I can't believe we're already at week 7! Time is really flying by and my 19th birthday is approaching with just over a month to wait!

My main reason to be cheerful this week is of course, results! They were released on Tuesday (I wasn't aware of this until a friend let me know in a lecture). As soon as I got onto a computer, I was straight onto my emails to hunt down these dreaded results, but thankfully I had nothing to fear. I managed two 2:2's and two 2:1's in my first semester modules and I'm really pleased! I know I can do better though and I intend to this semester, but the main thing is, I passed!

My other reason to be cheerful is, strangely enough for me, Valentine's Day. I don't particularly believe in it (it's utter rubbish if I'm honest) but my boyfriend Matt was adamant on doing something, and I was happy for us to do so. All I can say is that any boyfriend who cooks you steak is most definitely a keeper! And, ahem, any girlfriend who brings a present of Jack Daniel's Fudge is pretty awesome too. The night was also quite unusual in comparison to most couples on Valentine's Day...we spent it building a heart shaped catchlight (the joys of dating a photographer), which I can tell you was a total pain in the ass! But we eventually managed to get a good photo -  check out the photo here and take a close look at my eyes to see the painstakingly simple hearts that took us a blooming long time to create!

I've spent almost the entire week with Matt and Valentine's Day steak just topped it off really!

Overall my weeks been pretty simplistic and two simple things made me very cheerful (:

MissIsGoode

As a student it's pretty tough being healthy. A Domino's pizza would honestly keep almost every student happy for a life time, and it comes down to having the will power to say no. Having this will power makes you almost a God - or a sinner in some student's books (I know some people who will do anything for a Domino's pizza - no joke).

You hear people all the time say 'The diet starts tomorrow', but when it comes to student's you hear more hilarious statements, for example a friend of mine announced, whilst eating cheesy chips and drinking a diet coke, (the diet coke was part of her healthy start) 'I need to start treating my body like a temple'. We found this hilarious to say the least, but it did get me thinking about how unhealthy I am.

Exercise is drunk dancing and walking onto and around campus. That's pretty ridiculous right? Don't get me started on what I eat. I cook dinner from scratch every single night for myself and two other friends (Faye calls me 'wifey') and they're always healthy and delicious, if I do say so myself. But it's the times I eat other meals and the snacks in between that are the issue.

So I've come up with a list of rules that I'm going to attempt to follow, and I thought I'd share them with everyone else, student kind or not:

1. No more late lunches (This means past 1pm) - so you wake up at midday...your thoughts are breakfast. Student's don't do brunch. We want a breakfast and a lunch - no matter what time we rise.

2. Breakfast is a must - guess what this entails...waking up earlier! Sleeping too much tends to make you too tired. I had more energy as a college student when I woke up at 6:30am 5 days a week, now I have a minimal amount of energy, go to sleep in the early hours of the morn (for example, I in fact typed this post at midnight yesterday) and I never wake up when my ambitious alarm (I always set it for 8am) plays an annoyingly repetitive tune.

3. Don't snack before meals out or meals at the boyfriend's house - I get bored waiting to go for a meal out and start snacking and regret it when I get to the restaurant and have to pass a quarter of my steak to my boyfriend because I simply cannot finish it. The reason I suggest not to eat before going to your boyfriends house or when any of the male species is cooking for you is because, and I've really started to notice this, males have absolutely no portion control. They make man sized portions...man size is a non existent portion, it just means make a food mountain.

4. Stop eating late - you know when you come home drunk and think it's a fantastic idea to make a bacon and egg sandwich - *dribble* - but you realise in the morning you were too drunk to even know if you successfully cooked it correctly or even what it tasted like? Yeah that has to stop.

5. Snack healthily - student's know what's healthy, but honestly a pizza looks so much more appetising than a banana. But I'm just gonna have to suck it up and no, pineapple on your pizza doesn't count as one of your 5 a day...nor do chocolate raisins to my dismay.

6. Order a Graze Box - I'd heard of these before but had never actually tried one until my boyfriend bought this spectacular thing into my life. They're pretty awesome.

7. An important issue when ordering a Graze Box is the spectacular talent of successfully grazing - it's tough, I know.

8. The obvious one...exercise. In halls it's pretty hard to bust out the Zumba DVD and dance yourself stupid without really annoying the poor person in the room below you, so there's sports societies you can join (I'm still considering this) or simply just walking or jogging...just get active.

9. Limit alcohol intake - cue all students laughing in my face - I've left this until last because I honestly can't say it's something I could successfully do, but it's worth considering. No, I don't count units, and no, I don't know anyone who does. But alcohol is often a huge contributor to your expanding waistline - and even the mixers you use don't help.

So, there's my list! I intend to try my hardest to stick to these rules, I'll have to let you know how it goes! If you're starting to realise your diet has gone pretty down hill since you got complete control of what you buy and eat, make your own list, and make it realistic!

MissIsGoode

Being in my second semester I've had a rather large expenditure of almost £200 (insane) all entirely on books, and the disappointing thing is, I haven't actually read a lot of them all the way through - I often rely on skimming, and briefing myself on the beginning, middle and the end.

I said in a previous post that I hadn't read a lot, and that's no word of a lie. I really haven't. What made me choose English and American Literature - somehow I've got away with not explaining this after all this time - is actually the writing. I love writing and always have done, and I love analysis. Of course, I look like an idiot doing a literature course, right? Even so, I still enjoy it. The reading is not my favourite part but writing essays genuinely makes me happy. In my first semester, not so much. My focus was on partying, and though that attitude is not entirely out of the way, I am still a first year after all, I intend on being much more sensible and focused on my essays this semester - as I know I can achieve better.

I suppose you could call this my epiphany post? I understand why I'm at university now more than ever. That sounds ridiculous too of course. University for a lot of people is often partially about spreading your wings and getting that leap of freedom, for me it was almost entirely that - not that my parents were remotely suffocating, they in fact gave me a brilliant and very free up-bringing - but it felt good to take a leap into the unknown. I could have leapt further, but I adore Keele and don't regret my decision to come here what so ever. Now, I'm appreciating my course choice too, I consider this realisation as me finding my feet (a bit later than most).

I was quite a negative person at school, with a bad attitude that continued into my A levels - and though I did do well, my heart was never truly in anything I did. I've always described myself as drifting through life - I've never truly latched myself onto anything and really loved it, besides writing. I know with this degree, a bad attitude will get me no where, my old attitude will get me no where.

University is about having fun, doing things in these few years that you really can't do (or at least get away with doing) when you grow up, get a job and do what ever else society expects of you (you can, of course, resist that too). But my advice is, don't be an idiot about it (mature speech now) have all the fun you like, but don't let your course get the better of you. Even in the first year, I've given all the 'the first year doesn't count' bravado, but truly everything you do counts.

After all, isn't it better to say I had fun and I did well rather than, cracking good year, shame I've got to retake it?

MissIsGoode