I've been inclined to write a post about this for some time because there's just something about the "...oh" that follows when I say that I'm studying English in college.

Realistically, I don't just study that. I'm currently doing a joint honours degree; Media Studies and English. Growing up I knew that I always wanted something published on some degree of 'paper' or otherwise, whether that was a piece of writing or an illustration, I didn't mind. So I figured a course like this would be apt for me.

Not a lot of people can understand why someone would want to study English, I know when I tell people they think I'm some avid Shakespeare fan who writes poetry when she's bored. I'm not, and to be honest I don't really even like Shakespeare that much.

Budgeting my way through College | A Guide

I think from an early age I realized that I was never going to have an abundance of money, so holding back from spending and saving it for when I really need it hasn't been so difficult. Years ago, I would just need money for the chinese that I intended to scoff in one of my friend's houses that weekend or to buy some clothes just for the sake of going into town every once in a while. What I'm saying is that, the money I had was mine until I spent it on something that I wanted. Bear in mind, the cash that I somehow accumulated was just through babysitting jobs or my parents occasionally giving me some.

Almost two years ago I was so thankfully awarded a grant to go into university with. Even with this (much appreciated) help, college threw me into the deep end of a pool which was constantly depleting bank digits, no matter how hard I tried to save. I'm no economical genius or finance tycoon but I've managed to keep my head above the water and I can confidently say that I think I'll finish my course despite all the arrears that I'm in.

During the process of me becoming a fancy schmancy collegiate, I've figured out ways in which I can kind of relieve some if not a lot of the pressure that I so often experience.

The Social Aspect of My First Year.

All day today I’ve been reading other people posts about their first year of college, and I can say that my first year of college has been a stark comparison. The majority of these posts have raved and rhapsodized about meeting new people and gaining independence and finding yourself etc etc.

Before college, while I was still in Secondary school, Art and English had been my favourite subjects so naturally I excelled in them more than any of my other classes, because I genuinely liked going to them. I always thought that I would start an Art portfolio, but when it came to the deadlines, I had nothing to show for. Myself and my sister have always been creative. However, when she left school, she started a course in graphic design. I don’t think she’ll mind me saying that she dropped out but she did in any case because it just wasn’t for her. She’s always been better than me in that artistic sense and so I was kind of turned off the idea because I assumed it would also happen to me. Whenever I told anyone that I was really interested in doing something art-related after the leaving cert, it was always followed by them asking “what do you mean?” or “yeah but what’ll you do if you graduate?”. I dropped the idea anyway, and started thinking about what else I could do. I considered science after a while, but then I realised that the only reason I liked the subject was because me and my friends never had a class where we didn’t laugh. 

Coming up to the CAO, 9 out of 10 of my options were English-based. Fortunately for me I was offered a course in DCU called Media Studies and English. I accepted, happily. On my choices list, I believe I listed it second. I think, I can’t really remember. 

So, I knew no one going into my course. And that scared the crap out of me because I don’t really try new things unless I’m forced to. You might think yeah well me being entirely alone, with hundreds of other people who are feeling identical to me, might force me to try and make friendships or whatever. It didn’t, I preferred to take the seat that was next to nobody. I always had the campus map in my bag, so I never had to ask anybody for directions. I literally had never been put in a place so full of bustle yet have absolutely nobody to talk to. I remember I saw so many girls from my secondary school, and I was ignored straight away. So, naturally for me, I ignored them too after a while. Luckily for me, two of my closest friends had also gotten courses in DCU. I remember during freshers week, I was constantly texting our groupchat wondering where they were and if they had free time. The one time I think we managed to meet up, Mary-Jane had brought two stragglers that she had befriended and I of course had just brought myself.

This kind of gave me motivation. I started trying to put myself out there. On a tour of the second campus that I would be studying at, I luckily made friends with a girl called Ellie. A girl who I have not stopped talking to, for that I’m thrilled. She is studying Media Studies and Irish or Gaeilge or whatever it is. In first year, I had like 2 classes with her every week. You will not believe how much of leech I was, I messaged her before we were to go to lectures to see where she was. Through her, I now have a few people that I could have easy conversations with, If I see them, because she’s friends with literally EVERYONE.

Onto the second person. Sammy, Sam, if he reads this he definitely won’t tell me because he’s super modest about how super cool he is. Someone up above obviously saw how pathetic I was, and said you know what Sam won’t look good in a court dress and a grey wig, no way, let’s put him in Media Studies and English. We vaguely knew each other. And one day the creep came and sat beside me and totally blew my whole ‘unsuspecting genius loner’ charade. He’s the light of my life and if I didn’t have him, I’d probably drop out.

And that’s about it for my first year. I never went out on college nights out. It takes me about an hour and a half to get home from college, so it’s a miracle if I don’t fall asleep on the bus. I think I did 17 hours a week, but that feels like a lifetime when you add like 3 hours of travelling onto every one of your days. 

However, dismal the post seems to be. I’m actually surprisingly happy with how my first year of college has been. I just thought I’d share my experience because I haven’t come across one like mine YET. The reactions I’ve gotten from family members are still snide but I’m grand and I like what I’m doing. I do however, intend to do more during my second year. Patrick’s also forcing me to do so because he thinks my being a ‘recluse’ isn’t healthy, although I think he’s just getting tired of me plaguing him. 

