GS 2017 – 02/07/2017

Hello, Users!

I must apologise as in the last week, I have let my schedule slip a tiny bit. I believe I posted one on Monday but neglected the rest of the week unless you are on Campus Society where I posted an exclusive ‘MA Life’ article – it was short and sweet, as I am sure this one will be!

As usual, I do not have anything to update you on… wow, I’m boring at the minute. Anywho! On the ‘exclusive Campus Society’ article, I mentioned how my graduation was fastly coming around, it is THIS month. On the 20th of this month, I will graduate from Bishop Grosseteste University with an Upper Second Class degree in Drama in the Community. I am terrified.

You may be questioning; why are you terrified for your own graduation? To be honest, I suppose there are a few reasons as to why I am terrified.

1. As I have mentioned repeatedly over the past few weeks, this is three years of my life coming to an end. An entire chapter just ends right here! After three years of studying, making friends and experiences… it’s all drawing to an end. When I started three years, the end of university seemed like a lifetime away and I could only imagine the end of it and everything that came with that… but now, here we are!
2. As discussed in my previous articles, I suffer from anxiety. This usually means, from past experiences, I do not do well with sitting in large crowds for long periods of time… especially knowing I am having to stand in front of a lot of people. I am a drama student and this is what triggers me… silly, right?
3. Also… what if I like, trip up on stage or something? Knowing me, that is something that will more than likely happen. I will be walking SO carefully onto that stage, but, I shall keep you updated!

With graduation coming up, I still haven’t bought my suit yet… but I am doing so this week! I first have to go home and work with my parents for a few days to earn a little extra money and then I shall be buying my graduation suit, happy days!

More recently, however, I have been painting my student house! Now, some of you students out there may be thinking, what the hell? Why are you painting your own student house? Is that no the landlord’s job? 1. Because I want too, 2. technically yes. Basically, because I am living in the same house for another year and have already taken great pride in keeping the garden tidy and planting flowers, I wanted to take care of the house. Over the years, there is just general wear and tear of the house, e.g. scuffs on the walls and cracks etc – therefore, I offered my services to the landlord and luckily, he provided me with everything I needed! In turn, I had a very busy day yesterday and manage to get 90% of the house painted, just some more to do tonight.

As I have mentioned previously in other articles, if you are respectful of your student house and your landlord, they will look out for you. It’s surprising how ignorant some students are and how much they do not care about the house in which they live. Oh well! Some people do respect their houses and that’s the important thing! If not, your landlord will just bill you at the end.

As for today, that is all I have to update you on!

GS 2017 – 26/06/2017

Good Evening Readers,

Again, as usual in these recent updates, I do not have a lot to tell you as my graduate summer – at the moment – is not that exciting. However, I do have exciting news!

Today, I received my final marks back from university and now know what I am graduating with…

I am very happy to announce that I will be graduating from Bishop Grosseteste University with an Upper Second Class degree in BA (Hons) Drama in the Community.

E.g. I graduated with a 2:1!

This is also good news because it means after three years of hard work, breakdowns, tears and more, I have achieved the classification I need in order to go onto study my Master’s!

Literally, the relief and excitement that came over me today when I received my grades were unbelievable. Relief; this is because I can finally relax knowing that I have safely got the grades to get into the University of Lincoln and the fact that my hard work has actually paid off. Excitement; this has the same reasons as before really but also down to the fact that I can actually graduate with my friends next month!

Therefore, with all of that in mind, it is time to get back to working with my parents to earn some money to buy my graduation suit! Also today, I booked in for my hair/beard to be cut at a ‘fancy pants’ place in Lincoln, all in order to be ready for graduation!

Until next time!

GS 2017 – 25/06/2017

Happy Sunday Readers!

This article should have been posted on Friday, unfortunately, I have been a little busy and unable to find the time to actually post to my blog. Therefore, you have a Friday entry on Sunday! Today, I am working a 9 am to 5 pm shift over on Campus Society, therefore, I have a day of moderation and blogging ahead of me!

As I previously mentioned, I have been pretty busy the past couple of days getting caught up with various things going on in my life, therefore, I have not been able to keep to my schedule. However, I am back! This time, with probably only a small article in the form of a story time!

STORY TIME!

This story time takes place only a few hours ago from the start of this article.

