How are we all? Somebody pointed out to me this week that there are only 4 weeks left until Christmas. Where has this year gone? As a student I suppose that there is a very valid reason for feeling like this. Probably along the "too much drink, too little sleep" line, but also just the fact that so much has changed in a year.
A year ago this very day........I have absolutely no idea what I was doing! But I do know is that I was soon to be preparing for the exams in January. Now i'm sat all day at a computer screen running simulations and analysing results. In that last sentence alone I think I could convince anybody that Chemical Engineering is the path to take!!!
I think my message here is that time really does move on quickly, and when being a student it can be quite viable to write off half of it through late nights (and maybe alcohol!) leaving not much time left to get things done. For those of you sitting exams in January, whether they be for degrees, A-Levels, or others, I would really suggest that you start to prepare for them now. Eight weeks will come around a lot quicker than you think now, I can say this from experience as it is something that I used to realise during my early uni and college years!
But let's not be too work focused either. You should work hard to play hard, but remember that the harder you play the less you work. So find that balance for yourself, for me it is a nights on the tiles followed by an hour's sleep and two large coffees! I WISH! But remember this as Christmas is upon us, take off time and enjoy yourselves but don't neglect your studies as Santa Claus unfortunately can't fit a degree certificate down the average sized chimney!
Well hope you are all settled in to university life now if you have just started and that all of you are finding my little BLOG useful! Since my last post I have been on a team building exercise with my placement company which was really fun. It makes a change to going on company visits where you get to see only steel constructions and come back smelling of chemicals and all sorts!
Our away day took us to an English vineyard, yes you did hear me right, we actually produce wine in this country! As I found out, the area of Surrey where this vineyard was based actually has similar geological and climatical properties as the Champagne region of France, look out Dom Perignon!!! This was a really good day actually, one for the wine tasting, but for us sad process engineers, we got to see the process of making wine on a massive scale and saw how differently the food and drinks and chemical industries use very similar equipment.
The evening for us was a murder mystery dinner, oooooohhhhhh! Although my preconceptions of this were that it would be a tackless and lacklustre version of Cluedo, I was pleasantly surprised. There were proper actors and we were transported back to the 1920s for the evening meal. All in all it was fun and a great way to work with members of my team outside of a normal working environment.
Unfortunately, I am not back to the run of the mill computer simulations for a few weeks. But, luck for me, there are some very interesting jobs and trips coming up soon, so I will keep you posted.
Have a good fortnight!
