The Life of Leviathan – Depression, Bullying, Fatigue and Other Obstacles
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sorry you had such a rough year. Hope things continue to be a bit better for you, especially into second year. It makes the first even more impressive! It wasn't too detailed at all- it's your blog, for whatever you want to write 
Original post by Matrix123
No! It wasn't too detailed! Tbh if you wanted to add double the amount of detail, it wouldn't have been too detailed because it's all so interesting!
I can imagine so and it's great that you are helping to show that it isn't always like that. It's very useful for me personally and I am sure others benefit greatly from it too
I suppose that putting your thoughts out there is a good reason for you, and the effect it has on prospective students is a good one too
I for one do like to plan things out and your blog has helped me to do that somewhat for university, when I originally had no idea about certain things!
Obviously I think you should carry on
but if you feel it's best to not do so then fair enough 
Do you mind if I ask how you found balancing your mental wellbeing with the work you were set? That's something I struggle on currently but it'd be interesting to hear about it from a university student's perspective
I can imagine so and it's great that you are helping to show that it isn't always like that. It's very useful for me personally and I am sure others benefit greatly from it too
I suppose that putting your thoughts out there is a good reason for you, and the effect it has on prospective students is a good one too
I for one do like to plan things out and your blog has helped me to do that somewhat for university, when I originally had no idea about certain things!
Obviously I think you should carry on
but if you feel it's best to not do so then fair enough Do you mind if I ask how you found balancing your mental wellbeing with the work you were set? That's something I struggle on currently but it'd be interesting to hear about it from a university student's perspective
Thank you so much Matrix, you never have a bad word to say
Managing the work as well as my mental wellbeing was definitely a challenge, made more difficult I think by the increased level of independent study required. Feeling down and somewhat anxious a lot of the time obviously made it harder to focus and generate the enthusiasm to get the work done. The difference in timetable structure (e.g. having classes until 5pm compared to 4pm at sixth form), also meant that fatigue was another problem that I regularly faced, and this contributed to the issues I had with trying to complete the work while attempting to stay motivated.
Effective time management was, for me, the key to completing the work on time to meet deadlines, whilst keeping my mental health in check, as far as possible. The way I managed things was to keep a diary of all of my assignments, the dates they were set (or going to be set), and their due dates. I tried to complete shorter pieces of work the day they were set or in the following days, and I allowed myself more time to do longer assignments. For pieces of work which had longer deadlines, I tried to make sure I did a bit of work on them everyday, to give myself plenty of time to finish them and also prevent myself from becoming overwhelmed.
Another, quite obvious but important point to make is to take breaks from the work as well. I know everybody says this, but it’s surprising how little time you may actually have to relax. If you’re engrossed in the work and are happy getting on with it, then that’s brilliant! But if you’re struggling to get started or feel too tired to work, then it’s probably best to take a break and do something that you enjoy instead. I really can’t stress this point enough, especially if you’re feeling a bit down or stressed in general, like I was (and probably will again soon!)
I hope that answers your question, I feel as though I might’ve gone off on a tangent and don’t want this to turn into a blog post in itself
Original post by Leviathan1741
Thank you so much Matrix, you never have a bad word to say
Managing the work as well as my mental wellbeing was definitely a challenge, made more difficult I think by the increased level of independent study required. Feeling down and somewhat anxious a lot of the time obviously made it harder to focus and generate the enthusiasm to get the work done. The difference in timetable structure (e.g. having classes until 5pm compared to 4pm at sixth form), also meant that fatigue was another problem that I regularly faced, and this contributed to the issues I had with trying to complete the work while attempting to stay motivated.
Effective time management was, for me, the key to completing the work on time to meet deadlines, whilst keeping my mental health in check, as far as possible. The way I managed things was to keep a diary of all of my assignments, the dates they were set (or going to be set), and their due dates. I tried to complete shorter pieces of work the day they were set or in the following days, and I allowed myself more time to do longer assignments. For pieces of work which had longer deadlines, I tried to make sure I did a bit of work on them everyday, to give myself plenty of time to finish them and also prevent myself from becoming overwhelmed.
Another, quite obvious but important point to make is to take breaks from the work as well. I know everybody says this, but it’s surprising how little time you may actually have to relax. If you’re engrossed in the work and are happy getting on with it, then that’s brilliant! But if you’re struggling to get started or feel too tired to work, then it’s probably best to take a break and do something that you enjoy instead. I really can’t stress this point enough, especially if you’re feeling a bit down or stressed in general, like I was (and probably will again soon!)