Our story begins around 2 am. I had JUST fallen asleep when I hear my FaceTime ringing. I reach over and see that it is my friend who is sleeping in our front room for the night – convinced she wanted to update me on a game we were playing, I ignored him. Only to see a bombardment of Facebook Messages explaining how there was something in our kitchen. Convinced it was probably a robbery and/or murderer, I decided to stay in the comfort of my bed.

After more messages, I discovered that is was actually a mouse. A BLOODY MOUSE. Now, go back a few days when myself and my friends were sitting in our living room with our living room doors open. We are sitting there and we see a mouse just run across our garden, it keeps doing it. Obviously trying to get somewhere. Anyway, after a few hours of watching it attempt to go somewhere, we ignore it and that is that. Therefore, that has definitely been a mouse around. Until last night when we realise this mouse has made itself a little home… and is taking liberties by eating our food. I mean, do you pay rent or pay for shopping little mouse? No. No, you do not.

Well, there was not much that could be done at 2 am. THEN, there was this morning. I woke up and the little mousey-idiot had been eating the bananas – again. So, we chucked it away. I made breakfast and what not and went to carry on with work. I was out of the kitchen maybe an hour and a half, I came back, ANOTHER BANANA EATEN. In that time, like seriously? When, how? Therefore, I now have my iPad set up in the kitchen and I am FaceTiming my iPhone so I can see when he appears and where from. Unfortunately, the mouse has to die and it is only a matter of time before he does. This calls for mouse traps!

Unfortunately, all of this is a waiting game and failing all of this, it’s calling the landlord tomorrow and letting him know of the goings on!

Well, there you go, my graduate summer now features a mouse as well, apparently called ‘Gertie’. Until next time!

GS 2017 – 19/06/2017

Good Evening Readers,

Here we are, another article! What has been going on in my life? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Oh! Wait! I binge watched all of Rick and Morty. That is the extent of what I can class as being productive at the moment. Yay for me!

I think the begin this article, first and foremost, we should address the weather. That’s the most typically British thing to do, right? I mean, we only get a few good days of summer a year and it is fair to say, this is some of the warmest weather we have faced this year. When I say that what I mean is, WHY IS IT SO DAMN HOT?! If I am being honest with you, I prefer the cold weather. At least when it is cold you can control your temperature. When you are hot, you are just hot! It’s so annoying.

Anyway, enough of that, just know that I will probably be trekking to the South Pole tonight to sleep, or failing that, sleeping in my freezer.

Today, I believe I shall talk about a little poll I ran over on Campus Society. Now, as most of my readers know, I have written a few articles entitled ‘Student Worries’ where I have explored a variety of worries that prospective students face when starting university. Well, even those that are already at university. A lot of them can be debunked as common misconceptions that have been created through media coverage and stories, social media content and stories that have been passed through the grape vine.

In this poll, I put forward the following question with the following options;

“What are you most worried about starting university?

• Finances
• Starting Your Course
• Food Shopping
• Living Independently
• Making Friends
• The Work Load
• Joining Societies
• Night Life ETC.
• Other”

The following are the number of votes they received each;

Finances (47); Starting Your Course (14); Food Shopping (10); Living Independently (13); Making Friends (54); The Work Load (13); Joining Societies (6); Night Life ETC. (5); Other (1).

As you can see there are two clear ‘winners’ that are far ahead of the others, those being ‘Finances’ and ‘Making Friends’. Ironically, through my past three years of blog writing, these are ALWAYS the most common. This has led me to write many articles on these topics in order to try and encourage students to not stress about these things quite so much before they start university; doing so can really make the start of university a daunting experience.

Finances

Do not get me wrong, finances can be extremely daunting whilst at university. For the majority of students, they will apply for Student Finance and get a varied amount depending on their parent’s income (do not even get me started on that). Now, this amount they receive from SF can barely even cover some students rent/ability to live and that is scary. For other students, it doesn’t cover their accommodation at all! Some students have to borrow from friends/family if they are so lucky. Others are able to get bursaries. Others have to dip into their savings. Then there are others that have to work in order to allow them to live. Now, this point goes off into various other branches about working during university, the stress of that and the balance of work/social/uni and it goes on and on, something I have covered many a time! But for now, we’ll focus on just the idea of finances.

Whatever situation you are in, if you want to go to university, you are going to have to live with it. One thing that is not worth your time is worrying about the debt you are going to be in. Unfortunately, we live in a society now where being a student means having an acceptance towards the debt you are going to be, that’s just that. There is nothing you can do about that. (Unless you are insanely right or win the lottery!). Therefore, try not to let it bother you too much. Accept the money you are going to get and accept that it is something you are going to be paying back for an awfully long time and probably never going to fully pay off anyway. Once you have accepted that, you can move on with your life.

