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Thread: Student Blues

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Student Blues

    *siiiiigh* For some reason this half of my Uni year has been really hard slog. Lots of reasons I guess - what seems like a never ending cycle of essays due, lack of money, owing money, knowing I have 2 more years of this and other stuff life related but not study related.

    I know there are some other Uni students on this site and I just wondered if you get the same "This is just too hard!!!" feelings some time. It's not about the study itself being too difficult and it's not even about wondering if I'm doing the right degree...I guess I'm just getting a little over whelmed by it all

    I owe around 4 grand to my bank and Study Link - that doesn't include my student loan. The 2nd half of next year (my 3rd year) and my 4th year I probabaly won't be able to work at all and without work I'll barely have enough to get by on.

    I'm not looking for sympathy...ok I am! But more than that I'm just wondering how other students cope. :spudwhat: I'm 33 (soon) and feel like at the end of my degree I'll have a career but not much else - at this rate I don't think I'll ever be able to own my own home, I haven't even travelled overseas yet and I'm feeling a little miserable about it all and I can't even blame it on PMT! :confused2
    My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am.

  2. #2
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    Hahahaha lets see this time of year for the last 3 years it's been the same. Information overload. I don't even want to look at the size of my loan and i havn't had a positive bank account for the last couple of months. I need to work but don't have the time with the amount of work i need to do for uni. Feeling bogged down is all part of the uni experience i suppose, why do you think us engineers are famous for beer consumption . And when the fridge is empty cause you got no money . oh well it has it's ups and downs but you gotta get the paper i suppose. All though i had some interesting and deadly thoughts about what torture i could do to my maths modelling lecturer sort of an eye for an eye thing.

    What course you doing???

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    Well, I'm doing a BSc, which is almost a BA... So I'm also working about 30 hours a week, to save for an OE. I now have 5 assignments due in 5 weeks, and no time to do them. However, its not all bad, because I have the carrot of the holiday, and it is my last semester.

    Questions: I suppose that being in the social work field you should know about what you can get in terms of allowances etc. I take it you are getting your entitlement of student allowance.
    What sort of work are you doing? Get a higher paid job and work less hours....
    I find the key is to reward yourself - make sure you are doing something that you enjoy at times - eg I fence twice a week for a couple of hours. Very good stress release.Also, make sure that you dont keep pushing yourself to work constantly. A good work ethic is good, but make sure you get the breaks you need. 10 mins every hour, a whole day every now and again, a few hours sunbathing once a week etc....

    I find I work much faster when I am feeling on top of work - and a half hour off, often makes me feel guilty enough to rip into it quickly when I get back to the assignment - and I get it done faster overall too
    Queiro voya todo Europa con mi moto.... pero no tengo suficiente tiempo o dinero.....

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    And the happy post

    Don't worry though, I went through something similar towards the end of last semester, so i decided to aim at a holiday as soon as I finished. So it all gets better, the closer you get to finishing. I also found I really enjoyed the content this year, as it is really relevant to what I want to do, and is quite applicable as well - not only does the end get closer, it gets more interesting too
    Queiro voya todo Europa con mi moto.... pero no tengo suficiente tiempo o dinero.....

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    cheer up csl, you will be glad of your qualification, lets face it retirement in this country is something only a few will be able to indulge in and as long as you have your health there is no reason you will have to consider retirement until you are in your 70's if you choose to, this being considered you will well and truly have got your money's worth, one day you will have your own home and all the luxuries your efforts will have afforded you. I can sympathise with your feelings however, but I really think you are doing a good thing for your future and whatever hardships you are suffering now will all be worth it in the long run. hang in there, you will get time off study after exam time and you should be able to get a bit of work in and hopefully some dollars saved. :cool2:

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celtic_Sea_lily
    I'm not looking for sympathy...ok I am!
    Here, have a virtual

    Quote Originally Posted by Celtic_Sea_lily
    I'm 33 (soon) and feel like at the end of my degree I'll have a career but not much else
    You chose your degree and career precisely because it'll give you so much more than a soulless rubber-stamped entry into the economy.

    Don't be bothered by being 33. You have the enviable privilege of not having been forced into a cookie-cutter, pressure-cooker career path at a tender age, only to burn out, coping only with large quantities of alcohol and/or turning into an utterly awful person. I've know plenty in that boat, who, on the surface, had all the career tickboxes checked. Mostly lawyers. How can I put this... let's just say that if I had to prioritise oxygen, I wouldn't give it to them over you.

    Quote Originally Posted by Celtic_Sea_lily
    at this rate I don't think I'll ever be able to own my own home, I haven't even travelled overseas yet and I'm feeling a little miserable about it all
    Owning a house comes with its own unique set of horrors. I, for instance, can't get away from the necessity of slogging toward it, but why would you need to worry? You can't take it with you.

    And travel... is great. But, IMHO, the most meaningful experiences in life come from within our own minds. Make of that what you will, but I think your psyche is perfectly capable of being whatever it wants to be, wherever it happens to be at the time.

    Don't give up.
    kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
    - mikey

  7. #7
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    Thanks guys & gals :disapint: Yu've made good valid points. I guess I'm just feeling a bit bogged down cos I have 6 essays/asignments due in the next 4 weeks and then f*ckin' hell exams, as well as 1 final essay! I feel like I'm always behind the 8 ball, there never seems to be enough hours in a week to actually study as well as do essays and actually take in anything I'm learning!

    I'm lucky I do have a good job with good pay and they let me only do 8hrs a week.

