During my first year of uni, I spent most of my time planning the next night out rather than when I was going to make time to study for exams and assignments. I didn't get much work done, mainly because I found it too hard and didn't ask for help when I should have. Because of my poor attitude to work, at the end of my first year I ended up having to re-sit two exams! To make it worse, I became so stressed I got really ill, to the point where I couldn't even do my re-sits.
The months I'd spent stressing about exams and having to do them all over again had resulted in me getting shingles on my eyes; an incredibly rare form of shingles. My re-sit exams got moved to coincide with my January exams – so I had to do extra exams, which was even more stressful. It was a horrible time and I definitely learned a lot. I learned to ask for help when I needed it; to prioritise my time a lot better and ultimately, to put a better coping mechanism in place for stress – it involved a lot of exercise!