College time



College, a big scary intimidating, confusing yet fun and exciting place. This time last year I was preparing to go into first year in NUI Maynnoth ( I think it might be called Maynooth University now) and I was terrified. I was scared, I had no idea what to expect but I was excited, looking forward to beginning a new chapter in my life. When I woke up for my first day of college I was terrified, where was I to go? Who was going to show me around the college? What would I do if I got lost? What if I signed up or registered for the wrong course? I had a million different questions going through my mind as I am sure many of you who are going into first year have but the best bit of advice I can give you is to sleep!! Nope I'm not going to say relax, I'm noting go tell you to take deep breaths, I'm going to tell you to have a good night sleep before your first day of orientation because you will need your energy!! You will be pointed this way and that way, you will be bombarded with information, greeted by so many different people giving you so many different talks by the college president, the college counsellors, doctors etc etc and by the end of the day you will want your bed!! 

The first week of college is pretty hectic, you have so much going on for you. You will be given a tour of the college but by the time you get back to your starting point you will have forgotten when most of the significant areas in the college are! You will be meeting new people, trying to figure out who you might like to develop a friendship with, you will be given so much advice you won't know what to d with it all. You will be told about all these amazing events happening dying the nights and let me tell you there will be plenty of alcohol consumption, I know, I watched as people consumed more alcohol that I ever though was possible. You will be given your timetable, trying to figure out how you will get from here to there and home for lunch and back in time or what you are going to do for the 2-3 hour breaks you have between lectures. You will be going home confused and exhausted but trust me as soon as your lecture begin you get into the swing of things and if you happen to be doing Community and Youth Work in NUI Maynooth you will be learning lots of new games, finding out rings about yourself you never knew before and you will be pushed out of your comfort zone in a positive way.

Don't worry about paying you're fees, don't panic about hearing about your grant, don't freak out about trying to get books, notebook just relax. When you walk into college on the first day you are all as nervous as each other, you are all as concerned about getting your grant as each other and what I didn't realise was that the college goes to great lengths to ensure you understand everything that needs to happen, how to ensure things are done correctly so just relax. 

I'm not really sure to be honest where this post is going because somewhere along the way I managed to confuse myself.... Sorry if you are as confused as me!! If your staring college this September, don't freak out, relax, take your time and enjoy it as much as possible. The most important thing to know is it's ok to ask for help!

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