A Guide To Surviving Your Second Year At University

Around a year ago I shared with you my advice for getting through your first year at university, and I felt it only fitting to update my post in time for those of you who are about to start your second year. Some of you may have had a tough time over the last year, and I can relate, but it would be an understatement to say that it is going to get harder this year. So lets cut straight to it...

Only be there if you want to be // Again this is a no brainer. If you are only at university because you feel it is the right thing to do, drop out. You may have completed one year, but if you really didn't enjoy it there is no point staying on for the rest of your course. Even if you decide later on that you wish you had stayed, most places allow you to pick up where you left off, which is a good option for those who still aren't sure.

Get organised // I said it last year and I'll say it again now, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. If you haven't found a way to manage your schedule during your first year, then god help you for September. If you thought last year was hectic, you need to have a flick through a dictionary. Second year steps up massively. You'll probably have more assignments, they will most likely be harder, and will most definitely count towards your overall grade. Try keeping a diary, buy a desk planner, write to-do lists, and prioritise what is the most important. 

Compete with yourself // Try and set some goals to build on the grades you got over the last year. If you got 60% in a module, aim for 65% this year. Competing with yourself can keep you motivated, and will hopefully allow you succeed. 

Find a group of friends that 'get it' // This is probably the most important piece of advice I could ever give any one. I would NOT have survived without the support of my friends. We have inside jokes, and a lot of them revolve around everything being 'on fire'. On Facebook Messenger our group chat emoji is the little fire icon instead of the usual thumbs up. If you don't have anyone to support you in your meltdowns, to rant to, to stress with, and generally cry to - you will have a much harder time this year. Having a group of friends that 'get it' will really help you! Plus, friends that stress together stay together.

Create a budget and stick to it // I'm sure many of you made a budget last year, and this year it will be more important to tighten your belt. It is a little known fact that you get considerably less student finance during your third year of university. This isn't the case for every student, although it isn't worth risking not being able to get by in your final year. 

Get to know the library // This is vital. If you haven't stepped foot in your university library to date, then you have serious issues. You will need to learn how to sign out books, where past exam papers are located, how to access journal articles etc. If you haven't been in your library, I'd get some major advice from a friend or get in contact with your course's library assistant if you have one!

Get advice from a third year // This links in with the point above. This year a third year told me where all the exam papers are kept in the library and I wish I knew her name to thank her for her golden advice. Remember those above you have experienced everything you are experiencing, and the majority of them will have regrets. Just make sure you follow through on the advice they give!

Back up your laptop // FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST DO IT. The chances of losing your work may seem slim, but believe me it can happen. It didn't happen to me this year, but it has in the past and believe me it is the worst thing that could ever happen. Ever. 

Invest in a student travel card // I'm a commuter. I don't live in a student house, I travel to and from Leeds every day that I'm in university. Before going back in September, have a look at student rail/bus cards and see if they are worth investing in. For me it worked out cheaper to buy my tickets as and when I needed them, but for some it can save you £££s over the course of the year! Some travel companies sell combined rail/bus discount cards which can be extremely useful if you travel regularly!

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Happy New Year and Blog Goals For 2016

Happy New Year!

I wanted to do a post like this last year, but I had no idea what to say, where I wanted by blog to go, or even if I would continue running a blog! My only goal was to reach 100 followers by the end of the year and I soon managed and surpassed that!  I didn't really expect to carry on with my blog, with university getting in the way, but I'm still here over 18 months later! The last year has been so amazing. My blog has blossomed and improved in so many ways. Some of the biggest highlights of my year have been blog related. Reaching 1500 followers on my blog, getting shortlisted for an award, and getting shortlisted for a bloody award!!!  I've loved getting to talk to like-minded people, being asked to attend events (if only for the free cocktails!), and being offered some incredible opportunities! As my blog is starting to get off the ground, I thought I'd start off the year with some simple business cards and a custom domain. I finally bitten the bullet and purchased myself a domain name as I'd been toying with the idea of a custom domain name for well over a year and it became set in stone around October?

With this air of change, the blogging community has become such a big part of my life, and I've found myself making little goals and targets over the last couple of weeks or so. So of course I had to share them on my little corner of the internet - and here is what I want to do and achieve with my blog over the next 12 months…

Engage more: Engagement is extremely important to me. I've always made sure I engage with my readers by replying to my comments and tweets, checking out any links left behind, and just generally trying my best to engage with you all. Tacking into account how much my own comments mean to me, I want to do the same for others and show my support. I've been pretty rubbish at letting other bloggers know that I bloody adore them so hopefully I'm going to up my game this year!

Be more creative: Although I'm generally pretty happy with my blog images, from time to time I get a bit bored. Back in August I started to really push myself, and for a while I was really happy, buttttt as always - I'm starting to get a little bored. I want to try and mix up my backgrounds and fall in love with photography again! Over the last month of so you may have noticed a couple of portrait shots, which I haven't really included in blog since I first started over a year and half ago. I would love to invest in some new camera equipment - maybe a new lens and a fancy af studio light, but they are on the expensive side, so I'll try and see what my budget is. 

Go out of my comfort zone: I hate meeting new people. Hate. It. It's just something I've always tried to avoid. I dread to think how many blogging events I turned down because I was terrified of meeting people I didn't know! But from this moment on, I want to try and make more of an effort with meeting up with my blogger friends! I was so proud of myself for turning up to the Bloggers Blog Awards and Rhianna's Xmas Meet, when I felt so anxious (and actually physically sick). I mean even my best friends started out as a stranger to me in the first place!

