Stressed.Out.Student

SOS: Stressed Out Student

It's got to that point in the holidays where I have realised I’m behind on getting ahead for next term. Whilst summer theoretically brings the chance to get on top of work, reading, and to do lists, I tend to find myself in the rut of copious planning and limited action.

Further procrastinations include photographing my reflection in a
hopeless attempt to delay having to actually turn my laptop on

At the start of the summer I wrote out all of my required reading and promised myself that by August I would have read at least two module lists, packing my holiday suitcase with a 60:40 ratio of sun fun attire to books. Long story short: while I came back from my five week trip with zero extra book knowledge and a few thousand freckles, my books came back with curved spines and a severe vitamin D deficiency from not seeing the light of day for over a month. 

My stress of the moment is that I still have no idea what I want to write my dissertation on. It’s good to focus on less researched, less mainstream topics, but my main interests have always been sexuality and gender- the uk top 40 of the literary world. In the spirit of being proactive, I’ve been spending my days scrolling through largely unhelpful diss advice articles. Instead of continuing to drown in my sea of stress I’ve decided to simply find some books that I’m interested in, most likely focused on sexuality and gender issues, and try to find any niche pearls to latch onto within these books. 

Luckily the doomsday that is the first day of term hasn’t yet approached and so I’m pretty sure I still have time to solve my stresses. I have written out an elaborate reading schedule (in hindsight might have been better to spend the time it took planning to start said reading) and I have already sent my stress panic messages to all of my group chats, so the first two steps in my familiar routine are already done- progress. 

I’ve concealed an extra batch of books in the hidden zip compartments of my mums suitcase for our holiday this weekend- mum, if you’re reading this it’s too late- and I’m ready to promise myself I’ll come back with a much better idea on what I want to do my diss on, I’ve even pinky promised this time.