For all you lucky freshers starting university in September

*spoiler*

Get ready for the best year of your life. 

I understand that everyone is telling you this, whether they have just finished first year, or even if they graduated 10 years ago, but WE DO NOT LIE.

You'll be sitting in your garden during the summer after first year, crying into your keyboard wishing you could be the one crossing off the days on your countdown calendar until term starts from the first time. (Yes this is my current situation.)

Packing for university:

If your car doesn't end up resembling this, then I salute you.

My biggest piece of advice?

Try and find your flatmates on social media in advance of move-in day and decide who's going to bring what.

Despite what you may think, you do not need to bring five plates, three bowls, five sets of cutlery, a toaster, two kettles, five pans, a wok and the entirety of your mum's spice rack, because chances are your flatmates have got you covered.

And what better way to bond with your new flatmates than asking if you can borrow their garlic crusher! (TRUST ME, GARLIC CRUSHERS ARE A GAME CHANGER. You can thank me later.)

My flat mate Rahul, (HI RAHUL IF YOU'RE READING THIS, I MISS YOU) moved into halls with a bowl, a plate and approximately two forks, two knives and a spoon, because he just borrowed things as and when he needed them.

So if you're not up for unpacking (and re-packing remember!) a tonne of kitchen items, be smart and be more like Rahul!

In terms of what to bring to decorate your room, well that's down to you!

I will shamefully admit that I did search my uni halls' location tag on Instagram to look at how everyone else had decorated their rooms and to get some inspiration.. (Please say other people did that and it wasn't just me??)

I used to work in the Stationery department at John Lewis, so when summer clearance rolled around before I started uni, I went HAM on the stationery spending.

This wasn't even half of the stationery I took with me...

(WHY ON EARTH DID I FEEL THE NEED TO BUY TWO WEEKLY PLANNERS WHEN THERE ARE ONLY 52 WEEKS IN A YEAR??)

I used one sheet of the orange weekly planner during first year, that was it..

All I will say is, you are not moving to Mars, there will be stationery shops nearby if you do, god forbid, run out of sticky notes or revision cards.

But do bring some home comforts, because the first week or two does feel a bit alien and a bit lonely because you don't really know your flat mates or course mates that well yet. Putting up photos of your friends and family and even bringing a teddy, (yes i did this and yes my flat mates all love him) will make your little old box room feel a bit more like home.

P.s: BRING A DOORSTOP!! I was given this piece of advice by someone who had just finished first year last year and I'm so glad she told me it! Wedge your door open whilst you are moving in so that your flatmates are sort of forced to say hello when they walk past, that way things are a bit less awkward when all of the parents leave.

Meeting your course mates

I still laugh/cringe when I think back to the first day that I actually had to go into uni and meet my course mates.

Luckily as journalists we were all like-minded, nosy people who wanted to see what everyone looked like before we'd even started. So someone set up a course chat so that we could all vent to each other about what we thought the course was going to be like (oh how very, very wrong we all were, hahahaha).

Everyone who lived in my halls had organised to meet out in the courtyard so that we could all get the bus together, but when we got there everybody just stood in different parts of the courtyard looking up at each other then back down at their phones??

Then a girl called Claudia, (my BAMMJ OG) came out, who Harvey, another boy on my course (also my BAMMJ OG) would later reveal that he remembered as the 'nice asian girl in the yellow jumper' (we all laugh at it now) and thankfully asked, "Are you doing journalism?!" Then suddenly it was like bees to a honeypot! Everyone just surrounded us!

Then we all trundled off to get the bus together, probably making the most horrific small talk..

So a note to you all, don't be afraid to 'do a Claudia' on your first day! Be assertive and make friends with your course mates!

Flatmates can change from year to year but you're stuck with your course mates until the very end!

I then met the majority of my course and I must say I have been very lucky. Both my flatmates and course mates have been bloody wonderful!

Flat 19 and all of the (surviving) BAMMJ's, (sorry about the cringe reference). You're all gems xxxxxx

And don't worry if you don't make friends immediately, or if the one person you made friends with during freshers week ends up being put in a different seminar group to you. You'll make more friends trust me!!

Freshers Week

Or Freshers fortnight in Bournemouth's case??

I have one monumental piece of advice for you.

DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO PURCHASING FRESHERS WEEK WRISTBANDS OR TICKETS BEFORE YOU GET TO UNI!!

Nine times out of ten, the event is not close to selling out, the promo team are just trying to pressure you into buying a ticket! And if you've spent £50 on a wristband but all of your flatmates and course mates have a different one for different events, you'll end up wasting more money on buying tickets for those events.

