Why you shouldn’t go home right after exams finish
‘Now what?’ is the first thing that came to my mind once I came out from my final exam. Having absolutely no plans in mind and no idea when to o back home, I decided to stick around a few more days (which eventually turned into 3 weeks) and see how I can make the most out of my last weeks as a fresher.
Too late for bonding time?
Absolutely not! Before finishing exams, me and my course mates’ bonding time consisted of endless discussions about what is more likely to be in the exam. Finally, after week 6, we managed to go grab a drink and realize we have much more things in common other than struggling with language policies and quantitative analysis. The flat is also lively 24/7 (cheers for free ear plugs offered by Night Line), but now there’s no excuse not to be. From nailing (or not) a human table soccer game, to showing off our [non]existent talent at hula hoop and to winning a laser tag game despite never having played it before, all these memories are post-exams and worth experimenting it with your flat mates.
Having friends from home over
Even though university is the perfect place to meet new people, it is nice to have familiar faces around with whom to catch up and have fun. That’s why, after exams were over, I invited one of my friends from Romania over for a few days. From his outsider perspective, the campus looked very ‘movie-like’ with all the students gathered around at the piazza playing music and enjoying ‘freedom’. His description was pretty accurate as it was Wednesday, which can only mean one thing – POP. Of course, we went together to POP and the next day we were already planning the next time he’s going to come visit. (hopefully because of me, not because of POP)
Go out and not feel guilty
This period of the year is ideal to out without thinking that you should have been reading three chapters for the upcoming exam instead of dancing on “Stacy’s mom”. The nightlife is pretty lively in the last weeks of the term which means that the day time will seem to be very short giving the fact that you might end up waking up at 12pm because you went to sleep at the sunrise.
Travel, travel & travel
Being an international student who has never visited England before coming to university, I was eager to explore the surroundings once I had the time for it. Because I’ve already ticked London out of my “must see” list, the next city I wanted o visit was Birmingham. If you go there, make sure you don’t skip Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. After three hours of staring at the paintings, the only reason I had to leave the gallery was because of the closing time. After this, my friends suggested going to the library – this time, not with the intention of studying. We ended up on its 7floor, entering the Secret Garden from which we had the nicest panoramic view of the city.
Some time to think about career possibilities
Everything moves with speed light here and there’s no such thing as early planning there’s why, once I had some time to reflect upon my first-year progress, I decided to book an appointment for career advice on Warwick MyAdvantage platform (https://myadvantage.warwick.ac.uk/ ). With no clear vision upon what path I’m going to take career-wise, the session was useful in terms of presenting me with possible directions I might be interested in and suggesting strategies that might help me in building a career plan. I recommend dedicating some time at the end of term 3 and booking a slot on MyAdvantage as it can help broaden your scope of knowledge regarding career planning and future possibilities. Personal tutor meetings, drop-in sessions are also aspects to keep in mind before leaving as it’s important for your tutor to know what your perception upon the year was, what went well, what can be improved.
Now, having answered to my ‘now what’ question, I’m ready to go home and enjoy the summer with my family and friends, leaving behind a luggage filled with memories gathered from my first year of university.
