Hey Earthbugs!
You may or may not know this, but I have just finished my first year of university and I am a commuter. I thought I'd put together some tips for making the commute a bit easier, some of these can come in handy for all students though.
I hope you find some of these helpful!
Get a backpack
Honestly, when I was younger I was obsessed with the idea of having this style of a flimsy bag that looks good and is not practical in the slightest. As a result of this, I had to carry several other bags that obviously had to be Hollister or something equally as cool, so days in year 7 when you had PE and food technology?! You know the struggle. Admittedly this was the time that I heavily cared about what people thought of me so had to fit in with everyone else so backpacks were a no go.
When I was getting ready to start uni I just wanted a big enough bag to throw everything in, whack on my back and go. They can fit everything in, even the kitchen sink, and you can get some super pretty ones. A quick search on Amazon can bring up lots of different ones and my personal favourites are all found on Cath Kidston. They're all so insanely pretty. In all seriousness though, having a backpack makes life so much easier when you're commuting, you don't have to awkwardly take up lots of room on public transport and if it's cold you can put your hands in your pocket.
Take your own food
There's probably going to be so many food outlets at university, but I found that they aren't always student friendly in the price range and sometimes felt as though I was in an upmarket coffee shop in London. I definitely recommend taking your own food, you could look at Pinterest beforehand for some different ideas so you don't get bored of just taking a cheese sandwich everyday.
I also recommend taking a flask to uni as well. You have an instant cup of tea so what is there not to like? You can also take a reusable water bottle, they often keep your drinks more chilled and there is bound to be places around your campus where you can fill your bottle up.
If you do have a payment card at uni where you are able to load money onto it then I do think it is always a good idea to have some money on there just in case you forget your lunch, or if for example you have a 3 hour statistics session on a Friday morning at 9am and reaaaaally need some cake.
Take something for the commute
Honestly, there's only so many times you can just sit and scroll through Facebook, then Twitter, then Instagram and any other app that is scroll-able. So make a commute playlist, listen to a podcast, read a book or maybe even do some revision. But you'll thank me for this suggestion later. Sometimes it is nice to sit and watch the world go by but I also find that a nice view makes that at least 10x easier.
There was one time where my train was really early and wasn't leaving for another 20 minutes so I started to write out some of my notes from a lecture in the day and let me tell you something, I definitely felt like I had my life together.
Use your time at uni well
It is wise to utilise those hours between lectures to try and get something productive done, because then you don't have to think "ugh, I've been at uni all day and now I have to go home and do the work". In my first semester at uni, I had a lot of gaps between my lectures so I would just go and sit in the library and work and work and work. I soon got a bit down though because all I was doing was working so it is important to also remember to see your friends and just give yourself a bloody break from time to time.
Throw yourself into activities
I was lucky because I found quite a few people who also commuted so I didn't feel that much of an alien but when I was preparing to start university my biggest fear was "I'm not going to make friends, people will have already made friends with their flatmates, I'm going to be the only one commuting..." and all of these stresses.
So I joined a society, the society didn't end up being quite as I expected but I joined a society and tried to make some friends. But you don't have to rely on a society, there's often a lot of choices and you'll probably find a society suitable to you but there's also sports clubs. Sometimes you have to just throw yourself out there as terrifying as it may seem.
There we have my tips for commuting to university, obviously I'm sure other people will have others but hopefully those will make it all seem a little less daunting.
Until next time,
Lia x
You may or may not know this, but I have just finished my first year of university and I am a commuter. I thought I'd put together some tips for making the commute a bit easier, some of these can come in handy for all students though.
I hope you find some of these helpful!
Get a backpack
Honestly, when I was younger I was obsessed with the idea of having this style of a flimsy bag that looks good and is not practical in the slightest. As a result of this, I had to carry several other bags that obviously had to be Hollister or something equally as cool, so days in year 7 when you had PE and food technology?! You know the struggle. Admittedly this was the time that I heavily cared about what people thought of me so had to fit in with everyone else so backpacks were a no go.
When I was getting ready to start uni I just wanted a big enough bag to throw everything in, whack on my back and go. They can fit everything in, even the kitchen sink, and you can get some super pretty ones. A quick search on Amazon can bring up lots of different ones and my personal favourites are all found on Cath Kidston. They're all so insanely pretty. In all seriousness though, having a backpack makes life so much easier when you're commuting, you don't have to awkwardly take up lots of room on public transport and if it's cold you can put your hands in your pocket.
Take your own food
There's probably going to be so many food outlets at university, but I found that they aren't always student friendly in the price range and sometimes felt as though I was in an upmarket coffee shop in London. I definitely recommend taking your own food, you could look at Pinterest beforehand for some different ideas so you don't get bored of just taking a cheese sandwich everyday.
I also recommend taking a flask to uni as well. You have an instant cup of tea so what is there not to like? You can also take a reusable water bottle, they often keep your drinks more chilled and there is bound to be places around your campus where you can fill your bottle up.
If you do have a payment card at uni where you are able to load money onto it then I do think it is always a good idea to have some money on there just in case you forget your lunch, or if for example you have a 3 hour statistics session on a Friday morning at 9am and reaaaaally need some cake.
Take something for the commute
Honestly, there's only so many times you can just sit and scroll through Facebook, then Twitter, then Instagram and any other app that is scroll-able. So make a commute playlist, listen to a podcast, read a book or maybe even do some revision. But you'll thank me for this suggestion later. Sometimes it is nice to sit and watch the world go by but I also find that a nice view makes that at least 10x easier.
There was one time where my train was really early and wasn't leaving for another 20 minutes so I started to write out some of my notes from a lecture in the day and let me tell you something, I definitely felt like I had my life together.
Use your time at uni well
It is wise to utilise those hours between lectures to try and get something productive done, because then you don't have to think "ugh, I've been at uni all day and now I have to go home and do the work". In my first semester at uni, I had a lot of gaps between my lectures so I would just go and sit in the library and work and work and work. I soon got a bit down though because all I was doing was working so it is important to also remember to see your friends and just give yourself a bloody break from time to time.
Throw yourself into activities
I was lucky because I found quite a few people who also commuted so I didn't feel that much of an alien but when I was preparing to start university my biggest fear was "I'm not going to make friends, people will have already made friends with their flatmates, I'm going to be the only one commuting..." and all of these stresses.
So I joined a society, the society didn't end up being quite as I expected but I joined a society and tried to make some friends. But you don't have to rely on a society, there's often a lot of choices and you'll probably find a society suitable to you but there's also sports clubs. Sometimes you have to just throw yourself out there as terrifying as it may seem.
There we have my tips for commuting to university, obviously I'm sure other people will have others but hopefully those will make it all seem a little less daunting.
Until next time,
Lia x
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