Undergraduate University Round Up
Undergraduate University Round Up
Studying abroad for College
I was wondering if I should write something about this topic, as I didn’t know if it was going to be something that I would appreciate later or if it would feel disjointed by including it on this blog. I ended up deciding to do this because I think it might be helpful to someone later on down the line who is thinking about following a similar path as myself, or is considering Art College as a whole. I’m currently wrapping up my final year at the University of the Arts London’s London College of Communication where I majored in Film Practice. Before that I did a foundation course, which allowed for me to attend Art College for a total of four years instead of the usual three that most UK schools do. Hopefully I’ll be able to shed some light on the university experience and give some tips to those who might really need it/ need some encouragement to go pay for higher education. This is probably a more practical guide to Art College and my just rambling on about my experiences over the course of four years and less of me gassing up my course as I think that isn’t exactly helpful or reflects my college experience. Plus I’m not exactly advocating for my course because ideally you should pick the school you want to go to, and what I have to say doesn’t just apply to my course and choice of uni. Half the college experience isn’t about the course you’re on but the people you meet, where you live, and what you do in your free time.
Visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter like an epic tourist
I should probably start off with why I chose to go to university and why I chose to go to my specific university/ course. To give a little background history, I’m originally born and raised from Los Angeles and attended LACHSA for my high school career where I majored in theatre and minored in film. It was intense and to be perfectly honest, a toxic environment, in my opinion. I felt horrible about myself as a person, unsure of what I wanted to do with my life, and generally looked and felt rubbish. What I think really constituted to me thoroughly hating high school came down to the method of teaching that was done at my high school. It was about breaking someone down to build them back up. Unfortunately, they didn’t really pay attention to getting everyone back up onto their feet, only the class favorites. It also could’ve been a variety of different reasons and elements that caused me to feel so low but all I knew was when it came to college I needed a fresh start and something new to learn. I didn’t want to go into debt over a subject I had already been studying for four years as well. What more could I get from an expensive and probably equally draining drama school that I hadn’t already been exposed to? I had always been passionate about film so it felt natural that I would go on to expand my knowledge on that area of expertise. Years ago my dad had gone to my university, albeit at a different part of the college with a different major than myself, but it was his suggestion to look abroad that had me looking for places outside the United States. This was the best pathway-for me. Moving to London would give me a new found independence and perspective that I so desperately needed. I knew at some point I would return and live the rest of my life along the west coast, but I needed to go and experience the world and make many, many mistakes along the way in order for that future to feel worthwhile and not boring.
So a couple of weeks after I turned eighteen years old I packed my bags and I moved a whole continent away from everything that felt familiar to take in my next adventure. It honestly frightened me. I was so scared and on multiple occasions I felt I made the wrong decision and all I wanted to do was get on a plane and fly back home. It wasn’t long before I made some of my best friends and became fully absorbed in my work, which took my mind off of my homesickness. At university I worked from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep- literally. I worked constantly and would squeeze in working on big blockbuster and indie films on the side to build up my resume, while also juggling to find time with friends and have some semblance of a life outside uni and work where I could remember how to have fun. One of the reasons why the course that I was on was ideal for me was because it was a practical course rather than a theory course. We were always making films and failing at making films. It was a whirlwind of stress and love and I wouldn’t take back a moment of it.
A picture of home which hands down has the best sunsets
First Year-
My foundation year was probably the most nerve-wracking year because I hadn’t really understood how challenging it was going to be to start over and create a new life for myself. Looking back, I really should’ve known that nothing was going to come easily, but I was naïve and hadn’t lived anywhere outside of LA. That first night I moved into dorms there was a student halls meet and greet session that genuinely couldn’t have been more embarrassingly awkward. I just remember looking around and thinking that everyone looked so uncomfortable to be there and how forced it felt that we were all just stuck into a room together to mingle and become friends. Luckily for me I met two of my really good friends that night who I would eventually live with the following year. We immediately clocked each other and instantly connected. Later that first week I was introduced to our fourth flatmate, and before I knew it I had three friends in uni within the first couple days of living in London.