If you need a job, get a job and something manageable. If you don’t, manage to budget your money. (To be honest, do that either way!). Budgeting is important. Also, know that you are not alone. Every student is in the same boat and finances is something that 99% of us do poorly… so, do not worry. To be honest, I am not the best at giving advice about it. I usually ignore it until I HAVE to worry about it. Best way! (It’s not!).

If you need help, reach out to your university. There are many, many routes that you can take in order to get extra money and get help whilst at university!

Making Friends

Again, this is another EXTREMELY common worry when starting university. It is mostly common for it to be a 50/50 split. Half are not worried about making friends at university, the other half is. At the end of the day, it depends on who you are as a person – all those weird and wonderful things that make you, you. No matter whether you are an extreme extrovert or a deeply rooted introvert, there is ALWAYS going to be somebody like you are university and you will come across them. You will bond over past experiences, likes and dislikes, hobbies and so on. (Hopefully your course as well!). There are friends to be made all over whilst at university.

One thing I will say is this. Do NOT worry if you do not make friends in your course. There are some people that do not and that is fine. There is plenty of other opportunities. During Freshers week especially. During Freshers week the universities usually put on a parade of different events and activities to take part in and you should give all of them ago if you can. Just get out there and meet friends. Join socities, go to taster sessions and so on! Now, I do understand that for an extrovert that is fairly easy, for an introvert, not so much. However, introverts, get out! Give it ago! Make friends with your flatmates and go out for a coffee or for a meal or to a taster session… the list is endless.

All I can promise is this… it will naturally happen. It will all just fall into place, so let it happen. (Just do not forget to put in at least a little effort!).

Good luck propsective students, until next time!

GS 2017 – 16/06/2017 (This, That & Everything)

Hello Readers,

How are we all? I trust we are all. Today’s article is going to be a mixture of everything; as the title suggests, ‘This, That & Everything’. As university and college come to an end, the exam stress begins to disappear and summer begins to take shape, I thought I’d address a mixture of areas. Let’s get started!

• A Well Deserved Break

As previously stated, university, college and more is coming to an end for a lot of students. That means all that hard work has now (hopefully) paid off and you can begin to enjoy your summer… again, hopefully.

This little area is to remind you that you should have a well-deserved break! You have been working hard for a VERY long time so now, do not feel guilty about taking some time off. This is what I did when I finished university, I felt SUPER guilty about not doing anything but I am telling you, if it is possible, take a week to yourself! Stay in bed, watch films, binge watch TV, have some relaxing days out, go out to eat, go out drinking – do whatever you need to do to unwind and relax. You owe it to yourself to let your body and mind have a break.

• Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

Yes, it is a very cheesy line but it is very true. Now, I apply this quote to a variety of situations – therefore, it depends on what situation you are in. If you’re going from college to university, ensure you start preparing. Make sure your Student Finance is sorted out in plenty of time, as well as your accommodation! Ensure you have started to plan out weekly budgets and you have started to look for jobs if you need one. Make a list of everything that you need to buy and buy in plenty of time!

If you’re already at university, ensure you start preparing for your next academic year. Spend some time getting copies off books or spend some time in the library and start reading and trying to make a head start on the work you shall be doing. Also, if you’re already in university, make sure you have everything sorted for your student house (because if you have not already got one, you are cutting it fine, to be prepared – look around Christmas time). Ensure contracts and money are in order if there is anything you need to buy for the house or clarify with the landlord and so on. BE PREPARED.

• Landlords and Communication

This leads on from the previous, and one I pride myself in especially. At this point, I have lived in two student houses and had a good line of communication with both of my landlords. Why is this important you ask? Well, if you are respectful of your landlord and willing to talk to them, this can even benefit both you and the landlord. For example, in the first student house, by being close with my landlord, he provided us with two new sofas and also allowed us to have rabbits, as well as fitting mirrors in the bathrooms for us. At the same time, in return, I offered my services of doing minor repairs and so on.