Just wait until you get there to gage what everyone else is doing!

Alternatively, ask second and third years or your halls reps which events they would recommend and what clubs are good, because obviously they've done it all before and will be more than willing to advise you on the best places to go.

(Anyone going to Bournemouth next year, any events at Cameo and also Lollipop on Fridays at Old Fire Station are the places to be!)

Starting your course

This is usually the moment when you realise that university isn't just jagerbombs, VK's, fancy dress and Dominos pizza.. Yes you have voluntarily signed up for three to four years (or more if you're brave and are planning on doing a Masters or a PHD) of higher education...

As strange as it sounds, I was quite excited to start my course, studying something that I was actually genuinely interested in and getting to use all of the fancy equipment, it was all a very exciting prospect for me!

But then the lectures and seminars began and during the first few weeks and I felt like I was drowning in work.

Anyone who says that the step up from A-levels to uni isn't as bad as GCSE's to A-Level is a LIAR.

You'll find yourself doing extra reading and making notes on book chapters, that lasts for approximately a month (if that). So just keep going at it and don't forget you can always rely on your course mates to console you and listen to your venting about how you regret your course choice.

Another big point:

You will question your course choice and the prospect of dropping out pretty much every day, so don't panic you're not the only one!

Going out

"First year doesn't count"- The one statement that your friends will use against you mercilessly in first year to try and convince you to come out.

You'll be resilient and say no the first ten times.

Then you'll think, "I could just wake up really early tomorrow morning and do it and realistically was I going to get any work done this late at night anyway?"

Your friends will give you this look:

You'll get ready in record speed, (something that I have realised I just CANNOT do..)

Your friends started drinking two hours ago, so to get you on their level, they rig all of the drinking games so that you have to drink every five seconds.

Your walk to the club is spent talking absolute rubbish to the guy that you just met when you crossed the road, (or starting the weekly five minute night-out Snapchat story that I have become infamous for..)

Once you finally get inside:

You'll experience a multitude of expressions at the bar:

Then this:

Realising that you can't escape without doing it:

Hitting the dance floor:

Then you see people from your course that you've never spoken to, but you're fuelled with jaeger and the sweet taste of VK's, so you go bounding over to them like they're your best friend:

3am comes around and it's time to begin the long trek home, but there's only one thing on your mind:

You get back to the flat and decide the who what and where.

Who's flat you're going to, where it is and what you're going to eat.

(In my case it was: Claudia's, flat 53 and 15 chicken nuggets.)

Knocking really loudly, even though your friend told you not to because they don't want to wake their flatmates up:

Everyone has somehow managed to get their baking tray in the tiny oven like an advanced game of tetris.

You've put your phone timer on, you talk absolute rubbish just waiting for the carbs to cook so that they'll hopefully sober you up.

The timer goes off:

Food has never tasted so good:

You start talking yet more rubbish into the early hours of the morning until you realise it's light outside and that you should probably go home:

Exams

For goodness sake ATTEND ALL OF YOUR LECTURES AND MAKE GOOD NOTES THAT YOU UNDERSTAND.

I add 'that you understand' on the end, because when you go through the lecture slides and you're like 'wtf does that even mean??'

Having notes written in your own, probably dumbed down words will be an absolute godsend for your revision.

Make revision cards as you go (if you can).

Hahahaha next joke.

I had every intention of doing this, but the workload just got too much..

However, if you have better time management skills than I do (it's not hard), then I would advise making pretty revision cards and mind maps once you finish a topic, rather than leaving it all until the end.

If all else fails, get ready to learn a whole unit in the space of a couple of weeks..

Leaving for summer

The feeling when you finish exams is literally the best.

It's like freshers week all over again except you actually know people and you know where everything is!

But then you realise that leaving for summer means that you've actually finished first year and that you're never going to be a fresher again...

You watch at the window as each of your flatmates/coursemates move out and flee the nest:

(This is my favourite GIF in the whole of this post, because this was legit me.)

You start to pack up your room, 1. Regretting that you didn't take things home gradually when you went home during the year. 2. Realising that the more things you pack up, the more your room doesn't even feel like yours anymore:

You try and squeeze everything back into the car whilst your mum is saying,

"Well we got it all down here, so we must be able to get it all back!"

But what she doesn't realise is that during your time there, you've made approximately thirty ASOS orders, twenty Missguided Orders and two Urban Outfitters Orders (because UO is expensive AF and you could only justify the prices twice with your measly student loan.)

