Second year blues

As a second year student, I’ve got to that point – in between the endless wonders of first
year and the promises for the future that I have to tell myself third year will hold – when I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing with my life.

We’re almost at the end of Term 1. By this point last year I felt I had achieved so much.
While, admittedly, the heights of these achievements were in fact 27 nights out, over 2,000
photos and drinking such inordinate quantities of alcohol that I don’t even want to begin
counting, followed closely by only starting one small fire in our kitchen, discovering that
trollies are the ideal form of transport and being shown how to take the doors in Rootes
off their hinges then proceeding to relocate a number of them, I had undeniably achieved a
great deal in terms of experience.

I’d met so many wonderful people, I was becoming a terribly well educated alcoholic and
Warwick was the best place in the world.

This year is somewhat different. I’m caught between wanting to be either drunk or hungover
all the time and thinking that I really should start taking my life seriously. I still love Warwick as much as ever, but now it doesn’t seem like I’ll be here for an endless amount of time, forever drinking purple and dressing like a schoolgirl whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I can no longer roll out of bed at 8.55 and still make it to my 9am lecture. I have to plan
ahead, for tomorrow and next summer and the rest of my life.

Shit.

That would be the first word that comes to mind. I’m not old enough to apply for jobs, to be
given responsibility for something more important than buying cheese and remembering
to get my clothes out of the tumble dryer. I have to pay bills, write cover letters, purchase
kitchen roll and bleach. Forgetting to lock the door could result in something worse than my
bed going missing for half an hour or my room being redecorated with the contents of Nuts,
both of which I had the pleasure of experiencing during my first few weeks of student life.

Most days, I’m torn between wanting to dedicate myself to having as much fun as possible
and preparing effectively for everything that will happen after university. They say it’s the
things in life you don’t do that you regret, but you can’t do everything and choosing often
proves a challenge.

Some days, usually at about 10pm when I’m halfway through a game of I Have Never and a
bottle of wine, the choice seems obvious.

Other days, when I’m talking to a man from the Barclays Wealth graduate scheme who’s
wearing a really nice suit and has just returned from a 6-month placement in Dubai, the
choice also seems obvious.

It’s rather unfortunate that these obvious choices are not one and the same.

As a young, impressionable A-level student, in my first ever economics lesson I learnt that
the opportunity cost of something is the value of the next best alternative forgone; what
you give up by choosing one thing over another. In other words, choices are bad. Having
spent a proportion of my time – I’ll leave you to guess how much – at Warwick studying a
degree in economics, I now have the extensive knowledge and expertise to conclude that
this is definitely correct. Choices are really bad. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to seize every possible opportunity.

On top of all the confusion over whether to spend my evenings knocking back Jägerbombs
or polishing up my CV, if I ever do make any choices – which doesn’t seem all that likely
at the best of times but, ever the optimist, I’ll worry about this anyway – I’m not entirely
certain how I’ll embark upon my decided course of action.

How do you make yourself stand out from hundreds of similarly qualified students all
applying for a single internship place? How do you convince potential employers that you
really do want that job and you really would be perfect for it? How do you do this without
looking back in 10 years’ time and thinking that too many of your days spent at university
were wasted fretting over what comes next?

This isn’t an advice column. If you have any questions, don’t contact me because I’ll have no
answers.