14 Things That Makes Uni the Best Time Ever

Being a student is one of the most messy, confusing, weird, hectic and fun times of your life.

 And I flipping loved it.

I've recently just graduated (yet again), and along with re-living and binge watching Fresh Meat from beginning to end, all of that has left me feeling a bit nostalgic about my old uni house, and the whole student life.
There's so many things that are brilliant about not being at uni anymore - essays are a thing of the past and not having to bicker about who takes out the bin is bliss - but there's also so many weird and wonderful things that make me want to enrol onto a course and do it all over again.

1.) Going to the corner shop at your worst. 

Pajamas. Onesies. Or whatever kind of lounge-wear your heart desires. It doesn't matter, if you've stayed in them until 2pm and decide you want a bag of sweets, it's socially acceptable as a student for you to not get changed and pop out. The staff at the Sainsburys Local in Northampton have seen some pretty spectacular get-ups on me. Including but not limited to rollers in my hair, and flats with polka dot socks and pink sweatpants. 

2.) The debrief the morning after the night before

One of my favourite things about uni was waking up and going downstairs to reconvene with your housemates and figure out and discuss last night's drunken events. There'd be endless cups of tea, embarrassed faces, waves of laughter, recollections of drunken snogs, and screams of 'OMG, NOOOO'. A hangover is so much more bearable with company.

3.) Your dancemoves come out in full force

Since it's student night every night, that means plenty of opportunities for you to bust out your moves, but that doesn't stop you from cracking them out at home as well. It may be the Jagerbombs, or just the fact that you're having fun with your friends, but you stop caring about what you look like when you're dancing, and just have a laugh. After that, there's no going back, and it's the best! 

4.) Your diet is bizarre and brilliant

Making a dinner as a joint effort and sharing it together is the best. But it's rare. Sharing a whole trifle, finding out chocolate bars are great to use as straws for tea, and taking full advantage of the yoghurt offer they have at your local shop however, are all completely reasonable. It may be because you're stressed or hungover or have a lack of sleep from staying up and chatting all night. Or it may be because your parents aren't there to tell you off and you can eat whatever you want cause you're a badass bitch.

5.) You suffer essays and deadlines together 

Yes, you have a horrific portfolio to finish, and there's simply no more words you can possibly write about art deco design, but at you've got a house of other people suffering the same plight. You know what they say, misery loves company, but with all of you huddled in the library or your living room together, with shed-loads of snacks and constant tea breaks, you'll get through it. I promise it.

6.) Your friends are never more than 15 mins away

It's like living in a bubble of students, so anyone you could ever want to hang out with or house you'd want to crash out, is always within arm's reach.

7.) Your creative juices are running to the max

Because you're a student, that means your skint. Probably due to all the student nights out that you end up going to, and the student discounts on ASOS that you can't say no to. So that means you can't just go out and buy Christmas decorations willy-nilly. Oh no. Cue cutting out snowflakes and stringing up your own baubles from Poundland.
You also get creative when it comes to pranking housemates - disguising your mannequin in a onesie ready for when your roomie gets out of the bathroom?

8.) Having one big-ass shared wardrobe

Hit a wall while trying to put together an outfit? Never fear, you've got a house full of other wardrobes for you to rummage through - you're bound to find a top or pair or heels to make your look work. Just beware: your room may be one big mess of a floor-drobe when you get home at 3am.

9.) Using fridge magnets and post-it notes is a perfectly reasonable way to communicate

Need more milk? Stress-baked some cookies to share with everyone? Your housemate needs to throw out that 3-month-old pot of hummous out of the fridge? All these notices are perfectly fine communicated via lettered fridge magnets from The Early Learning Centre. These are also a great tool for putting up artistic doodles and polaroids up on your fridge. Home decor at it's finest.

10.)  You do some weird-ass shit.

A video posted by Amy Lo (@amylo92) on Dec 30, 2013 at 5:50am PST

You live together and there's nowhere to hide. Even if you didn't want people to know that you sing along to Knarls Barkley's 'Crazy' in a weird voice while you wash up, they're gonna. And truth is, they'll probably find it hilarious and love that you're a bit bonkers, because they are too. Before you know it, you'll be making up dance routines to the Pokemon theme tune in the kitchen, and hiding under one another's beds together. They're really random and bizarre memories that you'll look back on thinking 'WTF?!', but you love and cherish them oh-so-much.

