year uno.

First year of law school is done! (9 grand gone too.) 



As I wait for my exam results, regardless of whether I passed with smashing marks in still thankful for this experience as it has been a real learning curve for me to figure out how to survive. 

I remember it was the day after my sisters birthday in September last year that I officially moved into uni. I was scared and felt homesick even before I left home but I tried to appear as excited as possible and look forward to it as much as I could as everyone says it will be the best time of your life.



Though I did not come to this conclusion in the first week where I truly relied on Skype and FaceTime to make my new home 'home', the following time I spent in this little town became the most fruitful and colourful.






I hacked my first all-nighters here after all for one - something which had seemed impossible at first given my love for sleep and naps; law really pushes you to go above and beyond your limits. 



Food wise, mummy's cooking tips which seemed irrelevant at one point now became golden rules. Who knew salt made your beef chewy, and sugar made your tomato and egg dish taste less sour? When I was so ill I couldn't eat anything, mummy taught me to make congee (a watered down porridge) in a rice cooker which helped save my life.








Independence. As a mummy and daddy's girl, I hadn't been spoilt as such, but I had my ways to make mum call up the dentist and book an appointment for me, or explore new churches with the company of my dad. But since starting uni I had forced myself to drive that independence out of me. I enrolled at the local hospital myself, booked a doctors appointment when I got an allergic reaction, even called 999 when my friend was half-dying, signed my first housing contract, found two new churches and a fellowship by myself and travelled to and from London and Warwick every now and then.








Independence is good, though I've also learnt to rely on God a lot more this past year. When I'm ill and there is no one to look after me, I could only rely on prayer. When I felt as though my law books were literally crushing me, I asked God to lift these burdens off me. When I cried because I felt so homesick, I nestled in Gods hands till he put a backbone in me to face university life. I've learnt to worship God in a different environment and met a larger Christian family as well as connecting with another Chinese community through my faith - something I had been struggling to do as most Chinese people were internationals who preferred to stick to their own cliches. 

Uni life stands as a time of flexibility and freedom, however I have also learnt to stick to a routine and open up to the Bible every morning before I lived my day. Have to thank God for giving me air to breathe right!








And lastly, meeting new people may just be my new favourite thing to do! Growing up as quite a shy girl, the one thing I was afraid of was making new friends. Apart from family, my friends help me to get through life and become comfortable in my environment. You could have the highest paying job but being a lonesome lady wouldn't bring you much joy. Uni turns out to have THE most craziest and wackiest people (who even has time to set off the fire alarm once every hour four times in one night?).






I believe that God had placed me in my particular flat and halls for a purpose as I wouldn't have otherwise met these wonderful people. The mixture of S block is perfect and crafted so well by God. There's a lot of people from London and more specially, my area. But there are also people from around the world - international students - coming from India, China and Costa Rica, who I've gotten to know very well and will also be sharing as house with too next year! Every day there will be a different cuisine roasting in the kitchen and you get continually amused by people's accents.






Uni has been one heck of a whirlwind but it has really moulded me into a better character.