Ok so i'm gonna break this one down and do it in chronological order starting with how I thought life would be like when I was a child.
To be honest I didn't really have expectations of adulthood or life in general as a child. When I was younger I believed that I was going to be a professional football player, be the next Beckham. So I spent most of my time playing football, watching football and trading those football cards. Odd thing for a girl but yeah...
It also depends on what your perception of when childhood ends is, I don't think the mental state of being a child ends when you're a teenager, I count it as ending at 14 and mainly because that's the first time I thought about my future and acted upon it. And at that point I believed that life would be what you worked for. That one would get only what they prepared for and nothing else.
I feel that its appropriate to include the gap between childhood and a university student too, because those years encompass critical decisions that will shape even whether or not you do go to uni and what you study. I believe the teenage years are the most volatile years of your life. How did I/we perceive it then? I can only give my account because ive never asked anyone else, so this is by no means a generalisation. During GCSE's I thought the world was my oyster, I saw how my hard work was being rewarded and was pleased with the grades I was achieving. so I perceived life as 'you reap what you sow'
And as I grew older that mentality changed, that would be perfect in an ideal world and in ideal situations but life is never really ideal, we all struggle at one point or other. And momentum is cruel, it waits for that one dip in your life and propels you in deeper. So in a levels and uni I realised that you sow a great deal more than you reap. That you need to work twice as hard to get the grade you want.
Now on to the uni bit:
How I perceived university is definitely not what its like, I thought there would be loads of societies that you could join and lots of activities and things going on. but it didn't meet up to my expectation. however this really depends on the uni that you go to and what you're interested in. At my uni there's an anime society that's on multiple times per week. so that's great for someone interested in that, so it really depends on who you are. I think what really clouds my experience is that I really love sports and the sports facilities are mixed. My uni also has activities going on during the week but finding a friend to go with isn't always easy esp if most dislike sports and commute.
Another point is help and guidance, now I didn't exactly expect a certain level of guidance but we were left to do everything by ourselves, which was very overwhelming especially in the first semester. when we were assigned tutors and those tutors are Dr's and some even carry out research in the field that you study (e.g. my tutor is a biochemist who if I remember correctly is a researcher as well) I thought that the whole reason behind that was that he/she will have tutorials with us or seminars to see how well we're getting on. I expected our tutors to give us direction. I've no idea how it is at other unis, this is just mine. Maybe it's only in Biosciences that this issue is with. I know some students on another course, cardiac physiology or something like that have a lot more contact time in smaller groups. And maybe its just how first year is.
A friend of mine who is in her 3rd year said to me "lecturers aren't interested in you now in your first year, in your 2nd and 3rd year is when they really start to help you"
Now that I am in university though I feel as though it's not about how hard you work, it feels like no matter what you do or how hard you work it'll never be enough to get to where you want to go. There's a great deal of competition out there and you really need to get loads of experience- which is scarce. However it also depends on the career path one has chosen, though granted everything nowadays has a lot of competition but some are more competitive than others. I feel like im repeating myself now so i'll wrap it up with this.
Work as hard as you can, for as long as you can, whenever you can. Because you never know what cards you'll be dealt in life. Wise words that my GCSE chemistry teacher once said to me were "Aim for a 100% that way if your result is the 90's you wont be upset" and I'm beginning to understand more and more the implications of those words now.
I don't think that I've answered your question entirely but I gave it my best shot.
Again as a reminder to those who don't know, I now also have a Facebook page were I post motivational/inspirational stuff and poetry regularly. So go ahead and like it, the more likes I get on that page the more stuff I shall be putting up. the link to that is: https://www.facebook.com/confusedbiochemist
That's all folks, peace out!
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