I hope that answers your question, I feel as though I might’ve gone off on a tangent and don’t want this to turn into a blog post in itself
Managing the work as well as my mental wellbeing was definitely a challenge, made more difficult I think by the increased level of independent study required. Feeling down and somewhat anxious a lot of the time obviously made it harder to focus and generate the enthusiasm to get the work done. The difference in timetable structure (e.g. having classes until 5pm compared to 4pm at sixth form), also meant that fatigue was another problem that I regularly faced, and this contributed to the issues I had with trying to complete the work while attempting to stay motivated.
Effective time management was, for me, the key to completing the work on time to meet deadlines, whilst keeping my mental health in check, as far as possible. The way I managed things was to keep a diary of all of my assignments, the dates they were set (or going to be set), and their due dates. I tried to complete shorter pieces of work the day they were set or in the following days, and I allowed myself more time to do longer assignments. For pieces of work which had longer deadlines, I tried to make sure I did a bit of work on them everyday, to give myself plenty of time to finish them and also prevent myself from becoming overwhelmed.
Another, quite obvious but important point to make is to take breaks from the work as well. I know everybody says this, but it’s surprising how little time you may actually have to relax. If you’re engrossed in the work and are happy getting on with it, then that’s brilliant! But if you’re struggling to get started or feel too tired to work, then it’s probably best to take a break and do something that you enjoy instead. I really can’t stress this point enough, especially if you’re feeling a bit down or stressed in general, like I was (and probably will again soon!)
I hope that answers your question, I feel as though I might’ve gone off on a tangent and don’t want this to turn into a blog post in itself
I certainly don't about your blog posts
I see, was it something you found difficult to do at sixth form too then? I am finding it a little difficult now
That's very fair enough
I do like what you did there in order to maintain your time management! I'll have to do something similar and I think with the homework I have for the summer, I may have to apply it to that too
That's very true! As you do say, it is easy to forget and i am a member of the group that either does no work or gets too into it and forgets breaks
Do you feel that maybe planning when you'll do work and when you take breaks would be a good way of dealing with that issue? Aww it's all part of the jounrey I suppose and that's very good advice
Haha it did answer my question and gave me a little bit extra too
but it was all very useful to know for the future That's true
Hi guys! I realise that I haven’t posted here in nearly a year despite saying I would be reviving the blog, and I apologise for that - I’ve been so focused on my degree, and I guess there hasn’t really been anything worth mentioning going on in that time.
Recently though I went on a field trip to the Western USA, where we visited 5 states over 2 weeks to put together a story of the geology there. In keeping with themes of my previous blog posts, I thought I’d write a summary of the trip to give you an idea of what I got up to.
The trip didn’t get off to a great start. Whilst the first flight from Manchester to Chicago went without a hitch, things rapidly went downhill once we’d disembarked. Despite arriving earlier than scheduled, bad weather prior to our arrival meant that delayed planes were now arriving in quick succession to make up for the lost time, and we found ourselves at the back of a ridiculously long queue to get through customs. Because the airport were trying to switch to an electronic system, we were told to use the electronic machines rather than go to the manned desks. Unfortunately, the machines weren’t accepting anyone’s passports, so everybody then had to join another even longer queue for the manned stations.
It took an eternity to get through customs, and by the time I made it through, half of our field course group had already claimed their baggage and made their way to the next terminal. At that point, we had about fifteen minutes before our connecting flight to Las Vegas was scheduled to leave, and panic set in. The small group of us remaining became separated in the chaos, leaving me and one other coursemate to find the terminal on our own. We made it to the terminal with ten minutes to go before the flight, but inevitably were directed to join another long, slow-moving queue to get through security screening. By that point we had accepted we were most likely going to miss the flight. After we got through security and joined the rest of the group, they told us that half of the group had made the flight, but we had been left behind.
Fortunately, one of the lecturers organising the trip was also late for the flight, so we got into another queue with him to schedule a new one. Unfortunately though, more bad weather had led to the cancellation of about 600 flights to and from Chicago, all on that day. So not only did we miss our flight, but hundreds of other people had also missed out on theirs and were also trying to reschedule flights at the same time. In total, we waited in the queue for about 2.5 hours, and after a lot of negotiation it was realised that we would have to spend the night at the airport. No flights were available until the next day, and all local hotels were fully booked with passengers whose flights had been cancelled.
