Wednesday, August 10

Life After University with Romana Ali

Hey, loves - hope you are all well.

My name is Romana, I'm 25 years old and I blog about all things beauty, fashion & life over on romanablogs.com - I started my blog as a creative outlet a little while ago and it has since grown and turned into a much enjoyed hobby! Make sure to follow me on Instagram at @romanablogs and on Twitter at @romanaalix. Make sure you any fellow bloggers send me your blog/social media links - as I love reading new blogs and getting to know you guys.
I have been working full time since the day I left my final University degree, and I always get asked the same question by friends and others: don't you miss it? Wouldn't you like to go back? Ahem... To answer that - maybe I should go back to the very start.



I remember the day I found I was going to uni. I was so "stoked".
I honestly thought it was going to be like how the first series of The Hills was. I mean I was going to GCU, not FIDM ahaha. Boy, how wrong was I?

Anyhoo, getting the coach at half 7 to be on time for a 9am class was not glam at all. Even less glam was me fully embracing the student lifestyle and dressing like a Primark hobo. Hey, I'm not knocking Primark - their stuff just wasn't as fab back in 2009 - and I deffo did not wear the fab stuff that they did stock. I dressed the same every day. Jeans, tee, cardi. In every single colour known to man. What was wrong with me. Let's not forget the scarves. Ew.

What was even more ew at uni was making fake/shit friends. You know the ones, the ones who are all for you when times are great, but when shit hits the fan - they're on the other end whispering and gossiping. Luckily for me - I've always had thick skin and never really have given a damn. Girl, bye!


Then came the year of the fashion queens. GCU was rife with little girls who dressed to impress every single day. Long gone was the hobo me - I needed a new outfit every damn day due to constant judgement every time I stepped into Level 2 of the Library. Long gone was also my SAAS Student bursary. Hello lots of new clothes I barely knew how to style.

I'm not gonna lie you guys - I was genuinely there to learn. WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT?! I was from a very small town who didn't know how to act in the same bitchy fashion as everyone else. And I was fine with that. I made a few life-long friends (one who is now my husband) and I got one with my studies - which I bossed by the way.

I then moved onto my second Uni which was just so much more chilled out in terms of student lifestyle. No one was trying to impress each other in suped up cars or the latest MAC foundation/lipstick. They were there with their coffees, and laptops to learn. The teaching at Strathy was a lot more lax though. It was nothing compared to GCU - and I was paying for it this time. Gutting. None of the lecturers knew your name, nor would they ever. Lectures went from 3 a week per module to 2 a week, and seminars/tutorials? They went from 10 a semester per module to just 4. I was lost for the first time ever, academically.

Adjusting your style of studying after 3 years at one university to a completely different style to fit another University was hard. Really hard. What do you mean you guys don't use Harvard style referencing?! What's a footnote when it's at home?! You don't hand it in as a hard copy?! SO much confusion!!

Beyond this though - I tried to enjoy myself more by catching up with school friends who attended this Uni, lunches with friends, dinners, and lots of other fun activities to fill up big gaps in the day. By this time, my makeup and style skills had gone up 10 fold. However, I must admit looking back; I really did not need to wear my Naked 2 palette every single day. Chopper pretty much lived on my eyelids for 6 weeks. I looked fab though - so feck it!

All in all, I don't think I would change anything about my time at university. I studied hard, but I also made friends, went out for a lot of lunches; did a lot of fun things, really! After 6 years of University studying though - I am exhausted! Completely, and utterly. I didn't get my dream job after Uni - but I got one in-between which I am very much happy about. Uni did teach me a lot about life, the people in your life, and the type of person you want to be.

My advice to University Students? Make the most of it. Working full time for the rest of your life is no joke. At Uni - you wouldn't believe how much free time you have. I could easily go to bed at 3am and be up for a 10am class. You cannot do that for work *sobs* (please don't try it either). I don't get to come home to a dinner cooked by my mother anymore - I have to come home tired, and ready to cook my own dinner - making me even more tired. Don't even get me started on the washing up that comes afterwords. Would I ever go back? Do I miss it? No, and no. Onwards and upwards only.

What was your University Experience like? Let me know!

Find Romana...

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