Surviving First Year of University

Dear Readers,

As September is along the horizon, I thought it would be a terrific time to tell you about my experiences at university and how I seemingly managed to 'survive it.' Across social media, there are constant memes that provide you with some witty quotes, but maybe it will be better to take a minute of your time and read university through my perspective.

1. Freshers week - This is probably the social event of the year apart from celebrating end of year exams. This is the opportunity to make some hilarious memories with people you have just barely met for several hours. My story begins with me arriving late for pre-drinks at my flat. I entered a small and cramped laundry room where 20 people were attempting to socialise in a very compact space. Then, entered little innocent me and 20 pairs of eyes darted in my direction. After forcing everyone to tell me their names, I sat down and they offered me a drink and then the ice was gradually broken. After a few drinks, we all became a lot more comfortable with each other and began to head towards the bus. Outside were a thousand more of us who were equally drunk and ready to party. The university held a lot of events for us throughout the week and it felt as if we were all on a lads holiday. Essentially, clubbing, drinking and lots of other mischief shall we say...With regards to my flat, this was basically the golden opportunity to get closer with them and see them at their worst. Of course, I was stupidly the first one to take the bullet after eating just an apple for dinner on the second evening. I was carried back to my room at 11pm which is just embarassing....To put it in short, you WILL become best friends with everybody in your flat in the first few weeks of university, then all the friendship groups will form...

2. Alcoholism? - Essentially, your first year will consist of you testing your waters of drunken-ness to the maximum. I certainly have had several moments where the level of alcohol I consumed just didn't agree with me. There are countless stories that I could dive into but I don't think that's particularly necessary...Your facebook page will blow up with different types of events or raves that you or your friends are interested in therefore, you will not have an excuse not to go. One of the things you will find with this new found independence is that you will feel a lot less guilty going out. For example, say you want to have a quiet night in and you hear banging on the door with someone asking 'Do you want to come out to 'insert club name' tonight? By the second time they ask you, guaranteed ladies and gentlemen, that you will be trying to get ready in 5 minutes and getting drunk in the next 10 before the bus arrives. That's all part of being a student...

3. Sleep? - This will be one of essentials you will have to sacrifice during the night and do during the day. Night time is basically the time where you party with your friends or spend a night in watching a flurry of Netflix movies till the crack of dawn. The daytime is for napping and bracing yourself for the upcoming night. Napping will also become a very big part of your life, I was living in a shoe-box sized room where the bed was right next to my desk. I once woke up in the middle of the night with the lights still turned on, spooning my textbook that I attempted to read...

4. Money? - First year students listen up! This will be the year where you will learn from your mistakes. At the start of the year, you will end up spending a solid amount on textbooks and stationery. The rest of the year, you will either be spending it on a smorgasbord of food or on alcoholic drinks. My advice? Find the cheapest local stores like Aldi, Lidl, Asda or even Tesco if you are desperate and do a weekly shop and try to stick to that amount. Cheap or shop branded alcohol tastes vile but with a dash of 50p Tesco Coke, that will keep you buzzed for the night. In terms of buying food, do not buy everything you want at once, try and stick to a budget. You will need some healthy items on the list because you will be a hungover, homesick depressed mess if you are don't have something to liven up your day. Cheese, my good friends is probably one of the most expensive items I have come across in the supermarket. Do not buy grated cheese, it is a complete rip off and you get about 3 times less the amount than you would with a regular block. Also, deals, student discounts are something to keep an eye out for if you are a big spender. If you go shopping or have meals out, just be careful how much you spend because restaurant meals aren't designed to be cheap nor is Topshop. Primark will probably end up being your best friend for the year. With regards to nights out, drink cheap alcohol at pres and try and buy a very minimal amount whilst on a night out. Remember, people also have the tendency to go to the nearest burger or kebab shop to fill their stomach. Believe me, if you are to have the food sober, you would probably gag, but when all your senses are diminished by good pal Vodka, you will honestly think its heaven in your mouth. With regards to taxis, try and uber or alpha or delta it. Never get black cabs or at least do not get them on your own as it isn't worth spending a tenner, you might as well just sleep in the 24 hour campus library...

4. Dropping out? - There will be at least one moment in your uni life where you will consider to drop out. I personally, had 3 breakdowns on the phone to my mum explaining to her that I need to find myself spiritually and that uni has gotten the best of me. Do not be fooled by this, its just a small phase or a moment of weakness everybody will have. Everyone who spends a few hours on their own will start overthinking and becoming homesick. It's simply an adjustment and essentially, university should provide you with the best years of your life.

