Here’s exactly how you’re going to stay passionate about your Durham degree

Learning at university is so incredibly different compared to previous levels of education. From being forced to learn independently with upcoming deadlines to endless amounts of reading, your degree can become draining. Learning becomes a chore as you force yourself to pull an all-nighter just to submit an essay. The joy you once found in writing and learning about a topic suddenly begins to drain from you as you solely focus on the institutionalised process of getting a degree at the end.

Learning at uni can also be incredibly isolating as you realise you are responsible for your own learning and ideas. Worse than this, knowing academics on a less personal level than at school can take some of the social and fun elements out of learning. Feeling any and all of this can be completely demotivating and is inherently very disappointing when learning is such a key part of life. But don’t forget, it is also valid when you focus on the academic attainment and isolating university can be.

However, as someone who ends up bringing her degree subject into literally every single conversation she has, I feel somewhat qualified to give you some tips on how to actually enjoy your subject and cultivate your curiosity independently. To preface, I think that an important part of enjoying studying comes from what is known as “a flow state”, which is where you’re able to become so focused and immersed within the learning that you’re doing that time, and distractions slip away. Being in this state is what allows you to find joy and interest in your task as it allows you to love the process of learning.

Remind yourself about why you chose this subject

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While university can drain the love from your subject from academic pressure, you did ultimately go through an entire application process and wrote a whole personal statement on why you wanted to study it, so there must be some underlying enjoyment there. It can be helpful to actually look back onto your A-Levels (or equivalent qualifications), and as traumatic as they were, there must have been some kind of content you enjoyed that made you want to study it further. Whether it was a specific book, or theory, or sub-topic, think back to why you found it important to learn about.

Now think to the present. You are in that position now that you wanted to be in how ever many years ago, and you have the resources to go into greater depth with those topics that you find interesting. Once you’re able to look past learning as an institutionalised duty, doing your subject feels less like a chore and becomes something for your own intellectual and personal development.

For example, with my personal statement I wrote a lot about feminist and political pieces of literature, and so I find it easier to connect with the pieces on my course that discuss the male and female experience and the differences between how they perceive each other within society.

Finding those small pockets of joy and intrigue within your and actually going into depth with them is honestly the key part in truly finding pleasure consistently in your degree.

Finding your niche

This may seem incredibly obvious, but if there is a certain module or topic that really bores you that you just can’t get into, search for a niche part that you like or that you can internally glorify. For example, I find that with some of my modules the language barrier of middle English sometimes demotivates me and some of the texts feel quite repetitive.

However, in spite of this, I have found certain themes and tropes that I enjoy analysing. If anyone has had a conversation with me in the past week, I’ve been yapping about medieval faeries, and this is exactly why. I think the ideas of mirroring, duality and testing the positive and negative realms of human capability through supernatural counterparts is an inherently interesting and nuanced part of a body of literature that often repeats the same characters.

Finding a new way to view a part of your subject, or zooming in on a small aspect that you find personally important is just one way of reigniting the joy that can actually come from doing your degree. 

Enjoy the aesthetic

When feeling demotivated, and surrounded by confusing subject-specific jargon, I find it best to romanticise your subject; find its aesthetic and attach it to what you’re doing. As an English literature student, this often consists of admiring books and telling myself that my overflowing bookshelf is not a result of over-consumption and a huge reading list, but rather that it makes me appear more intellectual than what I actually am.

Whether it is making a Pinterest board, a Spotify playlist, or romanticising how a subject appears on paper, finding the aesthetic within your subject and viewing it through those rose-tinted glasses can help you overcome the hurdle to actually enjoying your degree and the process of learning. Having this as a visual or audible motivator will enable you to perceive it beyond the daunting act of studying. 

Romanticise the process of research, reading and writing

When we have so many deadlines to meet it can be really hard to actually enjoy the process of learning. It’s easy to forget that many of us are paying large tuition and living fees for the privilege to be able to study and earn a degree, and so some form of enjoyment should be expected if we have invested so much into it. Therefore, when it comes to studying, allow yourself to glorify it as a process, not the destination of a certain mark or grade that you want to achieve.

Perceive the process as a project: By researching and writing you are bettering your understanding of the world and the great thing about university is that with most subjects they give you the freedom to explore the smaller interests you have within a subject. Once you are able to glorify the topic in your mind, the easier it will be to get into a flow state, which is where you can actually enjoy and become invested within the research rabbit hole. Rather than doing an assignment because it is mandatory, give it a personal purpose and remind yourself of all the interesting things you could and will know through that process.

Also, humans are naturally curious beings and we learn so much every single day without even realising it. Consciously learning and processing this information can actually be really rewarding and satisfying, and that enjoyment behind learning is ultimately key to surviving your degree.

Actually attend your lectures

I know there will be some mixed reactions to this suggestion, but hear me out. I was sat in my lecture earlier today, making notes on my laptop and listening to my lecturer. The novel we were looking at wasn’t my favourite, however just the pace and tone of the lecturer made me feel really inspired and motivated to write an essay once I’d left the lecture hall.

I didn’t actually get the time to do this, but I think the moral of the story is that academics are some of the most passionate people to speak to about their subject. They get excited and their energy and passion is contagious and actually engaging with the sessions your university sets up for your degree allows you to interact with that. By actively reading, thinking and engaging with lectures, tutorials, seminars, etc. and your own independent reading allows you to think for yourself. I find that joy and intrigue stems from that process. 

Change where you study and your working environment

This may be just a general study tip, but I honestly think it still helps. Studies have shown that changing your study environment can help keep you focused and motivated on your tasks, and so I believe that this can help feed into that and make you feel productive and knowledgeable.

There is a calming and mysterious aesthetic that can be attached to you going into a café, grabbing a tea or coffee, and just giving yourself the space to read, write, or research. If you’re in aesthetically pleasing surroundings and you have the pressure of other people around you, it’s easier for you to enter your flow state. Also, it adds to the aesthetic of you being a student and doing a degree, and you get an excuse to order yourself a nice drink or sweet treat to enjoy alongside it. 

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