MY UNI YEAR!

So if someone was to ask me how my first year was at university? I would probably answer them with it was good, but so stressful and not what I expected. I’m not going to lie, it could have gone better! The problem with me when it comes to work is that when I get presented with a task or a project I think “yeah! This will be great and when it’s finished its going to look so good!” but then I will start with the project and find out that it’s a lot harder than what I think it is. Before my year at DMU, I was really motivated and excited for my first year learning how to do some really great art! To be honest, I thought I would be able to go there and be told all the industry secrets on how to make stuff look amazing. Nope, it was nothing like that. I was just hoping I’d come to uni and be able to do some really good digital paintings. I was aware that this course would be intense and really difficult to succeed, but I didn’t know that when Chris says that we are going to be out in the rain and snow drawing that we would actually have to re do all our drawing because of the rain destroying our books.

SO, when I actually started my course I soon realised that it was going to be a long grind till I get to where I want to be. I realised that at uni, I’m not going to be sat down and told how to draw. It was better than that! I was told to go out and draw lots and lots and if I don’t I get kicked of the course. This opened my eyes that if I want to be good at drawing then I’m going to have to learn it myself. I went out for the first project and did exactly what they told me to do. I did lots of thumb nails and a few finals. I was pretty confident that all year long I could easily do this every week. But, then we started our other modules like Games production and critical studies. That’s where my arms just weren’t big enough to carry all the work. It was all just all down to my time managing, I couldn’t balance my studies with my social and personal time. When I was supposed to be drawing 24 drawings of a tree, I was out making friends and putting for time into my other projects.

After Christmas, the tutors saw that I was taking on the course the completely wrong way. I was pulled aside and told that I’m heading to failure if I don’t do something about it and they weren’t wrong. They really opened my eyes that I wasn’t preforming as well as my fellow students. But this is where the martin deep down comes out. Every time I’m told that I can’t do something is where I kind of put on my try hard hat and get to work because I want to show people and myself that I can do what I want to achieve. I think it’s mostly that I want to prove people wrong.

I attended a management class at the library where it really helped me change my attitude towards work. It showed me how to time manage properly, so I made a to-do list on my wall. Once I laid out what I needed to do and when to do it for I realised that there’s a lot of stuff to do! Putting that list up made my mind a lot clearer. I managed my time effectively and it also helped because everyone that came in my room was like “oh my god you have so much work to do” so that helped too.

When it got to the end of my year I really put my foot down on the partying and stayed in a lot more to get all my work done. I didn’t just rush it either I took my time to make sure it was all good. There was that one day I took off to go out in the sun and play a bit of football in the sun. But the universe soon told me that that’s not what I should be doing as I got sunstroke!

Over all the course structure was pretty good apart from the very last few days when my critical studies deadline was close. I wasn’t told at all, I didn’t have a clue when I was supposed to have all my blogs done. None of it was on blackboard and because of this I am now having to re do all my blogs over the summer. But things happen for a reason, I just hope that they organise this a bit better.

If I was to re do this whole year, I would have made that to-do list right away! It would have not only saved my time but money too, because I wouldn’t have gone out as much. I would have paid a lot more attention on how much work I really had. I would have done my work as soon as I could instead of doing it last minute. So over all I think it’s all just down to time management!