So you're studying for exams

If you're reading this then you're probably one of the 12978624+ people who have exams coming up, lets be honest you are either procrastinating or you're sitting in your room bored out of your mind and stressing out. Guess what.. You're not alone!! After middle school, high school, college and now at university i've learnt a few things while leading up to the exams.. Here is the stages we ALL go through and some helpful tips to get over it.

Stage one: Procrasination

We all do this, I did this with posting this blog post. I've stayed up all night watching Netflix, looking at vines and drinking coffee telling myself i would get up in a few minutes and start some work. 

Solution: The best thing to do is to sit at a desk (it wont be the most comfortable thing) and either put some music on or whatever helps to concentrate and GET IT DONE! The faster you get it done the faster you can go to sleep with a clear conscious.

Stage two: All-nighters begin

The all nighters begin. You're tired, you probably hate yourself for leaving it this late and you have lectures the next day. Thats never stopped me, but i am guilty for it. I'm not going to tell you not to do it because it has saved my ass a couple of times, there is never enough hours in the day. 

Solution: Get what you need to get done, done. Drink whatever will keep you awake and alert (suggestions: Redbull, coffee LOTS of it) keep focused and remember the sooner you get it done the faster you can sleep.. Sleep... Miss that. 

Stage three: Rewarding yourself for work

You finally begin to do some work and get distracted with something around you and you decide its best to reward yourself with 10 minutes of tv time for all the hard work, i know that a little too well.   Solution: If you get distracted with tv switch it off, if you get texts put your phone on airplane mode. Avoid the outside world. 

Stage four: Under pressure

You realise there is not much time left to do everything and there is nothing else you can do but to convince yourself you are not going to pass and your life is ruined, THE END.

  Solution: Not true.. If you're negative then you won't get much more done and this can really affect you and those around you. Think about all the work you've done so far and LETS DO THIS!

Stage Five: Quitting

You begin to tell yourself there is no point in even trying.. You wont revise it all or in my fellow arts students case, that sketchbook will never get done in time. So you start thinking.. why not quit now? Why bother trying? Well.. why the heck not?! You've made it this far, why not go out with a bang.. At least you can say you've tried. 

Solution: Talk to someone who is in the same situation as you, you can support each other through it and you may even be able to work something out to help each other.. Last resort talk to someone at your high school/college/uni about it, they may be able to suggest something.

Here is some things i've learnt.

• Make a plan, go online draw yourself a timetable and keep at it! An organised schedule leads to an organised mind.
• Plan to meet up with other people from your course, this will help you to encourage each other and it will also make studying fun. (Decreasing the number of sleepless nights)
• Keep all nighters to a minimal, you need to rest in order to concentrate and to do well.
• Reward yourself, you need to keep motivated. For example if you're reading a book make marks to when you can take a break.
• Stationary, use fun stationary that will make you want to use it leading to work getting done, if you're using a laptop use funky text or colours. 

Hope these tips helped you to calm down and have a laugh and also hope it helped with your studies.

Good luck to those who have exams coming up and.. at least you're trying. GIVE IT YOUR ALL.

Until later.. Goodbye my lovelies

Sincerely Ady xoxo

Weekend away in Paris

So i spent an amazing weekend in Paris at the end of last month with my boyfriend. We travelled by car and ferry (of course) with my brother for a short weekend away from this mess around here. We went on the 27th and came back on the 1st, which means we only had one full day and half a day to enjoy Paris. We stayed in an apartment right in the middle of Paris called 'Milthouard Apartments' here is what the inside and outside of the apartment we stayed in looked like.

We started of Saturday morning at 8am and went over to a café near where we stayed for fresh coffee and a freshly baked croissant called 'Le Boulanger des Invalides Jocteur' and the croissants were amazing! The staff spoke just enough English so that we could order, my boyfriend tried to speak French but i think i was just too embarrassed to try. 

We then walked to the Eiffel Tower, it was still quite early so the queues were small we paid around 23 Euros for both of us to go to the top and even though it was a very cold day it was so worth it. After that we got lost walking to the Arc de Triomphe and there was a lot of me moaning because of the walk i won’t hide that at all, i guess i just want to get to the place and be there. 

