Welcome to the Real World

Traditionally speaking, it is customary for the editor of the publication to write a Letter to the Editor in the first edition of the year. Usually this letter would tell first years what a great experience university is, and how sometimes it was bad but it was all worth it. I am here to tell you that it is not that easy.

University is very much considered to be the small pond you have to swim in before you get to the big ocean that is the real world. A world where all your problems seem to pile up along with the grown up responsibilities you will have. The problems you will face during the next couple of years are a small taste of what you will face out there. The truth is, tutors are not always helpful, lecturers can lack the ability to actually teach. They can be unreasonable, and can change vital things at the last minute, and sometimes they can lack empathy. But hey, the good news is that you are not alone. Everything can suck all the time, but there are about 300 or more other people in those same classes experiencing the same difficulties that you are. And they can help you more than you think. I know people stress about how important it is to make the right friends who want to work, but even when you are struggling to understand, they can be the difference between life and death, and I mean that literally. In my first year I struggled so much with the workload, with understanding the content, and eventually work and assignments piled up to the point where I became very depressed. If it was not for a good friend of mine, who kept pushing me through, celebrating the 50s that signified a pass, and sitting with me to explain the things I did not understand, I would not have made it through that year.

On Welcome Day most res committees and faculty houses will tell you about how difficult it is to succeed, but if you follow these simple steps, you will be fine. But, unfortunately I am not going to pretend that university is this great stage that everyone can get through if they just follow the so-called steps to success. I have been there and followed those steps diligently, and sometimes it has worked and other times it has not, and during those times it was very disappointing. I would obsess over what I could be doing differently, until I would just give up and think there was nothing Icould do better.