Saying yes

One of the things I’ve learnt during my second year of university is that saying ‘yes’ to new things makes life a whole lot more enjoyable. It sounds terribly cliche, but I’ve already experienced more in the last 8 weeks than I did for pretty much the entirety of my first year.

Today when waiting for a lecture, a friend of mine introduced me to another student she knows in first year. She by the sound of it isn’t having much fun in first year- she’s struggling with her flatmates, she’s finding it hard to work out what she’s doing on her course- all things justifying the need for your first year marks not to count. Seeing her has made me realise how much of a difference doing new things, grasping new opportunities and talking to new people has had for me.It’s very easy to politely decline invitations when you’re nervous about them. It isn’t difficult to pass off opportunities because they seem frightening, or there is a big chance of failure. But seeing myself in a fellow student today has confirmed for me that embracing what life throws at you and generally just thinking ‘sod it’ really does work wonders. I’ve started ballroom dancing, (who’d a thunk it?) agreed to host a show, taken on a lead role in my part time job, started mentoring school students and joined an awesome Christian group, and made a heap loads of new friends from all walks of life in the process. All things which I could have very easily missed out on had I decided to keep my mouth shut for fear of embarrassment, curled back into a ball and watched another episode of Walking Dead.

Second year is absolutely brilliant, and I’m starting to realise that really, it’s down to my confidence growing. The opportunity to grow, meet new people and learn a bit more about life in general definitely outweighs the prospect of potentially making a prat out of yourself. The more you start letting go of what could go wrong, the more chances come your way, and the less scared you are of failure.