11.) Creating a spectrum of new concoctions at pre-drinks

You always end up with half bottles of spirits that guests have left over from the previous pre-drinks, so what better way to use them up by putting them all together in one big cauldron of mixers, and see what you come up with. Some will be successful - Fruit Twist Fanta and gin - and some, not so much - sambuca with...anything. Ever. 

12.) Going out on a weeknight on a budget of £5

Student nights means student prices. Everyone will try and lure you in with their special offers they've got going on (and sometimes even carry you over their shoulder in order to get you to their dead empty club...) But, rejoice! This means after a fiver and a couple of drinks, you'll think you're Sasha Fierce strutting you're stuff in the club, when in reality, you're quite drunk and probably look like Betty Spaghetti falling over. Ah, the high life.

13.) Crawling into one another's bed unexpectedly is completely acceptable

 When you're upset/hungover/stressed/all of the above, you can run upstairs, knock on your housemate's door and climb into their bed and vent or cry your little heart out, no questions asked.

14.) You always have friends there 24/7 

You can literally run across the hall to your roommate when your freaking out cause youe ex has crept back into your life unexpectedly, or crawl up the stairs to them as a hot mess when you're hungover. They'll make you tea when you're sad, cook you pancakes when you're happy, post pictures and sprinkle confetti all over the house when it's your birthday, make sure you've not fallen into the bathtub at 4am when you're drunk, make sure you're up for uni at an ungodly hour, dye your hair for you, and just be there for you. You're just surrounded by these people who are pretty damn great!
You grow with them, You learn with them. You live with your friends and they become you're home. 

It's a fucking fantastic time. 

What do you miss about your uni time?

Stay happy!

Until next time...

A.x

Sheffield: 100% Me

I always think of Sheffield as my 2nd hometown. And I only lived there for 1 year of my life.

And I think that's because when I moved to Sheffield. That's when I really became, me.

I like to think I'm a pretty outgoing person who's assured of who I am, and this isn't to say that I wasn't myself up until that point, I definitely was and have never to pretend I was anything else but me. But I just think, I didn't fully let out that every single 100% of me, just in case people didn't like it. So I kept a bit of that madness bottled up in a sparkly jar.

I've lived in the same place I grew up in all up until the point I left home and went to Uni.

When I left for Uni, I was absolutely terrified and scared as hell. My friends and family were all I knew, and the thought of not being around the same people that I'd been around for all my life, everyday as I had done, frankly scared the flower embroidered socks off of me.

I ended up depending and finding security in my boyfriend at the time, when I moved to Uni. He was familiar and comforting, and a person and an emotion that I knew. And to be honest, I didn't fully immerse myself in the whole uni life and experience in that time, because I was trying to hold on to THAT part of my life so much. Like a child who won't get off the swings.

Then when we broke up, I kind of did the same with my flatmates. I'd grown to know that and them, and they ended up being my new security blanket I guess.

So when I moved to Sheffield for my postgrad, it was all completely brand-spanking new. I was moving to a new city where I didn't know anyone. There was no-one I was emotionally attached to that I could depend on, and I was going to be moving into a flat with a bunch of strangers. 

And just like a kid who's scared of the 1st day of school, at 21 years old, I was getting ready for my 1st day, and worried I wasn't going to make any friends and have to eat lunch on my own everyday for a year, and hide in my room away from my flat full of people who didn't want to watch Friends with me. The horror.
I even took a ribbon bow out of my hair before I left the flat because I thought no-one would want to go talk to THAT girl.

A year later, it turns out that some people flipping love that girl.

Who'd have thunk it?

I ended up with a whole new bunch of friends who I know will be for life, lived with a bunch of people that went from going to weekly pub quizzes together, to chats until 2am in our kitchen, and met my kindred spirit of a best friend within the first 2 days.

I danced ridiculously at clubs. I let the cackle come out of my life.  I talked to people more honestly. And I was more honest with myself. There were some emotionally hiccups along the way, but by golly Miss.Molly, did they make me be more honest with myself when it came to my feelings when I came out the other side of the tunnel - if you're going to mess me around, then I sure as hell don't want to be around for you to mess with.