On the whole, that first year was a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. Leaning on more of the bad than the good emotions. I think for everyone, first year is a rollercoaster. For me I hadn’t realized just how homesick I was going to be. It was odd to experience homesickness and know that I couldn’t just pop onto a train or drive home for a weekend to get out of this funk I found myself in. I just had to learn to stick it out and to just get through it. It was too expensive to keep going back and forth, so I just had to become more independent in order to overcome all of these confusing feelings. During winter, I had never missed the sun more in my entire life. Now that I’m no longer in LA I realize how ignorant that might sound, but I truly didn’t know just how much the suns exposure altered my mood. I became super depressed because I felt like a part of me was no longer there because I had relied on the sun’s heat and comfort for so long. In London it was dark when I would go into school and when I came out it was dark again. Living without the sun was one aftereffect of moving to London that I didn’t expect to hurt so much.
The Henshaw Crew!
A tip that I picked up from my cousin, who I hung out with on one particular day when I was feeling my lowest and most homesick, was that everyone is going through the exact same thing. I hadn’t thought about it, but everyone who I knew in high school was also home sick, whether they were an hours drive from home or was a couple states away. I had the biggest distance between my parents, and myself but that didn’t mean that everyone else I knew wasn’t going through the exact same thing. The only difference was the distance, but those feelings were the same. I don’t know who needs to hear that, but it really helped me to think about my homesickness that way. Everyone goes through it, and not to be too harsh, but your pain is not unique because someone else is going through the same thing as you. You’re not alone.
For someone going into university now, I would recommend looking at accommodation beforehand and really look into your options. I lived in a new build student hall, which was brilliant. I was the first one to wreck that room! Plus, it was literally around the corner from my university, which was fantastic because I didn’t have to commute or pay for travel, which saved me loads. I was also very lucky that it was in zone 1 which meant I was close to all the big main streets of London. I think it was a great experience to be able to live in the college dorms because you got to meet so many different people from different courses and it was really helpful to have a situation to push yourself to go out of your way to introduce yourself and party. Granted, I’m not much of a partygoer, I did go to a few and it was a great experience to be able to have had those traditional college party memories. So to reiterate, make sure you get a nice accommodation, but more importantly check to see how far it is to your college, because trust me when I say you WILL be too lazy to go to school if you’re an hour away. By living so close, I didn’t have the excuse to miss class because I was around the corner. Additionally, check to see how long you’re allowed to be in accommodation with the university. Mine only allowed for first years to be priority for that first year and anyone else had to be on a waitlist of sorts in order to be allowed back for a second year. Most people left after the first year to live with friends though.
As a side note, if you’re an American thinking about studying at a UK college I might not be the best person to go to for advice about getting a Visa. I’m a dual citizen thanks to my dad who was born in Glasgow and raised in England. My citizenship made my move to London go smoothly without having any hiccups. I will just say that if you’re getting a Visa, make sure you leave yourself more time than you think you will need to get it. A friend from home who was studying at the University of Edinburgh literally got her Visa a couple hours before getting on her plane to move to Scotland. It is a mess of a process to get a Visa and the English aren’t good at responding to emails. They go at their own pace and it’s usually a lot slower than you think it’ll be when it comes to paperwork. That might be unfair of me to make that accusation, but that’s always been my experience. Additionally, if you’re getting a Visa you also need a separate number/ certificate to be allowed to work in the country. Your Visa doesn’t usually cover that so you’ll have to apply for that as well if you were planning on having a part-time job while attending school to make sure you can pay for rent. Just something to watch out for.
The Henshaw Crew as fetuses
To continue, prepared for literally every scenario when it comes to legal paperwork because when I was enrolling during my first week, one of the administration women somehow convinced me that I was going to be forced out of the country because I hadn’t paid my tuition in full. I was told I could pay my tuition with three installments and that wasn’t the case apparently. So when I got to enrollment and this horrible woman kept telling me I was going to get kicked out of the country because my payment didn’t come in to their accounts in full I had a full blown panic attack. I knew that I was a citizen there and realistically couldn’t get kicked out of the country, but this woman just kept saying it and I started to panic because I didn’t know what to do about the payment situation as I didn’t have tuition money lying around to just use in the moment. Moral of the story- cross check with several people to get the whole truth when it comes to the requirements for paperwork or tuition payments. Know your rights, know the requirements of your Visa, understand the entire process of how to pay for your course and make sure you’ve got all your paperwork in order and make at least three copies of everything. You need to be ready for some bullshit heading your way.
