I know it's been forever since I have written here but I have just been so busy.
I am halfway through my second year of university and everything seems to be going by in a blur. Second year is a whole different ball game compared to first year. I feel like they were taking it easy on us last year to allow us to adjust to being in a new learning environment and now this year, they've decided you've adjusted enough to throw you into the deep end.
It's not necessarily a bad thing but it definitely has been keeping me on my toes.
So yes, I have been struggling a little bit but that's okay. I wouldn't say I'm drowning - not yet anyway. But I'm trying to remain hopeful haha.
Anyway, my main point of this blog post was to fill you in on where I have been the past few months. Since I've started university I haven't really been able to blog, make a YouTube video or even really update social media as much as I used to. I mean I have been trying to write this blog post for over a month so I think that's an indicator of how busy I've been.
It started off with moving.
This year I decided it would be best to live closer to the university, it's a lot handier because it means not having to travel everyday, it's cheaper and it's a lot easier to make it to last minute group meetings. So living away from home has been an adjustment.
I actually don't have that many complaints about living away from home. Mainly because it's not a permanent move and I go home every weekend haha. But I actually enjoy it. It's nice to have a place you can go away from home. While yes, I do live with roommates, we have different routines and so often I am sitting by myself in the living room. Which I realise sounds a bit sad but I like to be on my own so it's fine haha.
I like having a quiet place of my own to go to. And it's also nice to live with different people. I mean at first I was worried I was going to end up getting sick of seeing my roommates but honestly it's pretty great. I did have a situation a couple of months ago where my former roommate had decided to move out, which caused a bit of a hassle, but now everything is settled again.
I know everyone has a different experience with living with friends etc. when they go to uni so I wasn't sure what to expect with my situation. I currently live with a friend I made at uni who is in my course and a guy I used to go to secondary school with. Which seems like a weird combination but it works. We all get along well and there's not really any conflict about anything which is pretty positive.
Aside from the moving another big thing for me right now is job hunting. My degree requires me to take a year of placement work and so I have been applying and interviewing a lot recently. Two things that are new to me.
I have to admit it is something I was worried about because I haven't had any previous work experience so I thought it would mean no one would want to hire me. But I have heard back from some places I have applied to which makes me hopeful.
I was also worried about interviewing because I don't think it's something I have ever been good at. I don't consider myself a master at selling myself to people. Even when I make YouTube videos I don't do it to appeal to anyone other than myself really haha. So it was something new.
Each interview experience I have had has been different and I have learnt something new during each one so I'm glad I have been able to put myself out there. I think it helps to build confidence to do job interviews and it also does help you learn more. But I still always get nervous before I have to go to one. Sometimes you're just worried you'll say the wrong thing haha.
But again it's been a pretty positive thing. Even if I don't get the job at least I have the interview experience, so it's not really a bad situation.
And of course the main thing this year that has been keeping me busy is university itself. In this one semester I think I have done more work than I did in my entire first year. Which I think is crazy. Although it makes sense, last year I was completely new to coding and so we had to take everything slow.
This year, I am currently working on an android game project and there's nothing slow about it haha. It's definitely a learning curve. But I am up for the challenge. Even though I'm coding something completely different than I'm used to I find it interesting. I also think it's cool that we get to make our own game. Even if it doesn't turn out to be the most amazing quality I'll still be proud of it.
We are currently still in the early stages so we don't have much done right now but I'm excited to see what we achieve. Another positive thing is that I have a really good team for this project which is great. We all get along well and are determined to do well in the project which means there's not much conflict.
On the other side of that you can also end up in teams which aren't so great. Which I have also experienced this year. It's tough to work on something when you know the other people on your team aren't interested. So it's been a struggle but I am working through it. Slowly but surely.
Aside from group projects, there has been a lot of other work too. This year I am learning C++ which has some things that are similar to Java but also some things very different. I picked it up pretty easily which has been great. I'm so glad I enjoy coding haha. Otherwise I don't think I would have made it through my first year.
On the social side of things, it's been lacking recently. But I know it's because I am still adjusting to my new work load. But I also know my friends have been busy too. It's just a hard time of year to be seeing people. At least I will get to see them over the holidays.
I really can't wait for it to be Christmas haha. It'll be really great to spend some time relaxing and not having to think about uni work for a bit. I know it's not stressful all the time but it would be nice to feel as though everything wasn't going by so fast. I mean I can't believe it's almost 2017.
This year in general has just been so crazy. And if you had told me that when I left secondary school things would be this way now I wouldn't have believed you haha. It's definitely been a good year. But I'm getting ahead of myself, we still have a month of this year left so let's make the most of it.
I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope to be posting a blog post again very soon. I can't make any promises but we'll see how it goes haha.
~ Courtney x