    Just a bit of a melancholy today. I'm sure it will passssssssss
    My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celtic_Sea_lily
    actually take in anything I'm learning!
    Once you're out, you'll realise that you weren't supposed to.

    It's just a trial by fire to make sure you're capable of doing a job. Once you're out, the learning starts all over again.
    kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
    - mikey

  9. #9
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    Something's radically wrong here. You studenty types shouldn't be getting stressed out - that's supposed to happen to middle-aged white collars who have been working at meaningless jobs for so long they've forgotten what freedom and fun are... In my day students might get temporarily depressed becaused they failed a paper or something, but they'd just go out and get drunk or go on a protest march or join a new club and the next day the world would look good again. Looking ahead to the future meant making sure there was some money left over for Saturday night's party...
    It's really sad that the most exciting years of your life have been turned into anxiety-filled drudgery. Of the various sacrifices made in this country over the last 20 or so years on the altar of the god of economic efficiency this is perhaps the most unforgiveable.
    I can't offer a solution except to encourage you to hang in there.

    As for me, impending redundancy opens up the possibility of becoming a full-time student again next year, if I can work out a way to survive on about $50 a week. Or even if I can't. Sometimes when opportunity knocks, you've just got to open the door...
    Age is too high a price to pay for maturity

  10. #10
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    oh the student life....
    i am studying Civil eng and the first semster was a killer, the only way we found to relieve the burden was to go down to the local and sink a few pints!!
    nothing like a mid day beer to make the afternoon just fade away!
    but, i must agree that come new tyre, service or what ever its hard to dig deep!
    just be thankful that you have a solid bike, i had a CB250RS as my first bike and was awsome on fuel and tyres (until i parked it into a drain).
    yeah... sorry bro, i thought that ment miles 'n hour.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Celtic_Sea_lily
    I know there are some other Uni students on this site and I just wondered if you get the same "This is just too hard!!!" feelings some time. It's not about the study itself being too difficult and it's not even about wondering if I'm doing the right degree...I guess I'm just getting a little over whelmed by it all
    Yeah I'm in my 3rd year of a BE degree and this last semester it has felt like I'm a bit out of my league and I've been tempted to quit but I figure then I've payed my money so I might keep at it even though I'm not particularly enjoying it at the moment. Hopefully in the future I will look back and think that was worth while.

    The biggest thing I hate about studying is you have to bring it home with you, where as work when I've finished for the day I can come home and forget all about it. I work 14 hours a week and I fine that much more enjoyeable than studying, this probably too many hours and at times I really feel it, but it has ment I've got through uni debt free which is a really nice feeling.

    David
    Life is difficult because it is non-linear.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by dhunt
    The biggest thing I hate about studying is you have to bring it home with you, where as work when I've finished for the day I can come home and forget all about it.
    Um, dude. You're doing a BE...

    You'll end up like me, as I am right now. Sitting at the computer in your gargre at a quarter to ten on a Sunday night, filling out endless lawyer's forms for engineering docs on a patent application while you intermittently waste time on a biking forum and your wife is out visiting friends because you couldn't provide decent company.

    I can just see the placating emails I'm going to have to send in the morning as I explain why it's not *quite* ready yet, just give me until lunch time, really...
    kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
    - mikey

  13. #13
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    You sound like me! The time pressure for this latest assignment is killing me. The student loan thing sucks too, I've sold heaps of "crap" through trademe to get some extra cash to try and knock some of the loan on the head and of course to get some bike stuff.

    I envy you though. I wish I could have had a student experience like yours. It all probably seems a bit crushing now, but there are plenty of greater burdens, which you seem to want to experience. Strange.

    Chin up, old girl!

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by MikeL
    As for me, impending redundancy opens up the possibility of becoming a full-time student again next year, if I can work out a way to survive on about $50 a week. Or even if I can't. Sometimes when opportunity knocks, you've just got to open the door...
    I don't recall you mentioning whether or not you'd done a PhD already, Mike. But surely, by now, you'd have enough material to construct a thesis in virtually anything within the humanities or soft sciences with both eyes closed and one hand tied behind your back. And a doctoral scholarship at Auckland pays $20K a year plus tuition, and only needs about 20 hours a week, if the amount of stuffing around that most post-grad students engage in these days is taken into account.

    If you couldn't bag one of those, the world is even *more* of an unfair place than I think it to be.

    The *best* doctorates are awarded to those, like you, who already know what they're talking about, and wish to contribute to the field while learning more themselves. Not by feckless youths, doing them because they don't want to get a real job...

    Although, that said, I'm reminded of a rather elitist joke that a colleague (with a PhD, of course) told me on Friday:

    Q: What do you call a person with the crappiest PhD in the word?

    A: Doctor.
    kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
    - mikey

  15. #15
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    Awwww, Cath!

    Thought you'd be at that BBQ tonight, mate. Sounds like it's all a bit heavy going at the moment; but really- it will go faster than you think. It's good to do well on these things, but the most important thing is your fundamental understanding of the thing you are actually interested in doing after it's all over. Marks are marks, but... just that. Not to be confused with learning at the sacrifice of enthusiasm. And you'll be fiiiiine. Everyone has student debt these days, so you'll fit right in.
    Anyhoo, there is the Waikato ride to look forward to next month. Me & Stonechucker really missed you today; I swear mine was the only 250 I saw all day..!
    See ya at the ol' Dominion during the week, then. And if you fancy going for a quick evening blat after work, just leave a note on her.

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