Because working a full-time job isn't quite challenging enough for some... In a new weekly feature, recent Her.ie recruit Mary is sharing her journey through the very grown-up world of juggling a career with further education. Looking back over her first semester and forward to a thesis, Mary is learning some lessons along the way about time management, the trials of being a born crammer, the importance of sharing the stressful moments... and the reason why "mature student" is probably an oxymoron. ____________________________________ It seemed like a good idea at the time. It all started off last summer. I was looking at friends of mine who were heading back to college, or had already done so and were posting grinning graduation pictures online and thought to myself: "that looks like fun". I was a few, (cough), years out of college and had my rose-tinted glasses firmly on. Work full-time and head back to college part-time? No problem - sure it’ll be great fun, right? Imagine the people I’d meet. Imagine the fun I would have. Imagine lazy weekends with nothing much to do except admire how class I am at juggling everything. Eh… no. September rolled around and I was like a rabbit caught in headlights. You may be wondering why I am only starting to write about this now, in the month of January, almost five months after the college year kicked off. Well, to be honest, I have only just started to catch up on sleep. The last few months have really been a bit of a haze. I’ve just finished exams, (worst Christmas ever!), and Semester 2 has just kicked off in all its glory this week. Fun times. In September, I could not make head nor tail of the whole college thing. How I did it at the age of 17 still baffles me, but - for fear of sounding like an auld wan - technology has advanced so much that I didn’t even have a clue how to use the library databases. Cue that awkward moment when you ask your friend’s 15-year-old sister to help - and I’m not even that old. Not only that, but the workload kicked in straight away. Week One was “howaya lads” and then it was steamroller into the following weeks: assignments due, essays due left right and centre and oh… the dreaded group work. At best, I felt like a duck out of water. At my worst, I felt plain stupid. I never thought I’d make it to Christmas, let alone be writing this a week after finishing Semester One exams. But here I am. Out the other side (or at least the other side of the first half). A full semester, along with a summer-ruining thesis lie ahead, but I’m starting to learn how to take it in my stride. I’ve learned a few things these last few months. Mainly, my classmates are the biggest support you can get – everyone is in the same boat and just as overwhelmed as you are – and yet, we’ve all made it here. Secondly, Economics is no longer a second language to me. I now can kind of figure out what’s been going on in this country for the last few years, thanks to an absolutely incredible lecturer. And most importantly? I’ve learned a lot about myself; my own inner strength, my own determination and well… my own laziness. Yes it’s true. No matter what promises you make to yourself about “this time round”, you will revert to your undergraduate or school days self and those habits. For me, I was a crammer, I’m still a crammer and by the looks of it, I always will be. Double helpings of Friends got me through exams last week and I still managed to survive… but maybe check back in with me when the results come out next month….