And when I watched Lousie from Sprinkle of Glitter talk about what Liverpool means to her, it's exactly the same.

When I think back at what I was like when I moved to Sheffield, to what I was like when I left, I wouldn't say I changed, but I just let more of myself come through. I came into 100% of myself.

And as my bestie said when I told her how much I love and miss Sheffield because of these reasons, she said:
"I think that city was just so suited to your personality, that you just shone."

I couldn't agree with her more.

Sheffield. I love you, you bonkers Northern beauty.
And you'll always have a special place in this equally as bonkers girl's heart.

Stay happy!

Until next time...

A.x

And...breathe again!

So, first of all, my apologies for my lack of presence on here lately. I've had a lot of deadlines for my Masters degree, and what first seemed like a completely manageable amount, turned into this monster of word counts, essays, page designs and colour palettes.

image: WhatOliviaDid

So a week ago on Friday, I finally handed in all my individual work for this degree. That portfolio included my own magazine concept, a business plan and market research into it, designing covers for it, thinking of contents, interviewing for it and not only writing features from our own magazine, but a variety of different features.

I remember one of the first days that I moved to Sheffield, I was sat at this pub with all these new people, and one guy mentioned how it was his birthday in June, and he wasn't sure if people would still be around to celebrate it with him, and it was a big birthday. The big 3-0.

Before i knew it, I was sat at the same pub, with the same people, on that said-guy's birthday, celebrating his birthday and our deadlines. It was kinda poetic in a way.

We went out and celebrated. For all the stress, teas, cups of coffee drank and late nights, it was finally done.

The upcoming week was a mixed bag of emotions. Despite the deadline, there was still an essay to do, but I got a few beers, a gin & tonic here and there, sang along (badly!) to a silent disco and quite lot of dancing in there too...

Since then, I've been getting on top of my life again. My actual life!

That includes doing boring things like banking and posting... But I've also seen my family at my nephew and niece's birthday party (how is my nephew 7 years old already?!), followed my own blog's name and frolicked in the park in the sunshine with ice cream, swang on some swings, laughed at movies and while catching up with Orange is the New Black, and I even got asked on, and went on a date!

It's not until  I've stopped and taken a step back, that I've realized how far I've come, from when I started this course less than a year ago. I'm happy and proud with how much I've learnt, and excited for all that's to come in the future! (I do still have summer project before I finish officially in September, but let's not concentrate on that...)

Regular blogging will resume!
Hope you're all well!
Speak soon,
A.x

Recently...

Life's been a little but hectic since I've moved to Sheffield. A new city and new course has made time just absolutely fly by! The course is great too but just a lot of work, but thankfully, I've also got some new housemates and friends who are great and I get on with brilliantly :) So I'm sorry my blgging's been a bit on the quiet side! Instead if leaving it high and dry, here's a little update of late via my instagrammed life:

1.) went for a morning tea at Emma Bridgewater with my mum and this polka dot aga is now on my wishlist for my future dream home 

2.) fell head over heels in love for Christopher Bailey's SS'14 collection for Burberry 

3.) I got my craft on and added some sparkle to my Vans trainers 

4.) spots and stripes feeling like a liquorice all-sort

5.) crammed into the car ready to move up to Sheffield 

6.) spending some quality time with my gorgeous nephew 

7.) having some scrummy dim-sum with the family 

8.) settling into my new room with some pretty lights and photos of friends and family 

9.) falling in love with the city of Sheffield 

10.) a killer salad I made for dinner of bacon, chicken and avocado 

11.) unwinding after a day jam-packed of lectures with Breaking Bad, hoc late and a trusty cuppa 

12.) shorthand is taking over my life 

13.) being a fresher for the 4th time 

14.) having after-uni cocktails with Kim 

15.) flat 29C together for a night out for Imogen's birthday 

16.) loving the graffiti at my new local vintage shop

I'm hoping I'll get a bit more time to go back to regular blogging when everything settles down a little and I get a better grasp on my course.

Hope you're all well,

Speak soon, 

A.x