When we finally got there we explored the shops and got a taxi to the louvre museum and it was beautiful we walked through the garden a little and decided to walk to the love lock bridge where we found it all boarded up, i guess they are going ahead with cutting all the locks off.. but that didn’t stop us putting our own lockon. We decided to walk around for a little on the other side of the bridge (got lost again), got some sushi and went back to the apartment to relax. 

At around 9pm we decided to go out to see the Eiffel tower once more and then went for a meal, we had the most British/American meal we could think of... Burger and fries haha! We went back to the flat and had a quiet and relaxing night sleep. 

Sunday arrived and it was leaving day, we were leaving at 4pm so again woke up early and went to Arc de Triomphe to shop a little and enjoy the scenery. We went to have breakfast at Starbucks and walked around. Four o'clock hit and we had to leave it was sad because it didn’t even feel like we had just spent a weekend in Paris, we will definitely be going again for a longer time. If i had to recommend anything is go to see Arc de Triomphe, down that road there is lots of shops for everyone o enjoy and if you haven’t got that much cash to splash go to Louvre museum because there is a gorgeous garden right across there. Make sure you enjoy the cafes in the area you're staying in the pastries are to die for.

Until later.. Goodbye my lovelies

Sincerely Ady xoxo

So you want to quit university

University can be a pain in the ass, that’s for sure. Pressure from the lecturers to get everything done on time and then trying to get it all done before the deadlines.. it's stressful and there will be a few tears. You’ll find yourself wondering “is it all worth it” Well.. lets see...

Make sure you’re at university because YOU want to be, sometimes pressure from parents can kick in to take a specific course or to just attend university. At college I was always told by my teachers to go to university, I wouldn’t say pressuring.. but.. pretty close to it. We had about 20 sessions on everything about university, going from student finance to accommodation. They even made the people who didn’t want to go to university attend these, how ridiculous is that! Don’t feel like you HAVE to be here to get somewhere in life, people like Gareth Mcconnell the photographer didn’t attend university and is now an amazing photographer and even my part time lecturer! How cool is that!

 Money issues? Yeah been there, done that, got the tshirt, STILL STANDING! Money can be a pain, its something i know too much about. I’ve never really been skint but I’ve gone into my overdraft quite a bit. Most banks offer a student account which comes with a nice agreed overdraft, as long as you don’t go over the agreed overdraft you don’t have to pay interest nor does it affect your credit score. A part time job is amazing if you’re bad with money like me, problem is.. Every other student has thought about those too so changes of you getting a job is slim. Forget credit cards.. Many banks offer it with your student account, but best thing to do is give it to your parents and ask them to NEVER give you the card or just never memorise the pin, it’s a way of getting in more dept you won’t be able to pay.

Missing home. A lot of my university friends are having a hard time staying on campus away from home, i haven’t really got much advice on this because i don’t have this problem anymore but here is a few tips. Keep yourself busy, is better if its with work but if not.. get a few friends around for something to do each week. You can also apply to activities run by the university, me and a friend go to yoga every Tuesday. Yoga is a great way to unwind and relieve stress, not only that but its fun and great for your body. Ringing home to catch up on what everyone is doing is a great way to feel involved, visiting home regularly can also help.

Pressure from lecturers, hating the course. Get organised, buy a daily diary or even a planner whatever you want to call it. Write down everything you need to do, exams coming up, deadlines even write down what lectures you have with you to just feel overall organised. Lecturers will pressure you because they want you to pass, they also want to not get a nasty telling off from whoever is the leader of the course because half of the class failed.  Get together with classmates and see if they are going through the same, if so try to work out a plan to get through it this is also a great way to feel like you have support from someone who understands you. Last resort.. Talk to your lecturer about it, worst thing is to bottle it all up.

Think about what is best for you and what you want to do with your life. Do you want to go straight to work? Or do you want to finish uni and get it out the way with more qulifications under your belt. But lets be honest you got this far.. why not hold you head high and have the ability to one day say "i finished university with so KISS MY ASS UNIVERSE!" But its your choice.

Until later.. Goodbye my lovelies

Sincerely Ady xoxo