After obtaining new boarding passes, we wearily made our way back through security once again, and set about looking for somewhere to sleep. An airport staff member told us that they were handing out beds and bedding in terminal 2, so that’s where we headed. Chicago airport was enormous, and we had to walk for about fifteen minutes before we arrived in terminal 2. Eventually we found the bad weather shelter, where blankets and pillows were being given out to other stranded travellers. After collecting a pillow and blanket each (no beds were available by then as it was getting late), we started the long walk back to terminal 3. It took a long time to find a relatively quiet corner of the airport; since it was open 24 hours, there were constantly people, floor scrubbers and golf cart things going past. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night. In addition to the noise inside the terminal, the periodic rumblings of planes taking off rattled the floor and made any attempts to fall asleep impossible.
The new flight schedule wasn’t ideal: in order to leave the airport on the same day, our little group of 10 had to be split into two groups of five. I was in the first group, which was due to fly at about half past 12, whereas the other group was allocated a 5.30pm flight. Without going into detail on the further chaos that followed, the group I was in rejoined the rest of the field course that evening, but the second flight group didn’t catch up with us until the day after.
The first day of the trip was by far the hottest temperature-wise. We started off in Death Valley National Park at a place called the Mesquite Dunes, which I’m told was where some scenes of Star Wars were filmed. We arrived there at about 9am, by which time the temperature had already climbed to about 40 degrees C, reaching 47 degrees during the early afternoon. Other Death Valley localities we visited included Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the US, and Furnace Creek, where we stopped for lunch.
In addition to Death Valley, we visited several other places of note, including the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Dead Horse Point, Arches National Park and Canyonlands (though I missed that day), travelling through California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah along the way. Our main feature of study was the Paradox Basin, Utah, where we stayed in a touristy town called Moab for four or five days. I’ve uploaded a photo album from the trip on my profile, if you’re interested in seeing some of the places I’ve mentioned
That sums up the trip really, it mainly involved travelling by car and stopping at various places along the way. Of course, it wasn’t a holiday, assessed work on the trip accounted for 40% of one of our second year modules. Even though the trip was stressful, and mentally and physically challenging, I am glad that I went. At the time I felt homesick and didn’t want to be there, but having completed the trip, I’m happy I did. We got to see a lot of cool places, and I believe it helped my confidence.
I’ve got one final residential trip to go now, which will be to the Isle of Mull in third year. Let’s hope that one will be a bit more organised
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as always let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I hope I can get round to doing more frequent posts, but we'll see
Recently though I went on a field trip to the Western USA, where we visited 5 states over 2 weeks to put together a story of the geology there. In keeping with themes of my previous blog posts, I thought I’d write a summary of the trip to give you an idea of what I got up to.
The trip didn’t get off to a great start. Whilst the first flight from Manchester to Chicago went without a hitch, things rapidly went downhill once we’d disembarked. Despite arriving earlier than scheduled, bad weather prior to our arrival meant that delayed planes were now arriving in quick succession to make up for the lost time, and we found ourselves at the back of a ridiculously long queue to get through customs. Because the airport were trying to switch to an electronic system, we were told to use the electronic machines rather than go to the manned desks. Unfortunately, the machines weren’t accepting anyone’s passports, so everybody then had to join another even longer queue for the manned stations.
It took an eternity to get through customs, and by the time I made it through, half of our field course group had already claimed their baggage and made their way to the next terminal. At that point, we had about fifteen minutes before our connecting flight to Las Vegas was scheduled to leave, and panic set in. The small group of us remaining became separated in the chaos, leaving me and one other coursemate to find the terminal on our own. We made it to the terminal with ten minutes to go before the flight, but inevitably were directed to join another long, slow-moving queue to get through security screening. By that point we had accepted we were most likely going to miss the flight. After we got through security and joined the rest of the group, they told us that half of the group had made the flight, but we had been left behind.
Fortunately, one of the lecturers organising the trip was also late for the flight, so we got into another queue with him to schedule a new one. Unfortunately though, more bad weather had led to the cancellation of about 600 flights to and from Chicago, all on that day. So not only did we miss our flight, but hundreds of other people had also missed out on theirs and were also trying to reschedule flights at the same time. In total, we waited in the queue for about 2.5 hours, and after a lot of negotiation it was realised that we would have to spend the night at the airport. No flights were available until the next day, and all local hotels were fully booked with passengers whose flights had been cancelled.
