{"id":11263,"date":"2020-05-22T14:18:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T14:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/?p=11263"},"modified":"2020-11-24T11:18:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T11:18:49","slug":"5-things-university-has-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/5-things-university-has-taught-me\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things University has Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s official! I have finally handed in my very last\nassessment and have completed my degree at Cardiff University. What a three\nyears it has been, and I can say with my whole heart that it has been the best\nthree years of my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a strange feeling now that I have finished. I suppose I\u2019m\nnot really a student anymore and it\u2019s the first time in my life that I can actually\nsay that. Although I am finishing at the weirdest time possible and absolutely\nnot the way I imagined it would end \u2013 with no graduation to look forward to and\nno big celebrations to commemorate my achievements \u2013 I will still look back at\nmy time in Cardiff with fondness.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let alone the wealth of knowledge I have gained in my\nsubject of study (Journalism and Communications), university has taught me more\nthan I could have ever imagined; about myself, other people, and the world.\nHere is just a few of the lessons I have taken away from Cardiff and I hope this\ncan give anyone who is a little worried about the future just some reassurance.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How to say \u2018YES\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting out, I told myself that I needed to make the most\nof any opportunities I was afforded with and always say \u2018yes\u2019 when I could.\nPushing through any doubts and worries, I challenged myself to go into\nsituations that before uni, I would have been scared to go into. By saying \u2018yes\u2019\nI have managed to make friends for life, go on study abroad to Australia,\nvolunteer in Fiji for a month, undertake numerous internships, complete the\nCardiff Award, and become a copy editor for the university magazine Quench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these experiences have given me a profound sense of\nconfidence, and memories that I will take with me for life. University has\ntaught me how important it is to throw yourself in, and it is by doing this\nthat you reap the rewards.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Confidence and Independence\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose my confidence has grown simultaneously to the sense of new-found independence I first experienced back as a fresher. For the first time in my life I was cooking, cleaning, and making a life for myself in a whole new city (and country!) As well as this, the actual learning style at university level is a whole more independently based than that of school and college. I found myself having to organise plans, structure my learning, and motivate myself all on off my own back, and mastering this skill certainly takes time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Life Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A massive thing I discovered was that university is about so much more than just the degree you get at the end of it. I feel I have gained different kinds of skills to those that my friends back at home who chose not to go to university have. Not only are you thrown in to a whole new living and social scene at the age of 18, but are forced to navigate an entire new city by yourself. Although this is daunting, it has given me the ability not to feel overwhelmed at change, and to take things as and when they happen. This has also helped make me a much more flexible person who is able to easily adapt to new environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Things are never\nas bad as you think they will be<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was mega close to not going to university because the thought\nof it completely overwhelmed me with anxiety. Even though I knew I had the\nacademic ability, the whole culture of university just scared me. What if I don\u2019t\nmake friends? What if I hate it there? What if I\u2019m not good enough? All these\nthoughts clouded my mind for a long time, and honestly, it was all for nothing.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going to university was the best decision I ever made and I\nhave come out of it a completely happier, better and more confident person. The\nfact my experience in Cardiff turned out to be such a great one has filled me\nwith a sense of optimism that will be with me as I enter the next phase of my\nlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s going to be\nokay<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is so much uncertainty whilst growing up. What GCSE\u2019s you will take, what A-Levels you will do, and then before you know it people asking what career you want, whether to go to university, and then what university. And whilst I am sitting here now with absolutely no idea what my future holds, I suppose I know that it will all turn out okay in the end. If university could turn out to be a world apart from anything I thought it would be, then I\u2019m sure that whatever life has in store for me next will not be much different.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official! I have finally handed in my very last assessment and have completed my degree at Cardiff University. What a three years it has been, and I can say […]","protected":false},"author":1499,"featured_media":11270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[754,693,10,694,18,19,704],"tags":[23,41,1030,1031,1033,1034,1032,564],"class_list":["post-11263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-after-university","category-cardiff-university-experiences","category-living-away-from-home","category-student-life","category-studying","category-third-year","category-why-university","tag-graduate","tag-cardiff","tag-finishing","tag-finishing-university","tag-lessons","tag-life-lessions","tag-reflections","tag-third-year"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12290,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263\/revisions\/12290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}