Another adulting thing to remember when moving to a new country is finding a bank. If you’re doing a one-year course, it’s going to be really hard to open a bank account in London. Banks won’t accept you as a client because they’re scared of money laundering- which is fair. But if you’re clearly a student and even show them your student papers and Visa, they will still decline you. Make sure your course is at least three years long if you want to open a bank account. Santander, NatWest, and Lloyds will accept more students to open an account with them. Forget Barclays, they don’t want you there. Believe me I tried when I first got here. Halifax ended up working best for me, so maybe they’re a good shout to open an account with, too. When opening an account check with the university to make sure they give you a piece of paper confirming you’re a student with them. You can’t open an account here without proof as to what you’re doing here. Also, check with each bank the requirements for what they need to see before heading in to open an account. I had to go in several times because no one told us we needed this random super necessary paper to be able to continue with the process but wouldn’t mention the other important requirements we needed even when we asked if there was anything else we would need. Thus we did multiple trips. So be ready to also deal with some annoyed bankers and put up a fight if they’re being unhelpful.
Horrible photo quality but this was a nice night getting to go out in Chinatown
To go back to uni, foundation year was incredible all and all. I learned so much and grew so much as a person that year. That foundation course allowed for me to experiment with different art forms like illustration, silk screening, photography, etc. It was a time to experiment and make mistakes. I was very fortunate to have the tutors that I had that year as well, as they were both incredibly curious and funny people. They knew so much about art and film and it instilled in me a passion to just know things! I don’t know what I wanted to know, but all I knew was that I was suddenly very curious about everything and needed to learn more about all the various types of artistic outlets that I could use. I had never been so inspired to learn and absorb more in my entire life. Unfortunately that feeling sort of vanished during my degree course, but at one point I had been the most inspired I had ever been in my entire life. If you’re a UK citizen you can do a foundation year for free, and I 100% recommend giving yourself a year to just create and find what you like to make before paying for your degree course. My school doesn’t do foundation courses anymore, which is a shame, but there are tons of them all over the place. I had to pay to do it as an international student, but I needed that year to adjust to UK life and focus on starting over.
That first year had lots of ups and downs, and it never was somewhere in the middle. I was either super motivated and wanted to take on the world, or I would become depressed and lonely to the point where all I wanted to do was wallow in my room and worry about school while watching Netflix. I watched a hefty amount of Netflix that year.
Side note: If you don’t end up getting along with your flatmates your first year that’s completely fine. That first year you’re pushed together with a bunch of people that you might not have lots in common with and that’s just how it goes with uni. It’s not always how you think it’ll go. I was lucky that I was able to talk to two of my flatmates in the kitchen and rant at them and listen to them rant about this and that. I was lucky to have people I liked in my flat in first year. The other people who shared the kitchen with us were international students who didn’t speak much English, which was fine, but it just meant that communication wasn’t easy and lots of times we just ended up avoiding talking. They seemed like lovely people and when we did talk they were incredibly nice. I didn’t really have a partying flat or any flatmate drama like others had, which was a relief.
On the whole, there is a weird pressure to make that first year the most groundbreaking and spectacular year ever and to finally find all of the people that you were meant to be friends with. People always say that college is the best years of your life and really hype it up, so when you go in and it doesn’t always turn out the way you think it will that’s perfectly normal. I wished I had relaxed more and just enjoyed the ride for what it was, instead of pressuring myself to make it the BEST YEAR EVER. Ultimately, that’s how you grow and mature by making those kinds of mistakes. It wasn’t what I expected it to be but it was exactly right for me, as it helped me establish the friendships and experiences I needed to survive the following three years and are lessons and memories I will carry with me forever.
