Summer Studies

Since I suppose this blog should have some university aspects about it, given its name, I thought I would write a post on doing a summer unit. Yes I am supposed to be writing my assignment for said unit right now, but I am putting you, my lovely readers, first. And maybe procrastinating a little. 


So I am doing a summer unit at the moment called Human Resource Economics. Wake up! I'm not going to tell you about the content of the unit, so you shouldn't fall asleep on me. Unless of course, you have a particular interest in the content, in which case email me. I can talk about HR all day long. That is my small consolation when uni gets me down: I, unlike a lot of people, truly love my degree and am passionate about everything I learn in it. I cannot think of a topic that makes more sense than HR and that is more relevant in todays world. 


Basically this unit is a compressed summer unit. Instead of spreading it out over the whole summer break (mid November to mid February) it is completed in only 4 weeks over January. But the same amount of content and assignments are completed in that short space of time as when it is done over a 12 week semester. Hence the compressed part. 


Honestly, over the entire 2 years I have been at uni, I have not struggled with a unit so much. I am one of those very lucky people to whom learning and education comes easily to - I love to read, I like going to class, sometimes I even like assignments! This is, of course, helped by the fact that I love my degree, so learning about it is natural. However, this summer unit is killing me. I don't think it is the content so much, although that is incredibly boring, more that there is SO much to learn and do over such a short space of time, and its summer! Its hot. No one else is at uni. I don't want to be at uni. I need a break. 


People often criticise uni students for the amount of time spent on 'break'. And really, if you look at it from their perspective, we have a LOT of time off. This semester for example, I will only be at uni for 2 days a week - that is a 'full time' load. I myself make fun of the little time I spend at uni all the time. But, I think what a lot of people don't quite understand is the level of stress most uni students operate at. I have abnormally high stress levels, pretty much all the time. And its a different kind of stress and tiredness to someone who is working and has kids. The stress and tiredness that is experienced by a uni student, usually around exam time or during heavy assignment times, is debilitating. Its all mental, and trying to put huge amounts of information into your brain in such a short period of time, and knowing if you fail, it will a) cost a huge amount of money b) cost you a lot of time c) may not let you graduate and d) let down all those people in your life who 'are so proud of you for going to uni and making something of yourself because your so smart and are going to be so successful', well that is painful. 


Anyway, so I haven't really had a break for a while, because I did that internship over December and then went straight into uni in January. I did have a bit of time off over Christmas, but even Christmas is stressful. 


God I am looking forward to Europe in June. Its all The Boyfriend and I can talk about lately... when he's not yelling at me for stressing myself out, which has the negative effect of stressing me out more. 


The only reason I am doing this unit, is so I can fit a minor into my degree. For those who don't know, my degree is currently a Bachelor of Commerce, with majors in Human Resource Management and Psychology. I want to add a minor of Organisational Psychology, but the only way to do that was to put a unit into summer. 


But its not all bad. I only have a 2000 word assignment to write on Pay for Performance from an economic perspective, which I'm struggling with because I'm all about motivating the people. Plus 1 more exam (I had one on Friday) and only 2 classes. We are nearly there people!


Anyway, until next time :)


Ash