In this student house, I am again close with the landlord. He let us fit an outdoor light in the garden, as well as fitting a blind for us in a hallway and teaching me how to bleed radiators and fix the boiler. In return, I am offering my services over summer repainting the house free of charge. I take pride in my student house and I show this by caring for the garden and making sure it’s presentable. By showing the landlord you can about the house, keep it in good condition and are not afraid to help out and talk to them, they will respect you a lot more! This is something I can not repeat enough!

• Money, Money, Money

Obviously, as a lot of students suffer, we know that Student Finance does not allow some students to afford rent, let alone live. Therefore, students suffer. In turn, students have to ask family for money (if this is viable) or work! All I say is, in the student cities, jobs are all around – but not easy to come by, ironically. Therefore, ensure you search for jobs in plenty of time! Apply, apply, apply!

However, I will say this. It is important you know your timetable for the year whilst at university. Find out when you will be in lectures and make sure you dedicate time to individual study, once you do this, you will know the kind of hours you can apply for. Do not get me wrong, some people manage a full-time job whilst at university, some people can only manage part-time, it depends on you! Just do not stretch yourself thin! Know what you can handle!

• Enjoy Your Summer!

Finally, enjoy your summer! This sort of links with the first point about having that well-deserved break but this addresses all of summer. Summer, all in all, is about having a good break (even if you are working) therefore, make sure you enjoy it! Spend time with family and friends, if you can go on holiday – go! Go out, explore and just make some memories! Once university hits, as much fun as it can seem, it will be stressful and though you’ll make memories, you won’t have time to go on breaks away and such (some people do – but that is not the point). Just ENJOY YOUR SUMMER! As much as possible! Have a great time and just live a little and return to university (or start) refreshed!

That is it for today, these are some of my little tips that I wanted to share with you!

Have a great summer readers, whatever you do!

GS 2O17 – 12/06/2017

Good Evening Readers,

Here I am again, keeping to my writing schedule in order to keep some continuity to my blog and something steady for my readers – therefore, I hope you are appreciating the new content that I am trying to keep up with! The one downside is, my life is not that exciting at the moment!

As I have just said, my life is not that interesting at the moment. I have a lot of the things in the pipelines ready to get going, but… it is just getting to them! One thing, unfortunately, one of the jobs I got shortlisted for, I did not get in the end. Therefore, the search continues, however, my first ‘working day’ on Campus was a success!

On Saturday I had a 9-5 shift working on Campus as a moderator and it was a good success! It was a bit of a quiet day, but there were a few active members that I spoke with and I managed to get loads of content posted on the site. As well as watching a few films throughout the day, so all in all, it was a good day and I am looking forward to my next shift!

I ALWAYS RECEIVED MY ‘VERIFIED’ BADGE ON MY PROFILE TODAY. It is only something small, but I enjoy it! I feel like I valued member of the workforce now!

Anyway, for now…

STORY TIME!

Jesus, I do not actually have a story for you, let me think!

OKAY! I have one, only a small one. This leads on from the fact I was at my mates birthday party last night. Now, I went to this friends birthday party a few years ago and it was the first time I’d ever really met his parents. This is important to the story!

At this party, I had drunk a little too much and was not feeling 100% okay. I was drunk, okay? I was drunk. Also at this party, there was a fire pit and over the party, I couldn’t help but ‘take control’ of the fire. Long story short, I looked like Gollum guarding the ring.

At one point during the party, my friend’s mum attempting to come over and put some wood on the fire… I shouted at her. I literally shouted at her and told her it was my fire and she could not touch it. First time meeting her, and I shouted at her.

However, all she did, was simply walk over to the music player and put the song ‘Firestarter’ by ‘The Prodigy’. Then, all she did was laugh at me and agree that it was my fire.

Therefore luckily, I was off the hook! Everyone did laugh at me though!

Well, there it is!

Until the next post!

GS 2017 – 09/06/2017

Good Afternoon Readers,

As promised, I am continuing with my ‘Graduate Summer’ collection of writing. Today’s subject was decided upon using a poll on ‘Campus Society’ in which I provided the following options;

• My Past Couple of Days
• The Election / My £210 Bet
• Story Time (Random Story)
• Other 

Following the results of that, I am going to combine two. I will write about my last couple of days and link it with a little story. At this point and time of my writing, I’m still yet to decide on what story that will be, but, we shall see!

