Blogmas 13: University #13: Third Year Fear.

Third Year Fear (n.) -
The feeling of dread for a) leaving university, b) essays and c) the future in general which occurs during the third year of academic study.

'I can't do this essay/apply for this job/think about life after uni, what if things go badly and I fail at everything?'
'Don't worry, that's just the third year fear talking.'

Stress over essays, the future etc are all very common during the final year of any university subject, and final week of semester has only served to exacerbate mine.

Not only have I got my dissertation to be working on, but I've also got a 4,000 word project due in on Monday, as well as a whole heap of social commitments (which are, luckily, mostly over and done with today). As I described myself on Thursday, I feel like a hairball - itchy, stuck in the throat of final week, needing to be coughed up and released. I'm aching for Christmas, so I can chill out with my feet up and not have to spend 8 hour days in the library (incidentally where I'm writing this post from).

Today's post was meant to be an outfit of the evening, as I went out to a ball last night, but I felt that this post was a lot more relevant to how I'm really feeling.

Some things I have been doing to try and combat the fear is breaking my work up into really small chunks (like I suggested in my 'On Honesty' post) and treating myself to tea when I've done a decent amount of work. I also try and see or speak to someone on a proper lunch breaks to give myself a breather. The other day my housemate told me about a study website which makes you work intensively for twenty-five minutes then have a between a five and twenty-five minute break. After your time is up, you can write a little bit about what you did, so you can keep track of your progress throughout the day. It's been really helpful so far for me - although I will admit that its getting harder and harder to return to work after the buzzer goes off!

I can't really offer any other tips or advice for how to get over this feeling of fear, as I'm still trying to work it out myself! If you have an tips for me, please tweet me @VickiMaitland or leave a comment!