. I did find a couple familiar faces here and there but I sometimes also didn't know a soul. It was slightly scary but once I got over that initial fear, I really enjoyed getting to know these new people.
I don't feel like I don't belong at university. Quite the opposite now that I'm moving toward the tail end of my long stint in education. I feel comfortable here. I have improved immensely. I talk to people in class casually. I get on well with all my professors and I have repeatedly been thanked by them for my participation. I generally do well with my grades and I have learnt so much. So I'm a little scared to be moving away from this thing that has become a safe space for me but at the same time I'm trying to look at is as a new challenge. I only have one final obstacle in my way, the thesis, and then I will have not only passed through university but I will have conquered it. I'm trying to keep thinking of it that way.
I am trying to grasp onto that mindset to make it through this exam season. I had a rather tough exam period last year around this time and this one is set to be even more stressfull. Four 10 page written assignments to be handed in within eleven days of each other. They are not kidding around this time. I have enjoyed all of my electives immensely, even if I have had days where I didn't make it to class. I know I have learnt a whole lot about the four different topics but translating that into an assignment isn't always the easiest thing, especially when they need to be written so closely together.
I have one down out of four. I finished writing and proof-reading it with Mum's help today and I might just do one final once over before I hand it in before the deadline at noon on Monday. With that one in the net, I have one more to hand in on the 12th and two (yes, two on the same day!) on the 14th of December. I have nothing written for them yet. I have loads of notes from class and I have vague ideas for most of them but that is still a long way from finished. I will need to work my butt off in the next thirteen days to get this done. I've tried to stay on top of everything and map it out a bit. I had a little too much fun with the calendar below but you have to make it as easy to yourself as possible. I won't be home in the flat for much of December and I wanted the danandphilshop calendar photo to be a source of support. It's a tight schedule but it is possible, which is important. You need manageable expectations and all that jazz.
At noon on Friday the 14th of December, I will be done and I won't touch anything thesis related until the new year. I will get to have a latter half of December filled with cosy family Christmas time and hanging out with a very special little lady who is joining the family next weekend. We have been watching and keeping up with our little Robin through Facebook updates from the breeder and I have met her once but I don't think it'll feel properly real until she's back in the family house. I'm very excited and I have no doubt that Mum is going to use playing with the puppy as motivator when I get frustrated with my studying. I'm okay with that to be honest.
Each of the remaining three exams will have four or three days to be accomplished. I will need to put in proper hours. I had hoped to be a little more on top of things but I have found it difficult to work on stuff this past week after classes finished. I suppose the stress factor hadn't quite kicked in yet. I can feel it breathing down my neck now that the calendar month has switched over. It's December already. This year had definitely been a bit of an odd one but it had been full of so much stuff. I'm a little more sceptical towards what 2019 will bring, as it will naturally have to be big changes but that's a topic to worry about at a later time.
My focus for the next thirteen days will be these three remaining exams. May I have luck, motivation and stehvermögen on my side.
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