University in the pandemic!

Hi lovely people, I know that I have said that I have finished my first year of university however sometime es it feels like I never really started. I have spent my entire university career so far in a pandemic which made it impossible to have a normal university life, but I did still move out, live away from my hometown for a year and live as a fully functioning adult (well so I’m told).

Finishing the first year of this degree felt almost impossible in December when I felt defeated and wanted to give up. People always say to young people that these are the best years of your life but in the middle of a pandemic how can we make it the best? This last year was held on such a high pedestal only to be donkey d=kicked by the pandemic. It’s so hard not to feel defeated and cheated out of the experience that I deserved but I got to remember all of the good that came out of it.

Pandemic university life.

So, it can be hard to understand d what I mean when I say I haven’t got then uni life. By uni life I mean meeting people and going out, drinking, staying up late and going to parties. So, I turned 18 the week that we into the pandemic so I was able to have a small 18th birthday party and I went to a pub, but I’ve never been to a club. I never got to meet people I felt so isolated and one of the lucky ones as I am able to live with my boyfriend, but I wasn’t able to make friends and it can be so hard to feel like you were not able to make friends. But I know I’m not the only one and it’s just part of living through the pandemic and fingers crossed that next year will be better.

There were some things that I was still able to take part in such as I was able to go into university for a few weeks so I’m one of the lucky people that actually met a few lecturers and was able to see how university works in person. As I have mentioned I was able to move out of my family home and into private student accommodation with my boyfriend which has been amazing (but I’ll get on to that). I was also able to go to a few restaurants and the pub a handful of times over the last year and with everything starting to go back to normal its strange to think how long it has been between trips to the pub or to go out and eat. And it can be so hard not to compare the experience I have to the one that people had in previous years!

Moving out as a uni student.

Moving out has a huge pressure on it but moving to uni you move out knowing that you’re likely to move back at some point whether that is for the summer or if it’s after uni before you move out properly. And knowing that you’ll have to move back can sometimes be hard to grasp because you get a taste of freedom and living your own life, making your own rules only to move back and fall into old patterns. It can be so hard to stay positive when you feel like you aren’t moving forward but even if you’re taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back you are still moving forwards just at a slower pace.

It can be so hard to make the change of living without parental guidance. Not because you can’t do things alone but simply because it’s such a huge change. This change can show itself in the weirdest of ways just as hat butter you buy. When you move out you may decide that the butter that has been in your house your entire life isn’t the butter that you like, and you have the power to change it. The change is daunting at first but is so nice being able to get used to the freedom. Even in the pandemic we have been able to gain that freedom and sense of growing up and that is something that I am thankful for!

Whatever you are feeling it is normal and it is valid.

So here is this week’s check in:

What is something that you feel you missed out on during the pandemic?

Do you struggle with making comparisons?

Are you trying to be a more positive person?

Have you moved out and what was something that you changed?

If not, what is something that you do want to change?

What is your goal for this week?

What is something that you have achieved this week?

(feel free to dm me on Instagram with any of your answers or any question!)

So remember that change can be hard but its normal and your reaction and feelings to it are valid and normal.

I hope that you can understand how loved you are!

- Laney.

- Xoxo