I CHOSE MY MENTAL HEALTH OVER MY CAREER.
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My name is Tanya and I am a Youtuber and Blogger, I test out makeup and skincare products, provide TIPS AND TRICKS that make beauty that bit easier! Nothing makes me feel more happy than proving YOU with the best advice and makeup products from drugstore to highend to make YOU feel confident.
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With a lot of people starting their university courses this upcoming September/October, I thought it would be helpful to talk about my university experience with some honest thoughts because hey, it's not for everyone and you will either enjoy it or not.
So I always kind of knew I wanted to go to university, I was the first person to go to University and I initially wanted to become a nurse. This decision was something I knew I would enjoy because I love helping others, however it wasn't my first option as I was back and forth between nursing and makeup. One advice I would give is that it's okay for you not to know what you want to do, I changed my career path and decided in my last year of University. It's not too late to change your mind as the world is your ouster. So back to my sixth form years, once I had an idea of the direction I wanted to go into to begin with, I applied to a few Universities within my city. I looked online at the start of my sixth form years to have a look at the grades I needed to get to be accepted and the subjects they needed me to have. This helped dramatically as it helped prepare me mentally with the type of work I wanted to pursue.
Before starting my course I looked into face book groups, forums, to try and find people who were starting the same course as me as I suffered with social anxiety, so this really helped! If there is one piece of advice to tell you, it would be to make friends before you go because it makes the first day a hell of a lot easier and remember, everyone is in the same boat as you. Everyone has been there and if you too struggle with panic attacks, then I understand, so tag along with a buddy, you never know, they might be in the same position as you and feel relieved.
Before starting the course, take a look at the course structure, does it involves practical or/and theory? Then be honest with yourself, think about how you learn best because this will definitely help your enjoyment of the course. I knew that my course was 50% theory and 50% practical which was great because I could adapt what I had learnt in the classroom to my placements.
Before starting my course there was the option to live in halls or studying whilst living at home. I stayed at home because living expenses on the bursary would be a struggle for me personally and my university was pretty close which was great and saved me a lot of money. However, I found that my social experience with university was dreadful and found that living at home and suffering with serious anxiousness anyway made it harder for me to tag along to events compared to people who were already living together. BUT! If I could change my social experiences I would definitely throw myself in at the deep end and tag along with the friends on my course and get involved more because hey, life is too short right?
Now on to the academic side. Find out how academic the course is, talk to other people who have finished the course you are about to start, look on the course structure online. As I have found out, with my course in particular, it gets harder as the years progress and I studied for 3 years. Soon after starting, I found it even more difficult knowing I was about to bring a life into this world and even harder, studying at the same time! Lecturers recommend reading around the module you are taking and normally have a reading list. I recommend reading them, if not all then definitely a few because i found if i didn't have a degree in fast typing then i would definitely miss things out in note taking! When i mean fast, i mean that some lectures went so quick and they didn't want to stop at all because getting through pretty much a module in a 2 hour lecture was some hard work when you were busy trying to finish the sentence they were talking about 5 minutes ago. I would definitely recommend printing out the lecture slides beforehand so you only have to write small notes if needed, would have saved me a lot of time and painful hands.
If you are like me and tend to leave things to the last minute then I would suggest writing a diary with set dates to tackle parts of the assignment one step at a time. Throughout the years of me studying I left quite a lot of my assignments to the last minute because I must admit, having to get up countless times throughout the night to look after my child and then proceed to be awake at 7 o'clock ready for a day of studying and 13 hour shifts was though on my mental health. Don't stress yourself out and make it harder, by doing tasks that require your focus for some time and then having a rest, you not only will be putting more in depth material into your writing, you will also save a lot of your energy.
Also, don't forget, your lecturers are the best people to speak to if you don't understand a topic because they are the ones teaching you right? I had a personal tutor who was there for any support throughout my studies so find out the main people that you can contact because if the help is there, you might as well use it!
Lastly, if you do enjoy your course then great! But if you find your mental health is being affected then it's never too late to change your mind on what you want to do. I got my qualification but decided in the last year that my mental health was far more important. Put yourself first because it was the best thing i ever did. Explore your own mind because life is far too short to do anything we do not enjoy.
Thank you for reading and I hope this has helped you in some way! Good luck too with your studies!
With Love, Tanya x