This is from my first film shoot in London in Richmond Park
Second Year-
This year I enjoyed much, much more than first year, and yet it was also still a year where I had to do some major growing up. For second year I lived with three of my friends I met that first night in student halls, which was so much fun and made second year all that much more of a happier time for me. Living with friends is great for a multitude of reasons, but having kitchen chats were probably my favorite. Fortunately, we also didn’t live too far away from uni again so we just had to walk over and didn’t have a massive commute in the morning. That was a saving grace. This year was when I had to quickly learn about adult things like bills, Internet, and rent and how to divvy that up between four people to make ends meet. It was scary to think how much money we were paying, but also I really had to watch what I was spending just in general. I was on a full-time budget and I had to really be strict with myself about what and where I would spend my money.
Living with friends really helped my mood and I felt so much more positive about life and my career. It was a year I really took into consideration my health. First year had me gaining the Freshmen Fifteen. I don’t really hear about it on this side of the pond, but back home there was talk about the Freshman Fifteen. It’s when you either gain or lose fifteen pounds as a freshman because you’re finally the only person in charge of your eating habits. Unfortunately for me I gained the fifteen pounds the previous year and in second year really worked at losing it. It was eye opening to find ways that I could make myself feel better and make myself feel more energetic just by simply treating myself better. Which sounds super stupid and obvious, but I suppose you never notice things changing on your body until one day someone takes a photo of you or you look in the mirror and suddenly you can’t recognize who you’ve become. Second year helped me gain control over my life and my body again and I’ve tried to continue to remember to always find time for self-love, even if it’s a couple minutes at the gym or eating healthier foods. It’s all in the small changes that lead to the bigger ones.
Year two I had traveled to Iceland and Amsterdam and it was incredible
This year I also forced myself to go outside- every day. This again may seem easy and not really that big of a revelation. But as someone who gets really affected by my environment and tend to just let myself wallow in my room and ignore the world around me, going outside was essential to clearing my head. I learned to love walking. I would walk everywhere if I had the time and I got to finally appreciate the city I had moved to because I was outside and wandering the streets. London is a small city. You could realistically walk from one side to the other in a day- whether you’d want to is another matter entirely. I went outside to school, a café, to the gym, and the library whether it rained or shined because I knew I needed fresh air and time to just move. If you’re moving to a new city, one of the best ways to get used to that city and discover what’s out there is simply to just go for a walk and not have a destination in mind.
When it came to school, I was starting a new course with new teachers and students. It felt like my first year all over again. I had to grasp at whom I could make friends with out of this new group of people, and I had to reintroduce myself. Some of my fellow students came from the foundation year which was fantastic because I had a few familiar faces but I again couldn’t tell up from down in this new social situation. It felt like another adjustment period, but it felt worse because it was a growing pain that I hadn’t anticipated. Luckily I still had my friends from first year, which took the pressure off of finding friends right away. Eventually I found my people, and I got to speak to most of the people in my course. Obviously not everyone decided to come to lectures so some people to this day I wouldn’t have recognized as being in my year.
Second year taught me that I am not a good documentary filmmaker, I need to work with people who are invested in a project just as much as myself, and that sound, and more specifically sound editing is the devils work. This year was a bit of a mixed bag in the sense that I felt like I was always doing more than my fair share at times, and that not everyone felt the need to attend every meeting or go above and beyond their role. That being said, I got to work with some amazing people who I really admire and respect, but I did strain under the weight of people’s expectations of how much I could take on. This year also had me contemplating my choice of major and artistic medium. I felt like I wasn’t working on projects that I liked and was entertained by. I wasn’t working on my own stories and creating my own material. I began making scripts on the side to experiment and would keep coming up with ideas about stories, but I never could get to them because of the workload that I had from doing my job and taking on other people’s responsibilities if someone was slacking. I felt frustrated artistically because nothing from uni felt fulfilling.
