As we approach the final stretch of a very busy year, I would like to take a moment and reflect upon what I believe were good and perhaps not so good decisions that I have made during its course. Hopefully this would help Freshers of 2015 and any future Imperial Chemical Engineering students so that you won\u2019t repeat my mistakes. So, instead of a to-do list (which I think is quite presumptuous-me telling you what you should do), I compiled a \u2018what-NOT-to-do\u2019 list. Here it is:<\/p>\n
What-NOT-to-do-list:<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Leave everything until the Easter break.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n You might think that a month is more than enough time to catch up with 6 months\u2019 worth of material, but, trust me, it is not.<\/p>\n And I know it is partly my fault for not listening to our seniors\u2019 advice. Okay, fine it is TOTALLY my fault. Though perhaps I can only learn the hard way; procrastinate, panic and vow not to repeat this next year.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Not participate in any societies or clubs.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n In my defence, I went to the Netball taster session, so I DID put some effort. However, I quickly realised it was not for me; spending two hours travelling to and fro to practise once a week and running in the cold, dark night, AND go to lectures at 9 am (all my lectures start early-yes 9 am is now considered early!) the next day was just too much for me.<\/p>\n In hindsight, I wish I volunteered throughout the year with different charities. There is quite a number of charity related societies which I am planning to get involved with next year (assuming I pass the exams in June; fingers crossed!).<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Stay indoors during the first term.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I am VERY lazy; my idea of a perfect evening is lying on my bed, with some hot chocolate to drink and a good book to read. So, it is safe to say that I did not take full advantage of my strategically located abode. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I don\u2019t regret not doing anything during the first term. I would even advice against it; go out, party, chill, even embark on a road trip. Just don\u2019t stay home and watch movie marathons all the time.<\/p>\n And if you think that this is a good way of avoiding catching Freshers\u2019 flu, you cannot be further from the truth; no matter what precautions you take, the days of being bed stricken are inevitable, I am afraid.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Avoid cooking at all costs.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n After more than six months of living by myself, I can confirm that I have yet to cook my first dish. Admittedly, I did not make any effort; I couldn\u2019t stand the heat so I stayed out of the kitchen (at least I am following SOMEBODY\u2019S advice!). At this point I am not even certain whether I\u2019ll ever learn how to cook. But, hey, never say never, right?<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Not apply to be a student blogger.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n During the first few weeks, I saw countless advertisements around campus all encouraging students to apply to be student blogger for Imperial. I thought to myself, \u2018Well, I like to ramble a lot, and quite opinionated so why not share that with a bigger audience?\u2019 And here I am doing exactly that! I hope you have been entertained by my ramblings (my friends and family are sick of it by now) and have gained an insight to what it is like being a student here-at least, from my perspective.<\/p>\n So when you see those adverts the next academic year, go for it; you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.<\/p>\n That marks the end of my \u2018what-NOT-to-do list\u2019. It is quite succinct but I feel it covers all the essentials. Should you follow my advice? YES!! Would you? It is entirely up to you, but, readers, you have been warned\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A piece of advice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1047,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190116,1],"tags":[26074,609,108155,12094],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-term","category-uncategorized","tag-26074","tag-advice","tag-freshers-2","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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