How To Make The Best of University Life

Dear readers,

Hope all of you are doing great and having a positive week so far :) A few weeks ago, I received a request, asking for me to write a post on surviving university life. While I was thinking for a suitable blog topic, this came up and I thought it would give a more positive impression on university life as opposed to the word 'surviving'.

The truth is many of us are trying to survive university life. It is a challenge, no joke. To me, it is much much different to school life and one of the main reasons is because I am now in a different country. In the midst of trying to survive, I discovered many new things, new friends, new perspectives, new talents, new hobbies and many new things in life that I never did before. I always pray that it changes me for the better, rather than the opposite. One physical change is that I started to wear the hijab after my first year in the UK, a confident decision that I did not manage to do before. 

Making the best of university life, or be it anything you are doing at the moment requires several things. First, you need a positive mindset. Be positive that you can do this. You picked this path for a reason. You will work hard and it will be worth it at the end of the day. You are positive that despite the challenges, you are able to do this. Positive mindset and belief in oneself are related and reliant on each other. You need one to do the other. Believe that, yes although there are many good people out there, you have your own talents and capabilities as well. This does not mean you then think you are the best above the rest. When people go overboard this first aspect of being confident, they start becoming snobbish and look down upon other people. This will only draw people away from you and give you extra pressure on yourself. Live your life without the need to compare with others too much, Everyone has their own 'rezeki' and you have yours. Be thankful and that will make you stay humble yet confident :)

Next, be independent. As easy as this sounds, this was not too easy for me at first. For those who are close to their family, regardless whatever age you are, you always will and want to be. I have met friends my age, slightly younger and 6 years older that are very attached to family like me. I feel glad to have met people like this because it makes me realise many people are in the same shoes, These very close friends of mine remind me of the saying 'birds of a feather flock together' hehe. And we would discuss funny stories like, my friend she found a mouse in her house but when she found it in London she was much more scared than when she found it at home. At home, she could get rid of it herself but in London, she had to ask a friend to come over and help. The same applies to different situations. Not everyone is like this, I realised. Some people are not as closely bonded to their family and actually enjoy the freedom of being away. That is totally fine and it depends on how you are. But in order to be independent, you need to be able to do basic things like cleaning, laundry, washing, cooking, banking and managing money well, managing time and waking up on time, realising when you are sick and need medication, keeping the refrigerator stock in your kitchen and remembering to charge your phone always in case of emergency. These things, when never have left or lived outside the comfort of home, can easily be taken granted of. Mum and Dad had the solution to everything, or at least for me. I guess I was even more pampered when we had a made, The only house chore I did was tidy my bed each time I woke up or sweep my room, sometimes. I did not even need to open the door lock to enter the house or make rice or tea ever. All by my maid. A bit too pampered hehe but it gave me more time for studies and other things that I helped out in the house, like taking care of my baby brother. When studying overseas, being independent alhamdulillah has been a positive learning journey for me and so far so good. Learn some basic dishes can also help, my grandmother even gave me a cook book for me to cook Malaysian dishes. I rarely eat fast food because when I am not at uni, I enjoy cooking and trying out new food. 

Third, know your priorities. This is also a key thing to bear in mind in order to do well in university. I am sorry to say this, but knowing priorities is something all students should bear in mind. I cannot believe how many school students nowadays are too active on social media, doing everything else other than studying and clearly to me, their priorities are questioned. In my opinion, school time is restricted to studying and positive co-curricular activities, sports, etc that build up your character and your skills, a preparation for growing up. It is important that most of this gets done when you are younger. I do not have anything against social media, it is good in many ways but many people, especially girls use it to show off and to post unnecessary things about every tiny thing in their life. Trust me, as fun as it seems, your time is like precious gems. Try to minimise the unnecessary things and prioritise your work and quality time with family and friends. Even for me, I usually do the posting photos usually when I am on a holiday. During term, I am pretty dormant and you can even tell by the number of blog posts I am able to write. I will try my best to blog and write more here because I really enjoy writing, hearing from you and helping others, may these articles help you develop into a better self. Knowing priorities and managing time well go hand in hand, so have a planner and a to-do-list to help you manage daily, weekly and monthly plans.

Next, keep yourself happy. This can be very subjective from person to the other, Being a happy person will help you study better, For me, it revolves around time to myself to pray, doing sports and exercise, quality time with people who make me feel good and joining my favourite clubs and society. Do it, have rest time and come back and study again. Nobody is perfect but a positive perspective of your own life and capabilities will certainly help you to stay happy. Keep smiling and help others, Helping others has a miraculous power of making you feel content at heart. Do it with a positive intention. One more thing, making others happy will make you happy. See what you can do to make other people happy. It can be really simple things or simple words or simply giving some of your time.

Finally, I always like to add an element of trusting in God. If you realised, my articles have a lot of InsyaAllah (with God's will), Alhamdulillah (Thanks to God) lately. Something that I have improved on and included in my writing and motivational posts. It is to believe that there is a greater power, God that will take care of you and I realised that in all motivational books I have read, it gets a bit repeated, dull and boring after reading it many times. Only when I started reading Islamic motivational books and the element of believing in God is added, then you become even more positive and happy. The reason is because you know and realise that there is One who can help you in times of need, when everyone and everything seems dark and people seem like they cannot help you in the way you want them to, God is there, He listens all the time and there for you. All you need to do is ask Him. I will include in a separate post a beautiful doa forwarded to me and you can request from me if you want it to be emailed to you so you can print.

Have a beautiful rest of the week :)