I also hardly slept this year, and it really wore through me to the point of near burn out. I was doing uni and trying to work outside of uni to get experience and learn more than what my teachers could offer me. I felt like I was making headway with getting a career outside of college, and that college was holding me back from pursuing those ambitions. Because of this I became more frustrated and began to despise school. I wanted to do my own stuff and get a job and move on up in the world, and yet I couldn’t because I needed to get through this course to get a degree. It was maddening. Additionally, one of the worst times of my life was my final week of second year when I was working on King of Thieves on the studio lot, while having to sound edit some jacked up audio, while teaching myself Audition, and helping with the edit, on top of all of moving out of the flat with my lovely friends. It was legitimately hell on earth. It was also boiling and my windows wouldn’t open so I was up all night trying to edit while slowly being baked alive. I didn’t sleep a wink for the whole week. I didn’t have the time to nap either. I was straight up wake and working every single hour for a whole week. Let that sink in. I genuinely don’t know how I survived. I couldn’t risk losing the time to get the sound right for this film, and be ready to bring my A game to set the following morning so I really sacrificed my well being for school.
My second year of uni was many things and had just as many highs and lows as first year, but I also had great friends and was feeling more at home with my life in London. I lived with some amazing friends who made up for the fact that my room was always cold all the time and my heater never worked and I had water damage in my ceiling. I remember being able to see my breath in front of me inside my room because it was just as cold as being outside inside. I got to work on my own stories and got to work on how to structure a script. I was able to work on my self-esteem and better myself and ultimately, became more confident as a person than I ever had been before. I will always miss kitchen chats with my friends where we complained about the weather and debated when to turn the heating on. I miss the elation I felt when I started to take in the city and feel out the place and areas that I liked best. I will always think of London as a home because of this year in particular.
Ignore my outrageous double chin in the second photo
Third Year-
To me third year really pushed me mentally and physically, and was the year I lived alone for the first time in my entire life. In third year, things got more serious curriculum wise and we were doing bigger productions than we had the previous year. I found myself in the producing role twice and in the Assistant Director role too which was frightening but also very necessary to becoming a better filmmaker. I worked on the only comedies of our year oddly enough, and yet both tended to be a bit of a headache because they both required endless planning and organizing. It was a challenging year, but it was rewarding. This year was a bit like fourth year where the films we were making felt like they mattered more and held significant weight on what fourth year was going to have in store for us. Minus the intimidating dissertation and eventual goodbyes. This year was a balancing act of work and play. I had to somehow find the middle ground between those to responsibilities that would allow me to have both. I didn’t find a middle ground, but I tried to.
For my third year I really suffered in a way by living on my own, while also growing into “adulthood” in the same process. It was a serious adjustment when living on your own. Sometimes it was just too quiet and I would psyche myself out over the lack of noise that wasn’t my own, other than the continuous sirens from outside. I definitely let myself curl in on myself a bit because I didn’t have the benefit of having friends just in the next room to talk to. It was isolating. I also didn’t have any furniture when I moved in and slept on a blow up mattress for almost four to five months because I didn’t have a bed. I would also have to eat at my kitchen counter or on the floor because I didn’t have a table and chairs. It wasn’t all that bad though, I should clarify. It was empowering to learn what it was like to live on my own. I had to be at peace with myself in order to feel comfortable with just me, myself, and I. To live by yourself in London is unheard of. Rent and living expenses make it unachievable for literally most people, so I felt very lucky to be in the position I was in. I knew I couldn’t take the fact that I was living by myself in a great apartment in a central area of London for granted, and I didn’t. Every day I was so happy to be where I was, despite the days where I would overthink everything and spiral down into this pit of despair when I felt like I couldn’t have a life outside of uni.
This year I took too much on at uni, and I knew it from the get go. I again put too much on my plate because I knew I could realistically do the job I was assigned without feeling too strained because them seemed straightforward enough. What I didn’t account for was when other people started to slack I would end up having to pick up someone else’s load of work along with my own. Additionally, I also didn’t account for when things were not falling into place and we were pressed for time constantly. Getting projects done by a deadline is apart of every job description, but usually you have multiple people helping you, and you have the benefit of being apart of a brand or company. Typically, no one wants to help student films because everything you do- you do for free. Who has time to deal with a bunch of kids and give them your time or whatever they ask for free? No one. Or at least very few people. Third year forced me to have to reassess what I thought I knew about stress and spin it on its head. Either way, it was a year where I really felt like I grew up. Complaining about why things weren’t working was just wasting time from finding a solution. Moaning about how something was unfair was useless because it changes nothing about your situation.
