A decision well made.

With the first year at University nearly over, I ask myself: "Where has 6 months since we started really gone?" Okay so, technically Uni doesn't finish until June/July but with Easter only a week away meaning 3 weeks at home and with final deadlines in early May there isn't that much of Uni time left to be honest.

The days at Uni fly by, rolling in to one another and becoming a jumble of memories. The nights out all seem like the same now, and it's difficult to tell them apart. With hundreds of photos all looking the same, they hype and excitement of that new adventure is pretty much over now.

Being a fresher was a hugely new experience, one full of new faces, new places, failed attempts at cooking, cleaning and washing clothes, drunken nights, lots of giggles and a huge amount of learning.

I came to Uni, excited and ready to embrace a new life but at the same time I was pretty clueless, I couldn't cook or use a washing machine but I learnt pretty quick, lets be honest I didn' really have a choice in the matter.

To begin with I was embarrassed to cook in front of my flat mates, they all seemed to be able to cook up amazing meals, while I stuck to my pasta, pizza and cheese toasties. Soon though, I realised half of them were just as bad as I was and we learnt together. Who needed to be embarrassed?

When your parents drive away, leaving you in a small room in flat full of complete strangers it's extremely daunting and terrifying. I remember thinking: "Oh my god, what the hell am I going to do now."  What I did do was go in to the kitchen, said hello to those that were in there, made a cup of tea, got to know the strangers, went to the SU bar, got drunk, when to a club, got a bit more drunk and the rest is history.

It didn't take long before it felt like we'd known each other for years. Living in a flat, so close to people, seeing them each and every day, eating with them, socialising with them, it's pretty much impossible to not get close to them.

Something I learnt however is that when your put in to a flat with 7 other people, and floor with 14 other people there is a huge difference in personalities experiences and characters. Therefore, it was silly of me to assume we'd all be a happy little family.

You learn to adjust, and except the differences and disagreements and you learn to live with people you wouldn't neccessarily chose to. I think that's all part of the Uni experience. It's amazing the amount of different people with different backgrounds that you meet. You learn from people and they learn from you because everyone here is different and everyone has different stories to tell.

Of course, you don't come to Uni to learn to cook and clean or learn to live on your own you come to do a degree and start a future for yourself and of course that's exactly what I came to do.

Whilst living at home, working 5 days a week I often though to myself: "What am I doing and where am I going." Now though, although I complain I'm running out of money or I have too much work to do, I know I'm doing what I want to be doing. Not like in school when you had to do the things you hated like Maths and Science. Now, I'm working towards what I want to spend my life doing, which is writing.

I used to think I had a long way to go, and now although I still have a lot of work to do I finally know that I am in the right place at the right time. There is the work I don't enjoy but I have to do but then there's the work I love to do - the creative stuff!

All of a sudden there's opportunities opening up to actually get work out there and with work experience offers coming back positively it all makes it worth while and reminds me why I worked so hard to get here in the first place.

On a whole, coming to University has completely changed who I am, I will not for second argue with anyone that says I am different person. I know who I am, what I am doing and where I am going and this time last year I could not have said that.

So, with the first year nearly over I can definitely say coming here was the best decision I have ever made and now I've taken that step away from my comfort zone I feel like I can do anything and I can't wait to see what this summer has in store for me!