Finally, you drive away from halls, realising that you're gonna miss your halls so much and worst of all, that you probably won't see everyone again for another 3 months:

I hope this post helped to settle your nerves and answer some of the questions you've been thinking about?

If not, well I hope you enjoyed the array of GIFs!

Sending you so many positive (and severely jealous) vibes.

Love Kerry xxx

BU Summerball 2017 After movie!

Here it is!
My Summerball 2017 after-movie! I thought I had filmed more but it turns out that I was too busy having a boogie! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed being there and making it!



Love Kerry xxx

Soap & Glory-ious Bournemouth

So like many others this year, I fled the nest in September! I was both nervous and excited as I embarked on the three year course in Multimedia Journalism at Bournemouth University. But why Bournemouth I hear you ask?

Bournemouth University boasts the best media department in the country with graduates winning awards at prestigious film festivals and working on movies such as 'Gravity' starring the incredible Sandra Bullock, it quickly became obvious that Bournemouth was the university for me!

As an up and coming journalist, it has become apparent  that my passion for beauty and fashion is something that I want to specialise in in the foreseeable future. For as long as I can remember I have religiously watched Youtubers such as Lauren Luke (panacea81- who remembers her?!) and avidly followed bloggers such as Lily Pebbles and ViviannaDoesMakeup on a daily basis. And anyone who knows me, will tell you how desperate I am to start my own Youtube channel because it seems that I am yet to find someone who can fulfil ALL of my talking needs! This is why I would love to become a Soap and Glory Glambassador for Bournemouth University.

Probably the best thing I have done since I started at Bournemouth is signing up to Nerve Radio and hosting a radio show on Friday mornings at 9am with my co-hosts Claudia and Jess. I would love to combine my passion for beauty and fashion with my new found love for radio to possibly create a radio show or podcast based on all things blushes, blouses and brows?! I feel there is a real gap in the market for something like that!

Now it's all very well me painting the picture of myself as a wonderfully studious individual but how can I talk about Bournemouth without mentioning the nightlife?! There's Halo Mondays, where once you get over the fact that you're dancing in an old converted church where people used to sing hymns and pray, it makes for a decent night out! Cameo Wednesdays, probably Bournemouth's  most renowned 'student night' where you are assured VK's left, right and centre and the distant chants of the infamous 'Will Griggs'. And finally Lollipop Fridays at The Old Firestation, the only place where you can go from Skepta to S Club 7 in a matter of 5 steps. Why would you want to be anywhere else?!

Thank you for reading!

Kerry xxx

So...

I've typed and re-typed this first line a solid 10 times (as you can see I've settled for this cracking intro..)

I don't even know where to begin?! I've just read my last blogpost back, new year, new me HA HA HA HA HA HA. I am not slim and trim, I still eat complete crap and as you can quite clearly see I have not been updating this blog AT ALL. (Good job kez)

But in terms of new year, new me, thats not completely untrue! This year has definitely been THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE SO FAR. As you may or may not know, earlier this year I travelled the East Coast of Australia from Melbourne all the way up to Cairns for 7 weeks and I can honestly say hands down it was the best thing I have ever done in my whole life. I won't ramble on about it too much now but I am considering doing some blogposts about it looking back on it, giving my tips and tricks on what to do in each place and the best places to stay/eat (if you like Nutella, trust me you will NEED to read these posts, my Nutella consumption in Oz reached an all time high...) Let me know if you're about to embark on your gap year or even if you'd just be interested in knowing what I got up to?

Another big milestone in my life is that I have officially embarked on a degree in Multimedia Journalism at Bournemouth University! I moved down to the beautiful coastline in the middle of September and am currently well and truly immersed in 'student-life' and all it has to offer! (Most importantly VK's <3 <3) In the words of RiRi, 'where have they been all my life???' Again I want to keep this post as brief as possible because we all know how much I love to ramble on and on and write small dissertations for you all to read! But I am definitely going to be posting about my first experiences of all things Uni (spoiler: I cried more times than I had hot dinners, and as a uni student that seems entirely plausible because my cooking skills are about as good as a chocolate teapot..)

I've typed this whilst watching I'm A Celeb (YAYYYYYY IT'S BACKKKK!!) So please excuse any errors, I've just had a sudden urge to blog again because I really miss it!
Obviously attempting to blog alongside a degree is notably not one of my best ideas but I'm just going to post as and when I can! So hopefully you'll all stick around and bear with me??

Thank you for reading!

Kez xxx

I DID IT!!

