o.o.hedwig

I'm very vocal about how I feel about my education and going to University. Hands down, it has been the best experience of my short life so far. It did give me a sense of realisation that the world is bigger than the 40 x 40 mile area I call my hometown.

Now I experienced several things in my freshers first year, and i'm about to holla some of my top few tips if I was to redo not just freshers, but my entire first year of uni!

1) BE YOURSELF
Okay, it took me a while at uni, but I realised who my true friends were. I was social throughout university, and I actively tried making friends because why not? However, in doing so, I realised I was taking on personas that just did not match me. Have you ever met an Asian with the strongest failure of an Irish accent? Someone said people loves the Irish accent, maybe, but i'll never know because I couldn't pull it off! Needless to say it was a failure of an experiment. My friends played guitar, and granted it would have been an interesting skill to learn, I wanted to learn it to increase my social circle. Then I realised I actually preferred the Ukulele. When one door closes, another opens, am I right? xD

2) 8AM LECTURE
How bad do you want this degree? Really bad?
Well think again my friend, you have just been assigned an 8am mandatory lecture. Suddenly this degree is going to suck your life away. Good luck navigating rush hour to go to a lecture you will be too tired to remember. Oh...co-op do 50p Chocolate Twists...you'll thank me later.

3) You DON't have to drink to have fun 
Conversely, you can also drink to have fun! But the stigma attached with uni is that you must drink in order to make the most of your experience. This isn't true, a lot of T-Total students made the most of their experience and avoided the dreaded hangover, and if you do decide to hit the vodka redbull the night before, just remember that you don't have to drink every night...unless you want to.

4) Open up your doors to diversity
Your university experience will give you every opportunity to open up your taste palette to a variety of cultures, nationalities and traditions that you wouldn't have been aware of unless you already lived in the inner city. I come from a town, and i'm so glad I had an open mind to try new things, and talk to random people not caring about how they looked, even if it took a while.

5) Your first friends at uni, aren't necessarily your best ones.
Well...I thought i'd meet my best friends on the first day of drinking. How wrong I was. It took several different experiences to find out who was link minded, who was real, and who I could rely on. When you see other first years ridiculing another so cruelly on the basis of "banter", you really question whether or not you want to talk to this person all year.

Now really, there are way more tips that I could recommend, but these are just the first few that come to mind. Hopefully, you might read this in time for when you attend university! However, if you choose to ignore this, you probably will still have a kick ass experience, as everyone is different and even the worst parts of your degree can be an eye opener to the real world. Good luck, and all best!

RE: thank you for letting go.

I thank you. For making me fear, for forcing me to accept the unacceptable, for granting me the ability to realise the worst can and will happen.

In a sense, you have now made me fearless. I was sheltered, I was worried, I rarely took calculated risks even if the odds were in my favour. I was unsure of us at times, but I played it safe in order to maintain the status quo of our life. I never would have let go, I don't quit and that is just my nature. I grew into a person who would sacrifice it all in order to keep you happy and content in the long run no matter what happened to me. Thank you for releasing me, a person who was designed to push the limits of living, emotionless to his challengers and passionate towards his friends.


I cared so much that I forgot who I was. I fell so deep into your dreams that I had no plans except to breathe, and to help you breathe life into all of your dreams. You released me from a life of unsure dependence, fear, jealousy and evolved into one where I remembered who I was, why I push the limits, why I need to get out my comfort zone, thirsty for new knowledge, new experiences and new outlooks.

Despite how it ended, I harbour no ill feelings towards you, for you have helped me in ways you may never know. It was tough at the start. But at the end of the day, you will be remembered as a chapter in my life that unintentionally illustrates how you have made me mentally and physically stronger. One day i'm pretty sure we would both look back on this, and laugh if you haven't already. You may always have a place in my heart...just not the same you once held.

Failure is painful. Recently, I've started to live my life by small rules. Not large ones that are near enough impossible. I live setting small daily or weekly goals. Some say you should be dreaming bigger, but tell me, what is harder on your mental than realising you are failing your goals on a daily basis?

Say I want to be a millionaire or own my own house. That is in fact an attainable future goal. However, it's not going to happen overnight no matter how much you pray or play the lottery. Realistically, realising you are not a millionaire day in and day out is painful. Why though? Other than the shortage of cash, any failure is painful. So why subject yourself to such torture on a daily basis?

Now, I mention living by small rules. These consists of rules that I feel help improve myself as a human being without degrading or putting those around me at a disadvantage. These are subject to change perhaps weekly, but right now, these rules personally give me the most happiness, motivation, and incentive to be a better me. I encourage you to create your own rules that you can live by as no human is the same, so too shall no rules be the same.



1) Embrace the underdog
This is something I thrive off of. As a child, I never was the biggest, quickest, attractive, or most athletic. Now a days I live with the thought process that no..you aren't the best there is right now, but you sure can be. Being a nonathletic person as a child, and raised in a competitive environment, I hate to lose, but nothing is less satisfying than winning when you are supposed to. To me, nothing is more satisfying than trumping the odds and performing with a chip on your shoulder. And this leads me on to...

2) Prove them wrong
Branching off of being an underdog, in my opinion proving them wrong helps my mental grow stronger with self-satisfaction. People may think little of you, and that is perfectly fine for them to think. It doesn't affect them but if you can use their criticism as motivation, you will find you have access to an unlimited amount of mental fuel at none of your expense.

3) Help others reach their goals
Everyone needs a slice of humble pie, as a human thinking about myself, I am not the be all and end all. Okay, so you've made yourself a stronger person than yesterday. So what about those around you? As long as their goals aren't detrimental to your own, why should I not lend a helping hand? Sure independence is the best way someone can learn, but sometimes we as humans just need a nudge in the right direction. Showing off fuels some people, putting themselves above others, but for me, winning with others in our own way is the best prize for any competition. Remember, the journey itself is part of the reward.

As I said, right now these rules motivate me to become a stronger, better person than I was the day before, mentally, physically and emotionally, and may not apply to everyone. However, I find in myself that by improving oneself without harming others, that perfect balance between happiness and hard work can be found. Nothing beats cultivating talent, be it your own, or others. A friend of mine pointed out something: yes you may believe my goals/rules are extroverted, they rely on others for me to get what I need to fulfill them. However, who says that your best critic can't be yourself, and the person you need to help the most isn't yourself?