Find new blogs to read: Even though I'm constantly on the hunt for new blogs to follow, I find it pretty difficult to find ones that I've not heard about before. Even when Bloglovin tried (and kinda failed) to promote 'undiscovered' bloggers. This is why 'share the love' style posts are so important as it can give some undiscovered little gems the chance to be 'found'. So if you've got any blogs you love then please share them in the comments below!

Gain more followers: Cliché I know, but I'd really like to get up to 2000 followers this year. Although that sounds like a huge target (to me it does anyway), it is less than a third of what I gained over the last year - and hopefully my blog will continue to grow it's following this coming year.

Build up a backlog of posts: Over the last months my backlog of backup posts has completely diminished. I had all my posts planned, but I kept finding myself writing them the night before they were due to go up - in some cases even mere hours before they should have been published. This totally isn't like me and I have been finding it hard to just sit down and write. Occasionally, the planned posts have been written but there have been no photos to go up alongside them (due to bad lighting), so I've had to use a backup. Meaning I need to get myself sorted at plan ahead again!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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2015: A Personal Reflection

With 2015 nearly over, I've felt a rush of excitement with the prospects of a new start. I always embrace the start of a new year with open arms, and the idea of a blank slate fuels me with determination. Over the last couple of months I've spent a lot of time reflecting on this past year. Thinking about what the year has brought me. What I've achieved, my accomplishments. How different I am from this point last year. What's gone wrong and how I can have a go at working on it over 2016. I've really been thinking about my blog and what I want to come from it in 2016, but I've decided I'm going to save that for an entirely separate post. This post is going to focus on personal achievements. 2015 has been an incredible year for me in terms of self-improvement. I lost a bit of weight. I gained some confidence (not much but still). I worked hard. I made some incredible friends. I ditched those who were getting me down, and generally just tried to improve my mental and physical health.

Every year I like to set myself goals. Not necessarily 'New Year's Resolutions', but something for me to work towards over the coming months. I'm a big believer in that these have to be realistic goals. There's no point me setting targets that are near on impossible to achieve. At the end of 2014, I told myself that by the end of 2015 I'd be more confident, 'a few pounds lighter', and more independent. And I have certainly achieved everything I set out to, and a lot more on top of that. I feel like I've really come into my stride over the last few months. I feel more settled at university and I'm really starting to discover who I really am (how cliché). As I am writing this, I am currently doing a research project on 'friendship', and it has seriously opened my eyes and redefined my thoughts on what it is to be a friend. I've built up such a good support system, and my project has made me appreciate them all the more.

I've had so many incredible opportunities and made some amazing memories, but I've also had my fair share of bad luck. One of the highlights of my year has to be going back to university in September.  As well as spending time with all my friends, I've also made great progress in terms of assignments and I've developed such a good work ethic. Over the last few weeks I've met up with my friends that are studying all over the country, and I've really enjoyed catching up and hearing all the things that are going on in their lives. I went out for coffee with a couple of my bestest friends at the start of December, and we spent nearly 4 hours talking non-stop because we hadn't seen each other since the end of September! Moments like these have kept me sane this year, I think if I hadn't as many I would have dropped out of university and taken up permanent residence in my bedroom.

I'm so glad I haven't dropped out or done anything too rash, as this year has been one of the best ones I've had in a long time. And on reflection, I feel as though next year is only going to improve on the last. One of the main things that I want to work on is my stress levels. I get incredibly stressed out over the slightest little things, and it has really started to get to me. My health has suffered quite a bit, and I spend so much of my time stressing that I have no time to do other things. And so I really want to make an effort to schedule in more time to relax. Although I always make the effort to treat myself to a regular face mask and a long hot soak in the bath, I want to try and schedule frequent calming sessions. Maybe trying meditation?

In general I just want to work on myself as that is exactly what I did last year, and it's something I want to continue to do throughout 2016. I have a few ideas of what I want to do but they aren't something I want to share here on my blog as they are quite personal and they wouldn't make for an interesting post anyway.

Have you or will you be making any New Year's Resolutions?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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One Year On

I've thought long and hard about what to say in this post and even now whilst writing it, I'm not sure if what I'm writing is enough or even right! I would have loved to do some sort of giveaway or something, but yanno poor student over here. 

A lot can happen over the space of a year. Some things you plan, and some things you don't. One thing I certainly didn't plan on doing was starting a blog. I had contemplated starting blogging for a while and finally dipped my toe into the water as a summer project. I can hardly believe that it has been one whole year since I set up my blog and started this whole thing off! 

Back in June 2014 I hit publish on my first post, and since then I've had over 25,000 page views with hundreds of new visitors popping up every day! If you'd have told me that I'd still be doing this a year later I'd probably have laughed in your face. But now you'd be the one that was laughing in my face as I'm still here! And honestly, and think that's all down to you. So I just want to say thank you for sticking around and reading my silly ramblings. I'm so grateful for everyone that has followed me, commented on my posts or got in touch with me. 

The last few months have brought me so many amazing opportunities! From being sent to samples, to getting to go to fabulous events. I never even dreamt that this would happen! But even just the little things have had the biggest impact on my everyday life. I'm happier, my confidence has grown massively and I've met some truly wonderful people. 

I hope the next year brings as much as the last and I hope you continue on the journey with me!

Thanks so much for reading!

Love Charlotte x
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