After obtaining new boarding passes, we wearily made our way back through security once again, and set about looking for somewhere to sleep. An airport staff member told us that they were handing out beds and bedding in terminal 2, so that’s where we headed. Chicago airport was enormous, and we had to walk for about fifteen minutes before we arrived in terminal 2. Eventually we found the bad weather shelter, where blankets and pillows were being given out to other stranded travellers. After collecting a pillow and blanket each (no beds were available by then as it was getting late), we started the long walk back to terminal 3. It took a long time to find a relatively quiet corner of the airport; since it was open 24 hours, there were constantly people, floor scrubbers and golf cart things going past. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night. In addition to the noise inside the terminal, the periodic rumblings of planes taking off rattled the floor and made any attempts to fall asleep impossible.
The new flight schedule wasn’t ideal: in order to leave the airport on the same day, our little group of 10 had to be split into two groups of five. I was in the first group, which was due to fly at about half past 12, whereas the other group was allocated a 5.30pm flight. Without going into detail on the further chaos that followed, the group I was in rejoined the rest of the field course that evening, but the second flight group didn’t catch up with us until the day after.
The first day of the trip was by far the hottest temperature-wise. We started off in Death Valley National Park at a place called the Mesquite Dunes, which I’m told was where some scenes of Star Wars were filmed. We arrived there at about 9am, by which time the temperature had already climbed to about 40 degrees C, reaching 47 degrees during the early afternoon. Other Death Valley localities we visited included Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the US, and Furnace Creek, where we stopped for lunch.
In addition to Death Valley, we visited several other places of note, including the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Dead Horse Point, Arches National Park and Canyonlands (though I missed that day), travelling through California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah along the way. Our main feature of study was the Paradox Basin, Utah, where we stayed in a touristy town called Moab for four or five days. I’ve uploaded a photo album from the trip on my profile, if you’re interested in seeing some of the places I’ve mentioned
That sums up the trip really, it mainly involved travelling by car and stopping at various places along the way. Of course, it wasn’t a holiday, assessed work on the trip accounted for 40% of one of our second year modules. Even though the trip was stressful, and mentally and physically challenging, I am glad that I went. At the time I felt homesick and didn’t want to be there, but having completed the trip, I’m happy I did. We got to see a lot of cool places, and I believe it helped my confidence.
I’ve got one final residential trip to go now, which will be to the Isle of Mull in third year. Let’s hope that one will be a bit more organised
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as always let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I hope I can get round to doing more frequent posts, but we'll see
Spoiler
Oh my goodness, what an absolute nightmare journey! Well done for getting through it though, the actual fieldwork sounds amazing. Do you have any photos?
Original post by Plagioclase
Oh my goodness, what an absolute nightmare journey! Well done for getting through it though, the actual fieldwork sounds amazing. Do you have any photos?
A nightmare is a good description
Yes! I've uploaded an album of photos on my TSR profile
Original post by Leviathan1741
A nightmare is a good description
Yes! I've uploaded an album of photos on my TSR profile
Yes! I've uploaded an album of photos on my TSR profile
Looks stunning! Lovely big fold there in Red Mountain. You didn't go via Mono Lake, did you?
Original post by Leviathan1741
Hi guys! I realise that I haven’t posted here in nearly a year despite saying I would be reviving the blog, and I apologise for that - I’ve been so focused on my degree, and I guess there hasn’t really been anything worth mentioning going on in that time.
Recently though I went on a field trip to the Western USA, where we visited 5 states over 2 weeks to put together a story of the geology there. In keeping with themes of my previous blog posts, I thought I’d write a summary of the trip to give you an idea of what I got up to.
The trip didn’t get off to a great start. Whilst the first flight from Manchester to Chicago went without a hitch, things rapidly went downhill once we’d disembarked. Despite arriving earlier than scheduled, bad weather prior to our arrival meant that delayed planes were now arriving in quick succession to make up for the lost time, and we found ourselves at the back of a ridiculously long queue to get through customs. Because the airport were trying to switch to an electronic system, we were told to use the electronic machines rather than go to the manned desks. Unfortunately, the machines weren’t accepting anyone’s passports, so everybody then had to join another even longer queue for the manned stations.
