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.

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That's one lesson learned. The hard way. 

I’ve categorically decided that all those people who do assignments weeks in advance are absolutely bonkers. I took it upon myself to embrace the holidays and the ‘extra study time’ it entailed. With that in mind, I decided to kick start an assignment I had due on Tuesday, by getting it underway last Saturday. Yes, I know – a full four days before it was due. I was impressed with myself too. But, never again! This assignment had us watching two movies, picking the one we preferred and then writing a commentary on it. Sounds pretty easy... right? So on Saturday, I settled in – popcorn and cup of tea in hand – to watch the two films. Basically, have a nice lazy day doing ‘college work’. That done, I moved on to bigger and brighter things: namely getting ready for a night out. On Sunday, I picked my movie and decided that I had better watch it again, just to make sure I got everything right of course. Sunday evening was spend in a haze of ‘hmm, I’m not really sure what’s going on’ and ‘Ugh, do I have to?’. By the time Monday came around, I was so sick of the movie that I wished I’d never heard of it and that I'd only started the whole thing that evening... as is the norm for me and assignments. On deadline day Tuesday, I had procrastinated so much and had messed around with the whole assignment so many times that I definitely wasn’t anywhere near finished, never mind ready to hand it up. I met the deadline – only just – but if you asked me now what I wrote about, or even the basic argument that I put forward, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. But at least it’s done I suppose! (Cue nervous laughter). Lesson severely learned: stick to what you’re good at. Though I'm not quite sure what that is just yet.