We shall start with the past couple of days. As you know from one of my recent articles, I have been back home in Leicester. Due in part to going to London to visit Campus and also wanting to see my family, however, I had to come back to Lincoln yesterday to vote. I have not had an exciting life, to say the least at the moment. I helped out my parents with some work the other day and earned some money, then yesterday I drove back to Lincoln, voted and spent most of my evening watching the Election. After a while, I realised I’d tuned out of what was being said and just focusing on the bottom of the screen watching the seats being taken. Thrilling. I had to give up watching it in the end.

HOWEVER, the last couple of days have been dominated by something else… something that was advertised to ‘take over our summer’… and yes, you would be right in guessing that ‘Love Island’ has returned to our screens! I definitely have an unhealthy obsession with that programme. It is one of those that I refuse to miss, I have to watch every episode! I’m enjoying this year contestants and the drama is already heating up. I have my opinions on all of them but I won’t go into detail on that in this post as I would end up going on and on and on!

With this in mind though, this leads me to a story that happened just last night!

STORY TIME!

Right, so, I’d returned to Lincoln and quickly informed my housemates that we HAD to watch Love Island as I had not missed an episode and I wanted to continue that streak. At the same time, I wanted them to share in the delight that is Love Island and become as obsessed as I am around this FANTASTIC show!

So there I am, ready and waiting for Love Island to start at 9 pm on ITV2. Patiently waiting. I’ve gone to the toilet, I’ve gone for a cigarette and now I am comfy on the sofa. My roommate then plugs in her soup maker… which blows ALL the electrics in the kitchen/front room and yes, you guessed it, this meant the TV died. Full. Blown. Panic. The fuse had blown in the plug meaning it tripped the rest of the electrics in the house. Therefore, it was me to the rescue in a blind panic as I attempted not to miss Love Island. This was at like 8:58 pm – so yeah, you can imagine my panic. I ran to the fuse box, expecting to see that the main fuse had been tripped, it had not. PANIC. After fiddling with it for a while I managed to rest the fuse box and then change the fuse in soup makers plug and get everything back up and running – having only missed two minutes of Love Island.

Everything was okay. I managed to finish watching the programme without any more interruptions.

So yeah, that’s my exciting little life during my graduate summer!

JustGeorgeJ’s Little Adventure in Big London!

Hello Readers,

As many of you know, today I traveled down to London to visit the offices of Campus Society. It has been a day… I can tell you that. It has been a lot of traveling, a lot of new experiences and very tiring. However, all in all, it has been extremely fun! 

As I write this article, I am on the train back to Leicester. Luckily, I managed to get a seat next to the window and facing the direction the train is actually going. As I travel home and record the standard “fields passing me by bit” for my YouTube vlog, I’m left reflecting on my little journey and the day as a whole!

Before I talk about today, I believe it is important to mention the recent, horrific, events that have happened in the U.K. including London. Unless you are a complete shut away and hermit (which in this day and age, I would not blame you) you shall know of the events that occurred in Manchester and London. If you do not know, in Manchester there was a terrorist attack involving an explosion at an Ariana Grande concert and then a couple of days ago, a terrorist attack involving a van and stabbings in London. It is fair to say, the world has been a scary place as of late. Therefore, it was no surprise I was nervous about traveling to London today. My anxiety was going crazy. I come from Leicester and Lincoln, sure, crime happens but nothing on the scale of terrorist attacks so it was difficult to decide whether I was going to go somewhere where tensions were high and venture into a city that is on high alert. I was on the fence, to say the least, I kept changing my mind. What set it in stone (the decision to go) was watching the One Love concert in Manchester last night. Following what happened at Grande’s gig, she did a charity concert with a collection of famous singers and musicians and much more to raise money for the victims and families of the tragedy. Witnessing what I did, as I watched it live on TV, was outstanding. It was clear to see that no matter what, as a country, we are defiant in the face of chaos and terrorism. They attempt to tear us apart and strike fear into our hearts and alter our values and way of life but all we do is throw a big ass concert and have a bloody good time! We are strong. We are resilient. We are united. With this in mind, I decided the fear was not going to stop me and the decision was made, I was going to London.

Today, I woke up at 9 am and proceeded to get ready for the exciting day ahead. Now, first I should let you into a story as to why I am so against public transport…

Back in my first-year summer, my car had to be fixed and therefore, to travel to Lincoln, I had to go on the train. This would be the first time I’d EVER been on a train on my own! (Weird, right?). This meant I had to book my tickets, navigate the station and all the rest. Long story short, when collecting my RETURN tickets from the machine at the station… I only collected the Outward bound tickets and believed this was everything I needed. Therefore, on the way back, I had no ticket. I couldn’t afford another to get back. Luckily, my friend drove me back. If not, I’d have still been there to this day.  (Literally) (Not literally).