It took an eternity to get through customs, and by the time I made it through, half of our field course group had already claimed their baggage and made their way to the next terminal. At that point, we had about fifteen minutes before our connecting flight to Las Vegas was scheduled to leave, and panic set in. The small group of us remaining became separated in the chaos, leaving me and one other coursemate to find the terminal on our own. We made it to the terminal with ten minutes to go before the flight, but inevitably were directed to join another long, slow-moving queue to get through security screening. By that point we had accepted we were most likely going to miss the flight. After we got through security and joined the rest of the group, they told us that half of the group had made the flight, but we had been left behind.
Fortunately, one of the lecturers organising the trip was also late for the flight, so we got into another queue with him to schedule a new one. Unfortunately though, more bad weather had led to the cancellation of about 600 flights to and from Chicago, all on that day. So not only did we miss our flight, but hundreds of other people had also missed out on theirs and were also trying to reschedule flights at the same time. In total, we waited in the queue for about 2.5 hours, and after a lot of negotiation it was realised that we would have to spend the night at the airport. No flights were available until the next day, and all local hotels were fully booked with passengers whose flights had been cancelled.
After obtaining new boarding passes, we wearily made our way back through security once again, and set about looking for somewhere to sleep. An airport staff member told us that they were handing out beds and bedding in terminal 2, so that’s where we headed. Chicago airport was enormous, and we had to walk for about fifteen minutes before we arrived in terminal 2. Eventually we found the bad weather shelter, where blankets and pillows were being given out to other stranded travellers. After collecting a pillow and blanket each (no beds were available by then as it was getting late), we started the long walk back to terminal 3. It took a long time to find a relatively quiet corner of the airport; since it was open 24 hours, there were constantly people, floor scrubbers and golf cart things going past. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night. In addition to the noise inside the terminal, the periodic rumblings of planes taking off rattled the floor and made any attempts to fall asleep impossible.
The new flight schedule wasn’t ideal: in order to leave the airport on the same day, our little group of 10 had to be split into two groups of five. I was in the first group, which was due to fly at about half past 12, whereas the other group was allocated a 5.30pm flight. Without going into detail on the further chaos that followed, the group I was in rejoined the rest of the field course that evening, but the second flight group didn’t catch up with us until the day after.
The first day of the trip was by far the hottest temperature-wise. We started off in Death Valley National Park at a place called the Mesquite Dunes, which I’m told was where some scenes of Star Wars were filmed. We arrived there at about 9am, by which time the temperature had already climbed to about 40 degrees C, reaching 47 degrees during the early afternoon. Other Death Valley localities we visited included Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the US, and Furnace Creek, where we stopped for lunch.
In addition to Death Valley, we visited several other places of note, including the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Dead Horse Point, Arches National Park and Canyonlands (though I missed that day), travelling through California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah along the way. Our main feature of study was the Paradox Basin, Utah, where we stayed in a touristy town called Moab for four or five days. I’ve uploaded a photo album from the trip on my profile, if you’re interested in seeing some of the places I’ve mentioned
That sums up the trip really, it mainly involved travelling by car and stopping at various places along the way. Of course, it wasn’t a holiday, assessed work on the trip accounted for 40% of one of our second year modules. Even though the trip was stressful, and mentally and physically challenging, I am glad that I went. At the time I felt homesick and didn’t want to be there, but having completed the trip, I’m happy I did. We got to see a lot of cool places, and I believe it helped my confidence.
I’ve got one final residential trip to go now, which will be to the Isle of Mull in third year. Let’s hope that one will be a bit more organised
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as always let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I hope I can get round to doing more frequent posts, but we'll see
Recently though I went on a field trip to the Western USA, where we visited 5 states over 2 weeks to put together a story of the geology there. In keeping with themes of my previous blog posts, I thought I’d write a summary of the trip to give you an idea of what I got up to.
The trip didn’t get off to a great start. Whilst the first flight from Manchester to Chicago went without a hitch, things rapidly went downhill once we’d disembarked. Despite arriving earlier than scheduled, bad weather prior to our arrival meant that delayed planes were now arriving in quick succession to make up for the lost time, and we found ourselves at the back of a ridiculously long queue to get through customs. Because the airport were trying to switch to an electronic system, we were told to use the electronic machines rather than go to the manned desks. Unfortunately, the machines weren’t accepting anyone’s passports, so everybody then had to join another even longer queue for the manned stations.