5. Studies? - What I have found with studying is that you will have constant fear that you are behind on something. You will feel like you have 100 modules even though you have 4 at the most. Procrastination is a very dark demon and walks hand in hand with napping and stuffing your sorrows away with jars of Nutella. Essentially, try and be organised, push yourself in the short term and feel better in the long term. I made the mistake of being too lazy and I had to catch up with a lot during the Easter and Christmas holidays. The good news out of all of this is that you only need to pass first year for most modules and even if you do badly, it will most likely scare or wake you up for the next year when **** gets real. With regards to exams, make sure you revise on time and not try to cram in half a year's worth of work into one week. It just won't happen. During exam time, you will lose interest in how you look, smell or behave and you will just have to battle through exhaustion, stress and deprivation of absolutely everything you can think of. You never realize how much your parents push you or encourage you to do your work than at uni.

6. Snakes in the nest? - Of course, everywhere you go, you will find drama from someone or other. Essentially, having flat relationships is considered very incestuous and not to mention risky. It can change an entire group dynamic and especially if you have one at the start of the year, it could jeopardize your opportunity to make other friends. One of my personal hates, is having food stolen by other members of your flat. The countless times I have had to wake up with a message on the group chat reporting a missing milk or slice of ham is unbelievable. The best thing to do would either to put laxatives in your food or get a mini fridge. One of my saddest moments in university was when my father brought a kilogram of olives from Costco for my birthday and the next morning to find that half of it was gone. May that greedy goblin choke on the seeds....Another source of heat in the kitchen will be the anger boiling up inside you by filthy roommates who refuse to wash up their dishes and cutlery. Just to clarify, soaking it for 2 days straight is not an excuse not to do it. Mouldy, smelly dishes are not something you should put up with. In terms of other drama, you never really know what could come up around the corner. There will be a lot of opinionated people and of course views will clash. Religion is one of my all time favorite. The Atheist vs Christian debate where one tries to convince the other how they are wrong...

7. Sex? - Let's just say, university corrupts you in more ways than one...But sex is a perfectly normal and fun thing and just enjoy it. You will often find pleasure in finding out about your flatmates' one night stands as long as your head isn't sleeping on the other side of the wall. The beds in my accommodation had like a beam going up into the ceiling. I once woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was tossing and turning due to a bad dream but once I tried to go back to sleep, I realized it was people upstairs having sex like a sailor on payday....That was extremely grim. In addition, ever heard of a little app called Tinder? That 'little' app will be on a lot of people's phones and it is the perfect place to find a horny teen in your neighborhood. Who said chivalry was dead?

8. Societies? - Every year your university will probably have a society fair and it will be your opportunity to sign up to what interests you. Since I was still drunk from the night before, I ended up signing to every single society including Hindu society, Pole dancing society, Anime and reenactment society. I ended up getting emails from all of them and I did not go to one. I did try out the swimming and water polo societies but apart from that...I preferred a nice nap and Domino's pizza.

So there you are! hat's just an insight into my first year of uni. I can't wait to share many more memories with you guys in the future...Hope you enjoyed this extremely long post and can relate to it if you either have been or at uni or just about to go into uni. May this be your little guide for the social aspect of university...

My Goals

Dear Readers,

Its been a while since I have written a personal blog post about myself.
During my relatively non eventful summer I've started to make a list of certain goals I would like to achieve in the near future and I thought it would be fun to share with you my aspirations. One of the things people close to me would know that I am very ambitious and very pro the idea that once you have achieved a goal or dream, your next step is to set up a new one. The only way is up right?

So, let's begin....

1. Firstly, I would love to create a travel blog. In fact, I am thinking of converting making a few blogs based on different passions but one of my main hobbies is to travel. This summer I went to Baku in Azerbaijan as part of the ELSA law programme where I had the opportunity to learn about business law and see what the mysterious city of Baku had to offer. Essentially, I feel that on all my travels, I have interesting stories to tell and they are worth telling.

2. I would love to create a YouTube and Vine channel that incorporates the different slices of my personality and give people a variety as to who Vlad is and what he loves. Essentially, I like making people laugh, telling them interesting stories, being sassy, I could go on...Essentially, it would be an excellent opportunity to increase more confidence talking towards a camera. Like every person, I do have some shy traits, for example, I tend to laugh an awful lot when I'm nervous or stumble on my words. Hence, this could be a good idea to try and tackle that...