So as I dust off my keyboard (soz about the lack of posts recently) I am absolutely thrilled to inform you, that I, Kezza M, AM OFF TO UNI!!!!!!!

(Disclaimer: if you're not a fan of people sharing their results then scroll down a paragraph plz)

I literally cannot believe it! So results morning rolls around, at 6:04 the whooshing sound of my email goes off  and the butterflies erupt in my stomach. To get onto my course (Multimedia Journalism) I needed to get 320 UCAS points or ABB in grades. So after about 40 seconds of imminent sickness, I finally mustered up the courage to open the email. I got 3 B's..

Now to those who got lower than that or needed that to get into uni, these grades would've been beyond satisfactory, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed in myself. That's just how I am though, I've always been my own worst critic! But aside from that, there was the complete uncertainty as to whether I had got in or not?! Now, at my sixth form we had to undertake an extended project qualification and I did manage to get an A in that which I was over the moon with! So in terms of UCAS points, with that A, I had a total of 360 points which obviously would be enough to get in, but most uni's don't accept EP as a contributor to points and so with 3 B's I only had 300 points..
To make the uncertainty worse, as I said, I had opened my results at 6am, but UCAS Track didn't open until 8am so I had to wait 2 hours to find out whether I'd got in... (the anxiety was HORRIFIC).

After trying to pass the time by watching countless Youtube videos and refreshing Track like every 5 minutes to see if they'd put it live early by accident, I eventually struck gold at 7:40! It was honestly like everything just suddenly went into slow motion (sounds a bit bloody dramatic but it honestly did!). I just saw the word "Congratulations" and I was like OH MY GOD. I got up ran to my Mum's room and was like I DID IT MUM, I GOT IN!! Many celebratory hugs and texts and tweets later and it still hasn't sunk in!

Thursday was such a whirlwind of a day! I obviously experienced an early morning roller coaster of emotions, then I had to gather some form of professionalism for my interview for a full-time job during my gap year. Then finally at 4pm I could finally relax and get ready to celebrate and PARDYYYY (insert, confetti cone emoji, woman in the red dress dancing and cocktail emoji!)

Note to self: Do not go out from 9:30-6:30, you will not be able to function AT ALL the next day. And even more importantly, girls do not kid yourself that wearing 4 inch heels for 9 hours straight will be completely painless, because the shameful stagger/limping round town in broad daylight the next morning is NOT FUN.

Now I'm sat here today and the realisation is finally starting to hit me, seeing my Facebook feed full of people changing their educational information on Facebook, liking all the freshers week events and even posting pictures from their trips to IKEA to get all those uni essentials. (Not gonna lie, I am SO EXCITED to shop for uni), the prospect of buying all the cute little kitchenware stuff, and getting to decorate my cute lil' uni room is beyond exhilarating.

I'm sure most of you will be wondering, why Bournemouth? It's not one of the red brick Uni's and for me it was virtually non-existent. However, when I had decided on my course, there were very few uni's that offered my course so that narrowed down the uni's considerably. When I got to Bournemouth on the open day, I will be completely honest and say that the outside of the uni isn't nearly as picturesque as most other uni's and I was a bit dubious. However as soon as I got inside I knew that this was where I wanted to be. I'd heard people say, you'll just know when you get there and it is so true, just follow your gut! Bournemouth's media department is among the best, if not the best, with a large majority of students securing a job within the industry post-uni. However, although I am easily swayed by statistics, the facilities are outstanding, the staff are extremely friendly and the accommodation is rather fabulous!

Honestly though, the town itself was the clincher. The sea/seafront is less than 5 minutes from my accommodation, the Old Fire Station (One of Bournemouth's most renowned venues for a night out) is literally across the road (short staggering distance home= WIN), the train station is 2 minutes away, meaning my friends/family can come and go as they please! And lastly the huge town centre with all it's shops to waste my student loan in, is about 10 minutes away. YES YES YES.

Furthermore, (I hope she won't mind being mentioned!) my friend Emily is also going to Bournemouth! Emily and I used to dance together years ago and we have remained friends ever since! I'm so so excited as she is one of the kindest, loveliest girls I know! We have both agreed to defer our entries until 2016 to take a gap year and then begin our uni experience together, living in the same accommodation. As a creature of habit, the prospect of having a familiar face at uni with me is making the whole 'awkward meeting new people' prospect a lot less daunting!

Of course I will be sharing everything uni-related with you on here, and if you are a nosey-parker like me and get excited at seeing people's cute new duvet covers and matching cutlery and plates, then keep your eyes peeled in the next year because there will be pictures GALORE.

Kez xxxx