It took an eternity to get through customs, and by the time I made it through, half of our field course group had already claimed their baggage and made their way to the next terminal. At that point, we had about fifteen minutes before our connecting flight to Las Vegas was scheduled to leave, and panic set in. The small group of us remaining became separated in the chaos, leaving me and one other coursemate to find the terminal on our own. We made it to the terminal with ten minutes to go before the flight, but inevitably were directed to join another long, slow-moving queue to get through security screening. By that point we had accepted we were most likely going to miss the flight. After we got through security and joined the rest of the group, they told us that half of the group had made the flight, but we had been left behind.
Fortunately, one of the lecturers organising the trip was also late for the flight, so we got into another queue with him to schedule a new one. Unfortunately though, more bad weather had led to the cancellation of about 600 flights to and from Chicago, all on that day. So not only did we miss our flight, but hundreds of other people had also missed out on theirs and were also trying to reschedule flights at the same time. In total, we waited in the queue for about 2.5 hours, and after a lot of negotiation it was realised that we would have to spend the night at the airport. No flights were available until the next day, and all local hotels were fully booked with passengers whose flights had been cancelled.
After obtaining new boarding passes, we wearily made our way back through security once again, and set about looking for somewhere to sleep. An airport staff member told us that they were handing out beds and bedding in terminal 2, so that’s where we headed. Chicago airport was enormous, and we had to walk for about fifteen minutes before we arrived in terminal 2. Eventually we found the bad weather shelter, where blankets and pillows were being given out to other stranded travellers. After collecting a pillow and blanket each (no beds were available by then as it was getting late), we started the long walk back to terminal 3. It took a long time to find a relatively quiet corner of the airport; since it was open 24 hours, there were constantly people, floor scrubbers and golf cart things going past. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night. In addition to the noise inside the terminal, the periodic rumblings of planes taking off rattled the floor and made any attempts to fall asleep impossible.
The new flight schedule wasn’t ideal: in order to leave the airport on the same day, our little group of 10 had to be split into two groups of five. I was in the first group, which was due to fly at about half past 12, whereas the other group was allocated a 5.30pm flight. Without going into detail on the further chaos that followed, the group I was in rejoined the rest of the field course that evening, but the second flight group didn’t catch up with us until the day after.
The first day of the trip was by far the hottest temperature-wise. We started off in Death Valley National Park at a place called the Mesquite Dunes, which I’m told was where some scenes of Star Wars were filmed. We arrived there at about 9am, by which time the temperature had already climbed to about 40 degrees C, reaching 47 degrees during the early afternoon. Other Death Valley localities we visited included Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the US, and Furnace Creek, where we stopped for lunch.
In addition to Death Valley, we visited several other places of note, including the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Dead Horse Point, Arches National Park and Canyonlands (though I missed that day), travelling through California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah along the way. Our main feature of study was the Paradox Basin, Utah, where we stayed in a touristy town called Moab for four or five days. I’ve uploaded a photo album from the trip on my profile, if you’re interested in seeing some of the places I’ve mentioned
That sums up the trip really, it mainly involved travelling by car and stopping at various places along the way. Of course, it wasn’t a holiday, assessed work on the trip accounted for 40% of one of our second year modules. Even though the trip was stressful, and mentally and physically challenging, I am glad that I went. At the time I felt homesick and didn’t want to be there, but having completed the trip, I’m happy I did. We got to see a lot of cool places, and I believe it helped my confidence.
I’ve got one final residential trip to go now, which will be to the Isle of Mull in third year. Let’s hope that one will be a bit more organised
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as always let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I hope I can get round to doing more frequent posts, but we'll see
Spoiler
WOW that sounds an amazing journey and adventure
yes it had it's difficulties but it's better than my summer. Hope you enjoyed, wish I'd had itOriginal post by Plagioclase
Looks stunning! Lovely big fold there in Red Mountain. You didn't go via Mono Lake, did you?
Sadly not, we didn't spend long in California and went straight from Las Vegas to Death Valley to Boulder City. I would've liked to see it though
Original post by Leviathan1741
Asperger’s Syndrome (part 1)
As you may have gathered from my initial post, I have Asperger’s syndrome (AS). This is a condition on the autistic spectrum which primarily affects the way that people think, behave and perceive the world around them. Characteristics of AS include (but are by no means limited to!) repetitive behaviours, difficulty with social interaction, clumsiness, a dislike of change, and sensitivity to things such as lights and sounds. Put simply, Asperger’s is essentially just ‘a different way of thinking’. Asperger’s syndrome affects each person in a slightly different way, so no two ‘Aspies’, as people with Asperger’s are sometimes called, are the same.
