It's been almost three whole years since I moved to Groningen to pursue my International & European Law degree. So as I wrap up my life in Groningen, I will share three things I learned during my time here. 

1. Life does not end with that one bad grade 

So you failed your first exam. You are annoyed and confused because you studied hard yet still failed. So you set your alarm and calendar for the day of the exam review- what the law faculty dramatically refers to as a ‘post mortem’. You arrive ready to negotiate some extra points but as soon as you enter, you hear the professor say “if you are here to try to get more points or change your grade, you might as well leave.” You still stay, try your luck and leave with nothing but disappointment. Sound like you? Yeah, me too. You will soon come to realise as I did, that life does not end with that one bad grade. Stuff happens. You are not going to end up unemployed for the rest of your life because you failed a few exams. Your grades don’t define you; Your personality, work ethic, skill sets, and whether or not you like pineapple on pizza does. So don’t stress! 

2. You will make some friends, and you will lose some- and that’s okay! 

As an extremely socially active person, I can confidently say that I know quite a number of people. Some are friends, some are acquaintances, and some are acquaintances that used to be friends. With each year that passes you come to realise that the number of friends you have is extremely irrelevant. It becomes more about who you choose to be friends with and the quality of those specific friendships. It is better to have one amazing friend than ten not so amazing ones. So if that means you need to cut a couple of people off, then cut them off. Friendships are a big part of your experience at university so instead of wasting time trying to make as many friends as possible, I learned to cherish and invest in the deeper, more genuine friendships I had; And if you find that you just aren't making any friends at all, then I don't know what to tell you. Try Tinder maybe? 

3. (Semi) Effective Time Management 

Oke fine, I will admit, adding this particular point makes me a bit of a hypocrite since I was given a month to write this blog post and legit wrote it a few minutes before the deadline. Nevermind that the only reason I remembered to write it was that I received a reminder email the evening before. However, I would be lying if I said my time here did not teach me to improve on my time management skills. From carefully planning my day so I would get to the library at the exact second studios became available again; to calculating how close to the deadline I could start a paper without submitting it late; to skilfully incorporating at least 2 naps and a Netflix session into my day while still getting enough study hours in (I’m seriously going to add that to my CV). By overcoming the many challenges one faces as a university student, I have been able to navigate the university lifestyle with the level of finesse and self-discipline it requires. So if you are a master procrastinator like me, do not worry, there is hope for you because your time management skills WILL improve whether you like it or not. It may not be by much, but it’s still something.