Advice for Starting Uni

So you guys know I'm halfway through my third year of uni so I thought I'd share some tips to graduating your x amount of years n not looking back on them with regret.

I didn't apply to uni with a specific career in mind, to be honest I only applied because my parents wanted me to go. I didn't have a job or anything so I didn't really have any argument to not go, apart from 'I don't want to'. I picked History because I enjoyed it at A-level. That's literally the only reason. I've never been interested in one specific area. I've loved animals since forever so initially I wanted to base my studies around them. I love geography/landscape etc so I was playing with the idea of environmental studies, geology, whatever. Nah. Ended up picking English Literature only to change my mind last minute to History because I realised that studying literature would make me hate reading forever more.

So, my first advice is think carefully about what subject to study. 
As much as History interests me, I don't have any plans to really use my degree. My options are pretty limited - teacher? No thank you. Historian? No I think uni has made me hate analysing history enough. Archive/museum work? Maybe but I need to do my postgrad for that n honestly I can't bare to be without a full time job any longer, no matter how comfortable I am in education.

Don't move out if you don't feel comfortable with it.
I was still wanting to rebel at 16 so I considered moving into halls for uni. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. I'm a complete introvert n 95% of people annoy me. Plus you have no idea who you'll end up with, so the chance of ending up with someone who doesn't wash their dishes/clean up after themselves in the bathroom terrified me. Plus I'm just really domestic. I spend a lot of time with my family and at 16 I think I would have made some really stupid choices if I had been given free reign to do as I pleased. Don't worry, you can still have fun n form connections without living with other students.

If you want to party, socialise, actually live the 'uni life', do it in your first year.
Your grades in your first year don't count towards your total so feel free to go wild as long as you're passing your assignments (though even then you can retake them most of the time in the summer). Saying that, I'm not a party animal n I didn't spend the nights of my first year out on the town. I did, however, spend it either in bed watching TV shows or out stuffing my face, when I should have been getting to grips with the jump from A-level style essay writing to undergrad. I was getting 40-50% just out of laziness n not caring what grade I got as long as I passed.

Make use of what your uni offers.
Take time to browse through your libraries. Join societies. Turn up to functions. The last two I honestly regret not doing. I'm really anti-social n can't approach people so I'm actually lucky to have made any friends at all. I never turned up to seminars either, occasionally went to lectures so most of what I learnt came from the books in the library. I just found everything so unhelpful n I realised I learn better when I teach myself n do my own reading.

Start your assignments as soon as you know about them.
Even if an essay is a month away from the due date, get started. You'll be thankful later. Even if you only do some research or write a couple hundred words, getting started is the hardest part so the sooner you do it, the better. If you're having trouble, approach your tutors.That's what they're there for. I'm really proud so asking for help is difficult for me but on the few occasions I did ask, I got the help I needed. At the end of the day, they're on your side. They're not out to fail you. This is probably something I should have realised earlier.

I hope this helped some of you. Everything I've said is from experience and it's something I wish someone had explained to me.

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