Student Survival: What to take to Uni

The end of August is nigh, and with it comes the migration of students everywhere, both new and old, returning to their University! Tonight I had the misfortune to stumble across an article about what parents should make sure that they buy their child for their first trip to university and I found that I have a bit of a problem in telling whether or not the author is joking. I’ll let you decide for yourselves, by checking it out HERE

Read it? Good.

Half of the stuff on that list is useless and flashy and just there for the sake of being there and showing off. I for one have never seen the appeal of “Oxbridge Charm”. If I wanted people to think that I went to Oxbridge, I’d have applied to both Oxford and Cambridge (as it happens I am so not a fan of the archaic rule of these universities that I never even considered applying to them for even a moment). Some of the stuff on that list is clearly for students that come from wealthy families who probably have more money than sense a vast sum of trust money set aside for them. I mean, what student needs a £200 suit jacket? In fairness, some of the items on the list are useful, but not the brands that are suggested. I for one prefer a PC to a Mac and lets face it a bike is a bike regardless of make, charm, cool factor and cost!

I thought I’d put together a few suggestions of what I think are absolutely useful items for any of you freshers moving away for the first time.

Cutlery
Most halls at normal universities are now self catered, meaning that unless you want to order in takeaway every night (whilst this sounds like a good idea, both your body and your bank account will hate it after a while, trust me!) then you had better bring some cooking and eating implements. Chief among these are cutlery! No matter how nice your housemates might seem, they WILL steal your cutlery. Without fail. You will have no forks left by the end of the year thanks to these vultures, unless you buy a big set and keep a few in your room! Problem solved!

Posters/Pictures
This is probably your first time living away from home and in my experience, everybody starts to get homesick at one point in their first few weeks. Having a selection of posters and pictures to brighten up your room will hopefully make you a bit more comfortable and settled in, as well as making your room look pretty.

Hygiene Products
Until such a time as I rise up and take over the world, deodorant and other hygiene products will be your responsibility to remember (I hope you’re ready for my army of Cleanliness Enforcers to remove you of the need to do this yourself…). Nobody wants to sit near or hang around with the smelly kid, and you will become the leper of campus if you don’t keep your stink under control. Body wash, toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, shampoo (greasy hair should be made illegal…) are not that hard to find in a shop and they don’t take that long to use. Oh and if you’re one those people who claim that “I don’t need to use deodorant as I don’t have a body odour problem!” you do. Everyone in your life has just been too nice to say anything until now. Slap on some lynx and shut up.

Stationery
Don’t be the idiot that turns up to lectures without a pen and paper. People will wonder how on Earth you managed to get in.

Clothes Airer
Laundry is a rip off. This lets you hang up your wet clothes to drip dry and save you a bit of moolah for the pub later that evening. Mine has been useful all through both of my years so I recommend them to everyone!

Plastic Bowl
A multipurpose tool for students. This allows you to wash up, transport water from one room to another, clean mould off your walls (personal experience, not all halls are lovely and clean…), throw up into, wash your socks in… Everything! And if you miss the bowl whilst you’re summoning the Chunder Dragon, you can fill it up with warm soapy water whilst you’re scrubbing the vomit off your floor as demons play the bongos on your brains…

Don’t Stop Believing – Indomitable Spirit Required

If you’re here because you saw the title and expected a Journey/Glee themed post about the song then I’m afraid you jumped off the Midnight Train a few stops too early! I won’t take it personally if you leave, but feel free to stick around. (There may even be a song at the end of this!)

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. – Mahatma Ghandi

As you might have guessed from that quote, this is the standard ‘Inspirational Blog Post’. Let’s try to do it justice…

A few years ago I took part in a 5km “Fun Run” (It’s in parenthesis because it wasn’t that fun at the time) to support the British Heart Foundation. Seeing as this jog was at the very end of November, it was a Santa Jog, where all participants were issued a Santa Claus costume as part of their entry fee. They were then required to complete the run whilst dressed as Santa hat, beard and everything.