Looking back on that year, I truly learned so much about myself. Did I wish I had prioritized my mental health, spending time with friends, going for walks, and working out more regularly? Absolutely. I wish that year I had taken care of myself better. I wish I had given myself time to breathe and relax, but I didn’t. I can’t take back that time I lost to better myself as a person from being on turbo mode and working through university like it was no ones business. The lessons I got were some I’m truly glad I learned at that point in time. I’m glad I made mistakes then, so I wouldn’t repeat those things in the future. But I wished I was able to enjoy my time with the people on my course more and have more laughs.
Fourth Year-
Not to scare any freshman or people thinking about college, but in my opinion, fourth year was hell half of the time. It doesn’t sound like it’s a lot, but for the final year our degree was graded (UK schools grade their degrees it’s not a pass or fail situation here) on one short film, our portfolio, and our dissertation. Though it doesn’t sound like much, it was too much. Maybe it was because we had horrible luck with our grad film or maybe not, but either way I began counting the days to graduation. This year I lived on my own again in the same apartment, which was fantastic, and I began to really love living on my own more so than the year prior. I also made much more time to visit friends when I had free time. I used to just want to sleep and zone out during my days off, but this year I really made an effort to not do that. I needed to lean on the people in my life who cared about me, and I wanted those relationships to last outside of uni so I wanted to put more effort into meeting up, even on the days I felt like a pile of burning garbage.
Went to Edinburgh at the beginning of the school year and everywhere looks like Hogwarts
For the final year I decided to just focus on one film this year rather than attaching myself to several projects and struggling to find a balance with the stress and workload. I am so glad that I remembered my limits. I am so happy I didn’t decide to push myself this final year to do more than what was asked of me. I was able to put my entire energy on getting this one film right. Unfortunately it felt like the universe didn’t want this film to be made. We had to fight for every inch of this film. People didn’t want to help us on this film. We had horrible weather, no actors wanted to work with us, every guinea pig in London wasn’t available to be featured, and every musician missed the vibe we were going for, in addition to all the tech problems we faced in post. It was insanity trying to get this film ready for production and finished in post-production. For example, we were struggling so badly to get guinea pigs to be in our film that I personally had to go out and buy two little guinea pigs. They were a bit of a blessing in disguise. I couldn’t help falling in love with these fluffy, chubby animals and I spoiled them rotten. I had discovered a very maternal side of myself that I’d never tapped into for something that wasn’t my dogs from home.
This year I had friends returning from abroad to finish out their degrees and I also had to say goodbye to the people I started out with who moved back home. It was a strange feeling seeing the people I started uni with getting jobs and moving on to the next chapters of their lives while still being in uni myself. I felt like I should be where they were and yet not. I am completely ready to have my diploma in hand and leave the halls of my uni behind me forever, but at the same time, seeing my friends struggling with finding jobs, overtime, minimum wage, and terrible bosses or managers fills me with trepidation at the thought of stepping into the “real” world. For so long everything has been building up to graduating and getting a nice job in a cool line of work that you love, but the closer I get to that end goal, the more I realize I took uni for granted, but also that I might not be ready to leave my childhood behind. Leaving school is definitely a clear end of an era, and figuring out if you’re ready for that leap of faith that you’ll land on your feet is terrifying. It would be nice to have some assuredness that there is a landing pad.
