Diary of a Student: Reflecting on my First Year
Coming home from university is like waking up from a dream. Some mornings I forget that I’m not alone anymore. I can hear the dogs scampering around and there are distant bangs in the kitchen. My boyfriend snores softly next to me, a sound that I sorely miss when I am away from home. It is the little extraordinarily irrelevant things that I miss when I am at uni. All these things become so much bigger than they actually are when you are completely separated from ‘home’. It’s the good morning’s and the good night’s, it’s having a tea made for me first thing in the morning and being with loved ones.
What many people don’t realise is that you learn so much more at university than what is on your course. It forces you to hold a mirror up to yourself and address every little detail. You're confronted with your flaws and it feels like the world is asking you ‘what are you going to do about it?’ Coming to terms with your flaws and insecurities is never easy. The unfamiliarity made me much more guarded and sometimes wary.
I realise I have painted it to be a bit of an uncomfortable experience, which it definitely can be and should be, but uni isn’t all bad. I also realised that in spite of my flaws I can see positive qualities in myself that I'd never noticed before. I am kind and an experience such as university makes you see that kindness conquers all. At university you are opened to a new world that has been shielded from you throughout your childhood. There is suffering in the real world and there is also the possibility that one day in the future you will be someone who suffers an injustice. University gives you the chance to be a better, kinder and more wholesome person. You learn about hardship and in turn you learn about those who do their very best to alleviate others suffering. I aim to be one of those people.
All these lessons are learnt from the people we meet. From my lecturers to my flatmates I have been introduced a new world. Since coming home from uni I have found that I think much more deeply and question everything. This burden means that overthinking is familiar to me. But I would not change anything because it is just as equally a gift given to me. I see beauty and good in every aspect of my life. Why trade that in just for a small peace of mind?
Living ‘part-time’ in Cornwall has seemed an impossible task this time last year. I vividly remember the drive to Falmouth being quite traumatic, quite frankly I was nowhere near ready to leave everything I knew behind. This September won’t be too dissimilar; I am never really ready to leave home. But I am now ready to embrace my life at university in Cornwall. I am not afraid of the long-distance or my future. I am ready to learn, and to soak up all the different cultures that Falmouth University has to offer.
by Honeysuckle Troubridge