Ciao Adios 

An amazing start to the rest of my summer

When the results for DCU's first year exams came out, the solace that came with passing the majority of my exams was quickly outlived by that one resit that I was due to carry out in August. While my friends celebrated all of their passes, I was met with the fact that my summer still really hadn't begun. Whenever I went out, in the back of my mind there was always this niggling thought that I should be studying for that one exam. Before my resit came, I wondered if what happened to me was probably worse than doing the exam itself and failing, because I could've just went in and got it over with. During my exam week, I decided to treat myself to a spice bag to commemorate passing the halfway mark. I'm not sure if I had food poisoning or what but I wasn't able to leave my bedroom, let alone my house. Anyway coming up to this resit I got super anxious because I was afraid that I was expected to literally ace this exam after been given weeks and weeks to study. Not the case at all, I sat on my computer printing out pages and pages worth of answers for questions that weren't guaranteed to come up. Days before the exam, my brain literally started to shut down and so I figured that if I did anymore it would probably do more harm then help.

When it came to exam itself, it was completely the opposite of what I was expecting. Everyone else in there was in the same boat as me. There was no embarrassment. We all just wanted to get in there and finish what should've been done months ago. Honestly, I can say that resits are so much more relaxed than the actual exams themselves. Literally all of the apprehension and anxiety that I had conjured up waned as soon as I walked into the room. 

It appears my exam acted as some kind of defibrillator. I've attempted to do something with every day that I have because I've only got from now until the end of September,before college starts again, to pour four months of summer fun into one. And this week, notably this weekend, has been the perfect beginning to all that. 

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I was always afraid that when I left school I would fall out of touch with most if not all of my friends, not because I wanted it to happen or anything of the sort but I was just always given the impression that that's what happens when you go to college. I literally could not have been more wrong. Going to college and realizing how hard it was, for me, to make friends made me appreciate the ones I already had, all the more. 

Aoife Traynor has become one of my closest friends the past year and I think that the fact we only see each other every two or so weeks has made that happen. She is never in a dull mood and every moment spent with her has you peeing your pants and laughing your head off. One of the things I admire most about this friend is how level-headed she is. No matter what the circumstance, she's up for it. On Saturday evening, Myself, Aoife and my Boyfriend had one of the chillest, like most authentic, evenings in a long time. Aoife never acts like the 'third wheel', which is so important to me because myself and Patrick try our hardest to never do that. Everything with Aoife is genuine. 

On my list of people to spend a night drinking and eating wings with (in this case not wings because I was way too hungover for that), it's these two. 

Also If I haven't raved enough about how I love being able to spend time with my friend and my boyfriend at the SAME time, they both did equally as shit as each other in a best-friend v boyfriend quiz. Love. That. 

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I don't want to depreciate what I've said earlier, but I'm about to talk about one of the best days that I've had in a long time. 

On Sunday, the 13th of August, I spent the bulk of the day walking around The National Botanic Gardens, hand in hand, with my favorite person in the entire world. I'm always keen to visit the Gardens and I hadn't done it in maybe a year or more. So I decided that Patrick would be the victim that I drag out to Glasnevin, forced to walk through multiple glasshouses and rose gardens with me in tow. With a bag full of snacks and obviously the funniest and most witty girlfriend ever as company, I like to think that he enjoyed himself rather a lot. That's if you disregard the fact that he walked into a cactus and made it out to be the equivalent of a bullet wound. 

                                                                                                                                                                There's not a lot that I can say other than I walked around one of the most beautiful gardens with the most amazing person ever. I won't dote because that's annoying and I'm sure I told him that enough yesterday. Instead I'll more or less fill the rest of this post with dazzling photographs of Patrick and flora. A surprisingly marvelous duo. 

 

If you've come this far and looked at all of my photos then I should just thank you now and spare you the other hundred that I wanted to put up. 

Thank you so much for reading, until next time I guess 

Hey guys, this is Lauren! Lauren, this is ...

*Trying to think how brief a brief introduction should be.*

My name is Lauren Greene, I'm 19 years old and I was born with my hand temporarily stuck to my head on the 15th of October, 1997. I'm currently living in Dublin's fair city in Ireland. 

I study Media Studies and English in Dublin City University. So understandably I have a keen interest in writing, in this case via the media phenomenon of 'Blogs'.

I have a computer and a camera, and enough friends that I can actually go out and experience things. So evidently I think I have enough of a life to start documenting it. 

I've tried to do this several times, but it's just resulted in the deletion of every single post that I've, well, posted. This time around, I'm determined to make it a habit. This is me indirectly saying that I'm not used to posting my thoughts and experiences, regardless of what they are, so, be patient yeah. 

Saying that now, I could be fooling myself. I have an exam tomorrow that I'm supposed to be studying for and this whole thing could just be a humongous horrible manifestation of, yeah you got it, procrastination. Hey look I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. Which is exactly what I have tomorrow. 

Anyway, this is it for now. I hope to hell Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman do me a solid in the morning. 

Thanks for reading.

Lauren