Upon finishing the Santa Jog I got this medal – and decided to stop running…

The Santa Jog came at a time when I didn’t really run. I had done a few brief training runs, though nothing up to the 5km mark, I lacked the willpower to stick it out as, at the time, I found running incredibly boring. I was cocky and overconfident, thinking that I would breeze right through this in no time flat, seeing as I was pretty fit and in quite good shape as a result of my Tae Kwon-Do. During the run, I started to feel differently and began to struggle. The explosive fitness that I had developed through my Tae Kwon-Do practice was an entirely different kettle of fish to that needed for the more endurance related task of running. I was struggling and wanted to finish, but I was so tired and just wanted to walk the rest of the way, my body hurting from the unfamiliar prolonged exertion. There was only one problem with that idea…

I couldn’t let myself do it. to know that there were so many other people running with me and not giving up made me think “Am I really this weak? I’m just going to let myself give up because I’m finding this tough?” The response? “HECK NO!! We’re finishing this!” I hadn’t banked on my Indomitable Spirit shining through, stopping me from giving in, forcing me to keep going. The idea behind Indomitable Spirit is that everyone has the character to shine through adversity and challenges, that they won’t give in to anything and will give a hundred percent until they just cannot give any more. Indomitable Spirit is one of the five tenets of Tae Kwon-Do and it is the tenet that I identify most with. The idea of never giving in and never letting anything overwhelm you is an idea that I can definitely get behind. If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly and not giving up halfway because it’s too difficult. Unfortunately, at the time of the Santa Jog I wasn’t ready to keep pushing with running, even though my Indomitable Spirit had got me through the rest of the run and I gave up running for a few years.

Earlier this summer I started running again, inspired by my friends and the new Parkrun initiative. I grabbed some running gear and headed out to the start of the course bright and early on a Saturday morning and proceeded to complete the 5km course. I’ve kept this up every week since so far and even though I still find running dull and occasionally find it hard to keep going on the runs due to a twingey (is that a word?) thigh muscle, I’ve always pushed myself through and made it to the end – usually with a smile on my face. All of this is down to the idea of Indomitable Spirit and never giving up, no matter what the odds.

 

So, tell me: What situations have you been in where you’ve needed to call upon your Indomitable Spirit to succeed?

Share your answers in comments and, as mentioned at the start, here’s a rendition of the Song “Don’t Stop Believing” originally by Journey. This version makes it onto my running playlist due to the up-tempo beat and the fact that it serves as an audible reminder to do exactly what the song says – Don’t. Stop. Believing.

The Pursuit of Knowlege

I am a person that never wants to stop learning. I’m sure that almost everyone is like myself in this way, we all want to know things. Whether it is simply trivial things like who your best friend is dating or more challenging things such as an understanding of particle physics, we ll want to know things. That’s why we have universities and libraries and Wikipedia.

Personally, I want to know about quite a lot of things. Obviously, I want to learn more about Geography, a passion of mine which I am achieving through my degree. So that’s one down. However, I also want to learn more about languages, history and religion. A lot of the books that I read in my free time are based on historical concepts and events and also quite a few of them are based around a religious experience, figure or event as well. So I get to learn a bit, but there’s always time for more.

Luckily for all of you out there that are like myself, massive knowledge hoarders, there are some wonderful ways to learn that can be taken anywhere at any time. If you like to read books, there’s always libraries so check your local council website to find out where your nearest one is! If you prefer lsitening to your learning there are tons of podcasts out there that you can grab and download. iTunes has an absolute shedload of these! Thirdly, if you prefer to watch videos then there are lots of channels on YouTube where you can do this. A personal favourite of mine is Crash Course, a new channel that is set up by the VlogBrothers John and Hank Green where they teah you about Biology and World History. I’ll put a link to the playlist of each of these at the end. Also by Hank Green is Sci Show where he teaches you about science. I’ll also chuck a link in to Sci Show.

So keep looking for things and keep learning! If you have an recommedations for books, podcasts or video series then let me know in the comments!