Dear diary: Three days with a Warwick student

Dear diary,

It’s library day.

Half of all seats were removed from the university library for Covid safety reasons, meaning it can get busy quickly. Afternoons especially so, and any time after 3pm you can expect to see a line wrap around to the side of the canteen. I usually prefer to go in the mornings, because it’s more serene and also for the fact that I can romanticise my morning walk to campus, where I usually only see a handful of other people along the way.

Today, however, I left at a little past lunch, and it was hard to find a seat. The embarrassing walk of shame began – I walked for maybe ten minutes through the first and second floors before finding a nice space to set up my work. My library itinerary for that day was to finish some background reading into my essay topic and to go over some concepts from my past lectures as revision.

Dear diary, exams are looming

As the Easter break comes to an end, it can be difficult to keep up with deadlines. I had three assignments to do over this break and the last of which is due this week, so keeping a wall calendar has been helpful in keeping up to date on different deadlines. Waking up early has also been so helpful in keeping my day structured. Generally, I wake up at 6am, which allows me to get the bulk of my work done earlier in the day.

Exam anxieties are also soaring during this time of the year. Due to the pandemic, all exams in my first year were cancelled, and I have only attempted one official Warwick examination so far. It was for a Biology module, and I got the results back this week. Truth be told, it was bad, but it has motivated my work ethic and I understand the exam process better for it.

Luckily, my department is running mock exams at the start of the third term that I’m currently very excited about. Hopefully, these will help to alleviate the exam anxieties and familiarise the process and expectations of Warwick-style exams for other inexperienced students like me.

Dear diary, I was oddly spontaneous today

Since the lockdown was lifted this week, my housemate suggested that we go out and get piercings together. We planned to go the next day, as she had already decided on a side nose piercing whereas I was torn between a nose piercing and a septum.

Truthfully, I was wary of the pain, since I have not had a new piercing since my two lobes when I was much younger. Pinterest is a good place to look for inspiration, and I eventually settled excitedly on a septum piercing.

The overall experience for me was smooth – but I wouldn’t say painless. My piercer was so friendly, and she remarked how small my nostrils were when she was trying to clamp my septum. Right in the moment, as the needle was pushed through, I felt a bubble in my throat and my eyes teared up. It felt like a prolonged pinch, with only a mild tingle through the day.

Dear diary, mini crisis

I have to admit, I am a very fidgety person, and it was hard to stop myself from touching the new bit of metal in my nose. My mum also called that day and said we would be having a family video call that night, including my grandparents as usual.

So I decided (stupidly) to flip my piercing up and into my nose. At this point, the blood clots had not fully formed and it was nowhere near ready to be played around with. Once it was positioned upside down, I felt regret instantly. The size of my nostrils and tenderness of the skin made it hard to get my fingers in to flip it back down – it was stuck.

This was not a huge problem, but it was an issue for the post-videocall version of me. Eventually, I did get it out through a lot of cleaning and wiggling. From here, I vowed not to touch it (except to sanitise) until the recommended four weeks was finished, hopeful that I wouldn’t get an infection.