… so now you understand why I was nervous about my journey. Anywho, I got myself ready and had to be at Leicester train station for 11:45, my train left at 12:00. By a miracle, I managed to get ALL my tickets I needed, navigate to the platform and get on the train without any help. #Achievement #AdultLife #NailedIt ! Ahead of me was an hours train journey to St.Pancras station – the journey was nice. However, someone was in my reserved seat… so, in a typically British way, I didn’t bother the man and simply sat with him. I soon realised I was sitting in a position so I’d be going backward when the train moved. Seeing as I get travel sick, this was not good. You’re probably thinking “you could have just moved seat”, oh no, no my dear friends! My anxiety does not allow for that, I was fully committed to sitting with this man and his girlfriend. I was in it for the long run. In my head, moving would have offended him and made me look weird. However, I survived the journey and did not puke.

Once I reached the station, I had to navigate to the tube. Which I had NEVER been on. I had NO idea how it worked. (This seemed to offend a lot of Londoners which I encountered today). I just started to mindlessly follow signs for “UNDERGROUND”, that seemed to be a good idea. I knew that I had to be on the Picadilly Westbound tube to get to Knightsbridge and luckily, three lovely police offers who were extremely approachable helped me out. Once on the tube, I managed to get myself to Knightsbridge and finally to the building I needed. Honestly, it may not sound a lot to you seasoned travelers but the whole thing for me was a miracle. The fact I actually got where I needed to be is a pure miracle.

As mentioned previously I was off to the offices of Campus Society. Campus Society is a social media website for students both nationally and internationally. If you have not already, check it out here. At this stage, I do not want to say too much about why I was at Campus Society but I will say it is an exciting opportunity! I’ll keep you all updated on this as time goes on!

After my team of meeting the Campus crew and getting shown around, my time had passed before I knew it, and it was time to meet a friend before getting some food. After a successful second tube trip, we ended up in Five Guys – catching up and having a nice time. From there, we went for coffee before I had to catch my train back to Leicester at 7:15 pm. Then, from there, long story short, I arrived back in Leicester and was home safe and sound!

And this is my day to London! (How many times can I say the word London?)

There is a lot of exciting news to update you all on soon and a lot going on in my life! Slowly but surely I will catch you all up and let you know what is going on but until then I hope you enjoyed reading this account of my day out and keep an eye out for this space where I will be posting the link to my vlog all about the footage I recorded today!

Goodnight readers!

GS 2017 – 01/06/2017

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my slightly altered articles – well, more like journal entries if you will.

Seeing as I have finished my three year undegraduate degree, I no longer have articles to write you about my third year and to be honest, I did not want this blog to just go unused from now on. Therefore, I’ve started these entries. Let me explain the title first;

‘GS 2017 – 01/06/2017’

• GS – ‘Graduate Summer’; all article entries around my journies throughout my ‘graduate summer’ will be titled with this ‘GS’ at the beginning.
• 2017 – ‘The Year’; I feel that was self explanatory, oh well!
• 01/06/2016 – ‘The Date’; Self explanatory again, but obviously, this will change depending on the article.

Well, there you go. That was quick, a very quick explanation of my new titles. Hopefully you understand and we can move on… you have? Good!

Right, so, now you’re asking; “What are these entries going to tell us?”.

My GS articles are going to document both exciting and non-exciting days throughout my summer. This could be simply what I have done in a day, a random thought I have had during a day and so on. At the moment, these will be leading up to my graduation on the 20th July 2017 when I will officially graduate from Bishop Grosseteste University. After that, it will more than likely document my journey through summer as I attempt to save up money and allow myself to actually live next year.

Onto this entry!

Let me tell you a story;

Today, I was offered my absolute dreamjob. I cannot say what it is or who offered me the job for specific reasons… also those of which I cannot discuss, but, nevermind! The job would have required me to move to London to work full time, however, due to already having my Masters in place for September at the University of Lincoln, I am unable to take this job.

NOT TO FRET because the same place offered me another job in which it allows me to work from home part-time. Great right? I know! It allows me to continue pursing one of my biggest dreams and allow me to make some money doing something I absolutely love. (I’d do it for free if I’m honest with you, but, do not let them hear me say that!). Now, things are starting to look up for me!

