Back to school advice

So, this month most of you will have gone back to school, college or university this month. I know for some of you this will have been a really scary time because it’s a new place, new people and a whole new adventure!

Talking/Friendships

One of the things that I always feared about doing something new was making new friendships and meeting new people. It’s still something that I struggle with now but I have found a newfound confidence in myself since I made the decision to just throw myself into situations where I have to talk to strangers…and you know what? I’ve made a lot of new work based friendships in the school that I work at for my university course! Now considering I used to be on the verge of tears whenever I knew I would have to talk to a stranger, I’m really proud of myself.

It’s really easy to forget that being new is something that everyone has to deal with at least a few times in their lives so most people are super kind and talkative when someone is new. So, if you’ve been worrying about how you’re going to make new connections with people, here’s my advice: breathe.

It’s so easy to completely clam up just because we have gotten so worked up over something that realistically isn’t going to be that bad. We create scenarios on our heads that make what we are about to do seem like a huge task. The truth is, we need to just let go and be ourselves in order for the right people to end up being in our lives.

Organisation

One of the things I really enjoy doing in life is organising things. I’m a lover of to-do lists and this has always really helped me to feel more in control over my time, no matter how much I have to do. If you know in advance what things you need to prepare for then you can plan out your time properly, giving yourself small chunks of time devoted to that subject and therefor you won’t burn yourself out. Trying to do things in huge amounts only ever lead to boredom and procrastination for me. Just fitting in an hour or two of revision, homework, essay preparation, reading etc helped me feel more in control without getting overwhelmed so I really recommend starting early with it!

Social life

The balance of school life and a social life was always difficult for me because I used to get pretty lazy about actually going out. I’m definitely a home-body. Luckily for me, my friend lived 3 doors up from me so I never had to go far. One thing that was always really important for me though was that I would never give myself huge blocks of time where I couldn’t go out and see friends and family. Whenever this kind of thing ended up happening I would get super stressed and overwhelmed so making time for everyone else actually worked put better in the long run for me. My advice to you is to take some time out of every week to go and see the people that you want to see. Make your work and social life a balance rather than too much of one or the other.

Grades

Grades are important but it’s not the end of the world if you didn’t get the one that you want. It’s really important to remember that you can only do you best, and no one can ask any more of you than that. If you take a test that you have really prepared and revised for and you don’t come out with the grade that you wanted (or other people want for you) then it’s the be all and end all of life. It’s about how you apply yourself and the effort that you put in. Maybe you really struggle with that subject or you really don’t enjoy it, but if you’ve put in all of the effort that you can then you should be really proud of yourself.

Good luck guys!