3. I would love to do something really spontaneous like modelling because again, I tend to have some insecurities and I think its important to tackle in some shape or form. I've often been told I've got a good jawline, so why not give it a go? Hey, even if no one wants to see my 'mug' then it doesn't matter, you've got to try something at least once haha...

4. I would love to write a story. I would say I'm quite imaginative and I think I could create some short or long form of a story. It would be interesting how that work out. Obviously, this is a long term idea and I hope to one day pursue it. My English tutor used to always assign me various creative writing ideas and I would always pursue them. These are some of the projects I created when I was younger - a gothic horror story of a man coming home and seeing his wife murdered (intense...I know), a woman who suffered from domestic abuse and how she overcame it, a small story on the Titanic, a futuristic adventure where a teen boy hero rescues his town from oxygen deprivation (lots of action) and I could go on...Imagination never has any limits.

5. Next summer, I would love to go inter-railing with a pack of friends across Europe and discover what this amazing continent has to offer. I have traveled it extensively myself, but it will be far more different with a giant rucksack on my back, living on trains and cheap hostels for a month. That is a true adventure..

6. In addition, hopefully after achieving good grades and university and doing a masters, I would love to take a gap year out and travel from Asia to Australia to South America and create a lot of lifetime memories. This goal is also very long term and I have been working this summer to begin my funding. Essentially, I want to work and earn the entire funding for it because that is equally an accomplishment. This summer, I have worked at Ascot Windsor through a catering agency and now at a gastro pub in Farnborough, The Swan. I've earnt about £1.5k so far...a good foundation and I am going to create a savings account and keep fuelling it with my monthly payments.

7. I would love to start going to the gym and participate more in sports in order to gain a bit more muscle and obviously to improve my health. Junk food, TV and napping isn't really the way to go haha so it will be interesting to see if I can push myself to get stronger and more muscular. But essentially, I want to get both physical and mental strength that can be transferred into other areas of my life.

And there it is essentially! These are my 7 main goals in the future, I hope to tick these off one by one throughout the years to come and to aspire to make more goals and continue to achieve.

Hope on the Horizon

Dear Readers,

Perhaps our dreams have finally come true and we shall soon be graced with Madonna's old music videos on Vevo. This is essentially the perfect chance to improve this new generation's awareness of Madonna's iconic music videos, live performances and increase her streams and youtube views, one of the primary drives and promotions to getting an artist nowadays to number one.

What should have been done so far?

Realistically, last year, we were graced with so many amazing live performances by Madonna across international television shows, music awards, etc. Performances such as the 2016 Grammys, infamous Drake kiss at Coachella, iHeart Radio Awards with Taylor Swift, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Jimmy Fallon, the 2016 prince tribute, and the 2015 jimmy fallon perfomances should all have been posted on her account by now. It would be the bear minimum expected bearing in mind her intention was to crack and dominate the younger generation. The more awareness and promotion she receives, the better. Not to mention, the iconic 2012 superbowl, 2014 Grammy perfomance with Macklemore, Miley Cyrus' MTV Unplugged episode that should have been published. It is honestly such a shame, that so many talked about and iconic performances are not posted whilst other artists get to have theirs posted. Showing this level of interaction with the younger artists gets Madonna's name across a lot more.

What should be done next?

Essentially, what hasn't been done yet. All of her live performances (festivals, award shows etc) across the four decades of her career should be released. All her interviews should also be published throughout the years. Audios from her albums, remix albums, compilation albums, soundtracks, tour videos, documentaries, behind the scene footage, single remixes, should all be published on her page to increase streaming. And above all and most importantly, ALL and I mean ALL of her music videos should be altered into HD and published on her Vevo account in order for people to get access to Madonna's insanely long career. Simple - the more views she gets in accumulation, the more followers, the more streams, the more awareness, the more popularity and she can get a lot more Vevo certified videos like all current artists. That way, she keeps her name across and adapts to modern societies dependence on youtube and spotify and tidal.

What she should do next is pull out a Beyonce style album with all music videos and publish them on her Vevo account. For now, she should try and get a lot of cameos in her videos to again show she is in touch with current music but obviously give it her own twist or do something completely daring to captivate the fans and get new ones.

Here are my fingers crossed that this will be achieved!