Alongside this, I’ve also been shortlisted for a couple of jobs in my city which means, my financial worries should, hopefully, be on their way to being sorted out. Like I said, everything is looking up.

Now for my day;

As I mention in my previous post ‘The Post-Uni Slump‘ I have not done a lot since I have finished university. To be honest with you, I have felt a little lost. However, as of today, I’ve actually been productive. After the amazing news I received today, it sort of gave me a bit of life back and made me want to be active and do something! What did I do? I did some gardening. Yes, I like to actually take ownership of my student house, you should to! I cut the hedge back, BIG TIME. It looks a lot neater now. I then planted some flowers my mum had bought for me in one of our little flower beds and all that is left to do is clear up the other flower bed. Follow that, I went to Aldi and did a shop with my housemates and then cooked a very simple chicken dish with sweet and sour sauce. With rice. It was actually fairly tasted. I do like to take ownership and pride in my cooking as well.

Now;

Now I am sat at my Mac doing some work over on Campus Society. If you do not know what this is, it’s basically a social platform for students. It’s where students can blog or share their blogs, join channels around various topics and chat about everything and anything. Imagine your societies at university, then imagine them alone, combined with talking to students from all over the world.

Find my profile here.

As for today, that is it for this first ‘new’ post!

Thank you for reader!

JustGeorgeJ

The Post-Uni Slump

Afternoon Readers,

I’m going to be honest this life after university is not all I expected it to be. Do not get me wrong, the life of knowing that I do not have any work looming over me is very glorious and free, but, at the same time, it is also very boring and I do not know what to really do with myself. Therefore, let’s talk about the post-uni slump!

I’ve been finished university around a week now and I can tell you now, I have not done much in that time. To be honest, most days/nights I have been out drinking celebrating the end of my journey, however, there is also so long you can go with ignoring the fact that a significant part of your life has come to an end and unfortunately, it comes the time you have to say goodbye to people that have become like a second family to you and grow and move on with your life. It’s not enjoyable, it’s an inevitability. Again, do not get me wrong, there are the people that you will stay close with and see often, but, there are still lose that go in their own direction and it is upsetting.

For me, personally, I’ve always fallen into a ‘slump’ at the end of the various stages of my educational journey. Be it the end of GCSE or Sixth Form, I have always this slump. I normally stay in it for one-two weeks (all of summer) and then carry on once I find something to occupy myself with.

It is a weird state to be in, especially where I am now, no longer a student at one university and waiting to be a student at another. I am aiming to use this summer as an opportunity to earn some money and get some money beyond me in hopes that I will be financially stable when it comes to my next academic year. Luckily, I have been shortlisted for a job and currently waiting for an interview at said job, if all goes well, I will have a job that I shall be happy at and getting this money behind me!

On another note, I also feel guilty for doing nothing. In actuality I should not feel that way at all, I have worked non-stop for three years and put a lot of work into my degree, so, I do deserve a couple of weeks break where I just do nothing. At the same time, I feel guilty due to the fact that I seem to have lost my passion for writing. Obviously, I run this blog and various other social medias and I feel like I should keep my work up to standard and regular for my readers, but, it is really hard to find the time and passion for sitting down and writing.

If I’m being honest, I’m struggling for topics, especially for this blog. I have written for this blog over a hundred times now, I’ve repeated past posts and I’ve provided various experiences and advice, however, I feel like I’ve hit a wall with this blog. This saddens me as I do not want this blog to come to an end, hopefully, it will not. I should start working on my blog ‘The MA Life’ and document my preparations for that course… however, I have no idea what to write about, again. Now you understand, the slump.

Ironically, as most people, I’m most motivated at 3 am. When I get into bed at night and attempt to relax and fall to sleep, my mind is firing at 100mph with ideas, motivations, dreams, goals and more – however, by the morning, they’ve disappeared as quick as the sleep I was longing for.

EXCITING NEWS… as I was writing this article entry I had a phone call and it was a telephone interview for a different job as opposed to the one mentioned above. It went really well and the prospects of that look promising!

All in all, this university slump will pass but I wanted to share this article for you to let you know it is a natural way of feeling after you’ve finished university. Even if that feeling makes you believe that you’re lost or that your university journey feels pointless etc, whatever it is, it is natural. You will get out of the slump and you will keep on pushing!

Good luck to all those that have not finished yet, keep pushing, work hard and watch it pay off! It is nearly over soon, best of luck!