We passed!
You did it. Two rounds of exams are passed. Considering that it’s basically 1/6 of your bachelor’s, it feels like quite the achievement. You experienced the ups and downs of starting and ending a course and how stressful it is to have multiple exams in the span of only a few days. You even made it through weird constellations of work group dynamics that you had to figure out over Zoom. It feels like a good start to the bachelor and you are realising that uni is happening for real now.
Wait what?
You are probably a little confused, when you start to consider what is actually going on. Because yes, it’s happening and you made it through many classes, but do you really know what your bachelor is dealing with? You just had a week off after exams, where catching up with friends and family was on the schedule, however, when they asked “so what exactly do you study”, you wondered to yourself, what is it even truly about?
It’s been 6 months
Moreover, it’s been half a year of living in Rotterdam. You understand the metro, the grocery stores (sometimes), and Polak. Yet, in summer you thought you would be completely settled in by this time. You expected groups of friends to be defined and you even thought you would be working by now, however, reality looks a little different than that. Partly, you can blame it on Covid, as you simply did not have the chance to perfectly settle in and experience everything. On the other hand, it’s probably time to realize that re-locating is not easy and that 6 months is frankly not enough time to get familiar with it all.
Decisions approaching
Stressful is the fact that having to make decisions is sneaking up on you. You see the choice of electives and focus areas coming up next year. Also, the internship is approaching on the horizon. There’s still plenty of time (you tell yourself), nonetheless, people around you are starting to make choices for their careers and you know that eventually you will have to too. It makes you wonder how much you should challenge yourself and how others even make up their minds about such things?
Sunnier times are coming
Even though your to-do list is once again growing, you feel the sun starting to shine a little more and the days getting significantly longer. Students share the excitement of knowing that spring is coming, which for one means drinks in parks, nicer outfits and fun, as well as more energy for all the work that is piling up. You have even started to think about your break in summer and the joy that will come with it. All of which will help you make it through the next half of the academic year.
Author: Monique Veni Jørgensen
Editor: Phoebe Elliott
Visuals by: Alisa Mahaletska