Went to Copenhagen with this one
Finishing up fourth year is a huge relief. I am now finally comfortable in London, in my life and friendships. I may never be an overly confident person on the inside, but I have acquired something like it, which I will hopefully be able to nurture and let it grow into something like confidence. This journey started with me at the tender age of eighteen and now at the end of the tunnel I’m twenty-two. I really went from being a baby to being an adult over the course of four years- which isn’t much time at all. I did so much growing up in university to get to the point where I am now with this iteration of myself. I’ve still got a lot to learn still, I think. I’ll be hanging around the streets of London a little while longer though, as I’m not ready to say goodbye to this chattering city of moving bodies and noise. My impending goodbye to London can hold off a little while longer. There is still time for me to change my mind and go back to LA and begin to remember my childhood city through the eyes of the adult I’ve become. I’ll eventually find new places in LA like I did with London that feels like home. I will be very sad to permanently say goodbye to London, if that day comes. This is part of my home, I have built a life here that is entirely my own and I did it by myself with the support of some wonderful friends and family. London will always have a chunk of my heart and I will be leaving apart of myself here when I go too.
This is from my grad film shoot where we used my guinea pig Chungus to play the infamous Romeo
By the end of this fourth year, I feel like I’ve grown out of this course. I felt like it was time to move on almost within the first couple of weeks of fourth year, but obviously there was still so much to do. Now that it’s near the end I feel this overwhelming anticipation to move past this chapter in my life because I’m so tired of the school politics and the lack of control over my passion and creative choices. I know that once it’s September and I won’t be heading off to the next school year that the full impact of leaving school will finally hit me. I have heard of the post-graduate slump and I’ll potentially write something about that if I do end up having to go through the readjustment period where I struggle to find structure without relying on the scheduled timings school gives you. I will eventually miss this college experience for all it’s flaws- mostly because I’ll probably only end up remembering the good times at uni, and the absolute worse moments through a removed perspective and will be able to appreciate that experience more. Hell I might even find humor in those soul-destroying moments. As of right now I want to not have to deal with the constant stressing over little things and focus on getting post-graduate Morgan onto the right page.
Ultimately, everyone’s experience with college is different. No one person’s experience will reflect the people around them’s experience, and to me that’s really cool. If you’re thinking about giving Art University a go, you should do it. If you’re thinking about attending a college in another country, go for it. I couldn’t recommend going abroad for higher education more. Not relying on the familiar helps you grow as a person and make you a better decision maker for the long-term. Knowing how the world works outside of your little bubble at home is essential to gaining a unique perspective on life and will push you to do things that scare you. I didn’t know what to expect from college and what I was going to gain from moving so far away. What I found was a home, a chosen family of friends, stronger relationships with my dad’s side of the family, and a better world-view. During this moment in time there’s a lot of hate festering in the United States. There’s hate in the UK to be sure, but London is a city of immigrants, of people wanting to better their lives and create. London is special. It’s got history and has a surprising youthfulness at the same time, which comes down to the people inhabiting this crowded metropolis. I love that you can walk down a street and hear several different languages. Of different cultures and histories. That’s my London. That’s my home.
From our grad show when we premiered our grad film to friends and family
If there’s anything that you take away from this blog post, it’s that you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it. I realize that makes me sound like a total cheese ball but it’s true. Do the thing that scares you and have fun doing that scary thing. You’re only as old as you are in this moment so seize the day by doing the wild ridiculous thing that no one expects you to do and make memories that you’ll tell your children when or if you have them. Don’t stress about getting into a big Ivy League or going to the most expensive course, just enjoy the ride. University is such a small part of your life, just as high school was. You’ll have more life to live after its over so just have fun and learn as much as you can. Hopefully my musings of the past four years is helpful to you, if not then oh well. All I know is, is that without art college I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I don’t know if anyone from school or friends from outside school are going to read this- as I do realize this is a whole book I’ve written in this blogpost but if you are you’re a star. Thank you to everyone who I met on this journey as you were the ones who defined this portion of my life for me. Without your encouragement and openness these past few years would’ve been a completely different experience. It was tricky to come to another country to start over, and I can only imagine what it must be like for the people who move here and don’t speak English or feel like they’d not be accepted outside of the city. I realize that my experience is a privileged one. I am lucky to even be able to be in the position that I’ve been allowed to be in for the past four years. It’s been an incredible and challenging journey and London will always be a home to me now because of the people I met at university and outside of school. Again, thank you to the people who welcomed me and included me into their lives. Here’s to another chapter of our journey together!