Three weeks of life at University and I’ll tell you, there’s been many ups and downs! Time has flown by, and already I am deep into work. It seems like the pile of assignments keeps on growing and there is no end!

I am writing this post on a Wednesday morning with a freshly made cup of coffee from my Tassimo machine in my dorm room, watching the new season of ‘You’ on Netflix as I prepare myself for my seminars today. On days like these I like to slow down and not rush off to a gym session bright and early or do work straight away. It’s important to do this from time to time and I am only now beginning to see the benefits of it.

University, like many other things in life, is a huge decision – a great big step up from life at home attending sixth form or college. Of course I knew this before coming here, but I did not think that the overwhelming and negative side of it would affect me as much as it has. I have been incredibly anxious over the last few weeks, as I’ve had to weigh my workload with the social side of university (the part everybody looks forward to). This has been a challenge. I love partying and staying social, but even for me it gets too much occasionally. For example, Wednesday nights are, of course, sport socials. I play hockey, and have been accepted into the second team here at Warwick (go me!) and thus at some point or another I need to get off my arse and attend a ‘circling’ social on a Wednesday. I am supposed to go tonight, but my anxiety has overwhelmed me a lot this morning so I may need to reevaluate where I stand. I am going to take today slow and see at the end of the say if I still want to go (it will be fun, though daunting. I need to do it at some point though!)

It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are

Roy E. Disney (nephew of Walt Disney)

I think this is a very important thing to point out about university or anything that involves ultimate social time. We all have our limits and the metaphorical ‘social battery’. It feels as though my ‘battery’ has already died. University is about socialising and making new friends, meaning we have to leave our comfort zone to achieve this. However, it is so important that we recognise when everything is enough for us. The only person putting pressure on yourself, is you. No one is forcing you to go out on a random Monday night in the middle of term when you know you have a 9am in-person lecture on Tuesday – although a lot of the time it feels as though someone is forcing you to put on that dress and those heels. It is only you in your head. It is vital that we all learn this and keep this at the back of our minds the next time we feel pressured to do anything, not just going out. We have our own lives and we are our own people, thus we make our own decisions.