Life's a Lesson

One of the biggest life lessons I have learnt recently is the mere fact that life is a lesson. Life often throws difficult situations at you, or you encounter bumps in the road that throw you.
Quite simply: that is the way life is, and even though everything would go a lot smoother if these things didn't happen (and sometimes we would be happier if they didn't) it would not only make life less interesting but we would also seriously miss out on some serious lessons. Ones that are likely to shape and mould us. 

A simple example, one I'm sure a lot of you will relate to is school. I recently got a grade at uni that I wasn't happy with. I mean, it wasn't an awful mark, but I was disappointed. Obviously, this is a natural response to something I spent hours over but I learnt several life lessons from this one simple mark. 

1. Do what you love and love what you do

 I didn't understand, nor did I enjoy the essay question. This threw me off, I didn't know where I wanted the essay to go and it threw me. This reminds me of something my dad always tells me: do what you enjoy, you're much more likely to do better at it. Annoyingly, this was one of those essays where I was stuck between a rock and a hard place as far as questions were concerned. But, this has made me look really hard at the modules I do next year and the essay questions I have to choose from. I've picked ones I am 99% sure I am going to enjoy, and this seems to be paying off with some of my essays already. 

2. The 5-minute rule

There has often been that saying of 'if it won't matter in 5 years then don't waste more than 5 minutes upset about it'. This is one mark in the grand scheme of my whole degree. This really hasn't made that much of a difference to my average, which is one I'm still happy with. I am a big believer in letting your emotions out, something my mother has taught me, otherwise, you're going to feel worse about it all later. So, I had my 5 minutes of freaking out and being upset and that was it. It was now time to get it out and get on with it. 

3. Listen to Criticism 

As a person, I am a believer in constructive criticism, especially when it comes to my degree. I am most likely a perfectionist (something that can be both a good and bad thing) and expect a lot from myself. So when I get a bad grade like this the first thing I do (after my 5 minutes) is getting on with emailing my tutors to talk to them about my feedback. 9 times out of 10 you tutor is one your side and wants you to do as well as possible. Listen to what they have to say and take it on board. They know what they're saying (well, you'd hope they would...)

This doesn't just stand in terms of school or uni but in everyday life. We are likely to come up against things we weren't expecting, but quite often there are ways around them. And, as a consequence, you're likely to learn from the experience and better yourself because of it. You are stronger than you know. 

These photos were taken by my friend Izzy Manuel, be sure to check out her blog and recent blog post!