A day in the life of a BA student

Life on the edge… of a 2:2

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BA students get a lot of unfair stick for sitting around doing nothing. Well, nothing other than watching Netflix, reading artsy novels that are NOT on the reading list (how dare they?) along with many other things, but I’m here to tell you that our lives at uni are just as stressful and busy as the students doing different degree programmes.

8 AM: The alarm goes off. After snoozing the alarm at least twice, you toy with the idea of getting yourself up and racing into uni for a lecture on the history of something or other that you don’t really care about, especially not at this time in the morning. However, you can’t stand the thought of leaving your bed so decide to give it a miss.

9AM: Now though, you’ve had a good amount sleep after your initial alarm sounded. Several minutes pass spent flipping through your newsfeed, checking out Cool Dog Group and saving items on ASOS, then and only then can you decide to get up so that you can ‘make something of the day’. This plan falls flat on its face as you open up your Macbook and stick on a good hour of Jeremy Kyle before you even attempt to move a muscle. You need to feel better about doing nothing right?

10 AM: You slowly make it out of bed, shower using only organic products, throw on your turtle neck underneath your flannel shirt as well as your corduroys and the all important Doc Martens to finish off the outfit. If it is cold you might put on your fisherman-style wooly hat too. It doesn’t matter that rolling your trousers up gives you cold ankles – people need to see your socks.

Next up is breakfast and you are still getting used to your vegan diet, which you decided to take on after watching ‘Cowspiracy’ a few times in one week. Anyone who doesn’t obviously isn’t aware of how much water is used to make just one McDonald’s burger. So you make yourself some chickpea pancakes and a cup of herbal tea and are now ready for the day ahead.

11 AM: Off into uni you go on your single-speed bike for your tutorial, something you can’t really afford to miss and therefore have to make the effort to go all the way to campus. You sit in your tutorial and do just about enough in order to make it worth your while being there and then you are out of there.

12PM: Noon. The perfect time to catch up with a friend in your favourite trendy coffee shop. You’ll probably have a flat white, but if you’re trying to be that little bit more edgy you might go for a long black or a pour over, but you don’t really mind as long as it’s ‘delicious’, farmer friendly and comes in some kind of artisan cup hand delivered to your table by a man with a waxed moustache.

1PM: You’re still in the coffee shop, but maybe with another friend who has come to replace your original coffee buddy. After your eighth roll up cigarette of the day, the tupperware comes out of the Fjallraven rucksack you are sporting and you wolf down your mixed basil salad topped in an extremely light balsamic dressing and feta cheese, because yes that’s right you’ve already broken your vegan diet plan. On the off chance your loan came in early, you’ll forget the pack lunch and order a no-cheese pizza with anchovies and olives – just to be different.

That is one delicious looking no-cheese pizza

2PM: Sadly, coffee time is now over and you are setting out to do something more productive with your day, so you head to the library. Obviously, when you get to the library at this time of day there are literally going to be no seats left, so you have to perch yourself on some pathetic excuse for a chair in a random hallway or crevasse of the library and open up your laptop (a Macbook covered in stickers obviously). This is the opposite of productive however and no good work is going to come out of trying to read a book that you are balancing book on one knee, whilst attempting to type up notes at the same time, alongside trying to eat an avocado in order to get your daily fix.

3PM: You’ve finally bagged yourself a seat in the library but once you even attempt to start some proper work the inevitable procrastination kicks in. You’ll stare at your book and read the same one sentence over in your head a few times over but still fail to understand it and give up.

4PM: You swing by your mates flat to get your hair cut because there is nothing like a free hair cut. Nothing really says ‘BA student’ more than getting your hair cut by your mate.

5PM: You get yourself home after a long, hard and mildly productive day and you’re starving, but you really cannot be bothered with all the hassle of cooking something up for yourself now, you just want to get into bed and laze about watching trash on TV.

6PM: This is where the fun starts. You have had your tea and crawl into bed to spend some good quality alone time with a few Louis Theroux documentaries on Netflix. You may have seen all of his docs ten times each, but you still watch them seeing as though they are the best things in the world.

7PM: You’re starting to get a bit too warm in bed, you feel a bit smelly and begin to question what you are doing with your life. ‘This is UNI…Why am I staying in on a Friday night?’ You send a few messages out on Facebook hoping that there are few parties or that some of your mates are up for doing something.

8PM: You feel reinvigorated, you have made plans! You’re off to the pub. You’re extremely excited to drink the night away chatting about music and your favourite hoppy beers, this is going to be a GREAT night.

9PM: You’re getting a bit tipsy now though, three or so pints in and you’re chatting more than ever before, your mates are now your best mates and a song you have enjoyed listening to lately is now the best song in the world.

10PM: After a couple more Blue Moon’s, the conversation topics will begin to get deeper, you’ll question what ‘art’ really is and there will be great philosophical chat flying around the table.

11PM: Pre drinks has spiced up when Theo gives AJ a call. The dealer is on his way and what promised to be a quiet one could be about to get extra large. Plans are made to hit up the nearest dungeon-esque club. Doors are at half 10, and it’s sold out, but you’ll be fine right? It’s some very obscure DJ you’ve never heard of, so you quickly change into your finest Patagonia jumper and Amelia gets very excited.

12PM: AJ has only just turned up. It’s too late to go out now, and the lights are already down. Matt is really trying to get with Lucy, his own housemate, and for once it’s working. Someone’s got their CDJs and mixer out and the bedroom DJ has emerged. It turns out he’s not as good, so you put Jackmaster back on. This amount of ketamine will have completely wiped away all that hard revision you did earlier today.