I was first diagnosed with AS when I was around 12 years old. Even though I had felt a bit different to my peers throughout my entire life without knowing why, the diagnosis still came as a shock to me, and it took a while for the news to fully sink in. People can experience a wide variety of reactions after being diagnosed with AS, including relief, happiness, sadness, anger or even denial. Personally, I felt quite relieved, because I finally knew why I felt different to the people around me. On the other hand though, I was somewhat upset by the diagnosis, because I didn’t want to be different, and there is no cure for AS. I experienced mild depression for a while after my diagnosis, but once I researched exactly what AS was and how I could help myself to overcome some of the challenges it created, I realised it wasn’t actually as bad as I thought!
For me, my AS mainly causes problems with social interaction and sensory stimuli such as bright lights and loud noises. I have several issues when it comes to social interaction, for example, I struggle to make and maintain eye contact with whomever I am speaking to. I also have difficulty differentiating background noise, so I find it hard to hear people in noisy environments, such as a classroom with other people chatting, or a shop where music is being played. Additionally, I have a lot of trouble interpreting things such as facial expressions and body language. While these things come naturally to many people, the majority of Aspies, myself included, have difficulty understanding them. Bright lights and loud noises in particular cause problems for me, along with strong smells and vibrations (if I go to a concert for example).
Another prominent area where difficulties present themselves is with change. Change, especially when it is unexpected, is something that I used to struggle with a lot (I still dislike it, but I am better able to deal with it nowadays). Most, if not all, Aspies like to have routine, and doing things in a particular order is often a fundamental aspect of life. As well as having set routines, many Aspies also like to know what’s happening in advance, and greatly dislike surprises. I certainly don’t like them, I like to be able to plan and prepare for things beforehand!
I hope this post has given you at least some insight into Asperger’s syndrome. I personally believe that conditions such as Asperger’s aren’t understood as well as they should be, and I really want to change that with this blog. I will make another post about Asperger’s soon; as there are a few more things that I’d like to talk about (this post is longer than I'd intended already!).
Thank you all for reading! If you have any feedback for me, please let me know as I'd love to hear it!
As you may have gathered from my initial post, I have Asperger’s syndrome (AS). This is a condition on the autistic spectrum which primarily affects the way that people think, behave and perceive the world around them. Characteristics of AS include (but are by no means limited to!) repetitive behaviours, difficulty with social interaction, clumsiness, a dislike of change, and sensitivity to things such as lights and sounds. Put simply, Asperger’s is essentially just ‘a different way of thinking’. Asperger’s syndrome affects each person in a slightly different way, so no two ‘Aspies’, as people with Asperger’s are sometimes called, are the same.
I was first diagnosed with AS when I was around 12 years old. Even though I had felt a bit different to my peers throughout my entire life without knowing why, the diagnosis still came as a shock to me, and it took a while for the news to fully sink in. People can experience a wide variety of reactions after being diagnosed with AS, including relief, happiness, sadness, anger or even denial. Personally, I felt quite relieved, because I finally knew why I felt different to the people around me. On the other hand though, I was somewhat upset by the diagnosis, because I didn’t want to be different, and there is no cure for AS. I experienced mild depression for a while after my diagnosis, but once I researched exactly what AS was and how I could help myself to overcome some of the challenges it created, I realised it wasn’t actually as bad as I thought!
For me, my AS mainly causes problems with social interaction and sensory stimuli such as bright lights and loud noises. I have several issues when it comes to social interaction, for example, I struggle to make and maintain eye contact with whomever I am speaking to. I also have difficulty differentiating background noise, so I find it hard to hear people in noisy environments, such as a classroom with other people chatting, or a shop where music is being played. Additionally, I have a lot of trouble interpreting things such as facial expressions and body language. While these things come naturally to many people, the majority of Aspies, myself included, have difficulty understanding them. Bright lights and loud noises in particular cause problems for me, along with strong smells and vibrations (if I go to a concert for example).
Another prominent area where difficulties present themselves is with change. Change, especially when it is unexpected, is something that I used to struggle with a lot (I still dislike it, but I am better able to deal with it nowadays). Most, if not all, Aspies like to have routine, and doing things in a particular order is often a fundamental aspect of life. As well as having set routines, many Aspies also like to know what’s happening in advance, and greatly dislike surprises. I certainly don’t like them, I like to be able to plan and prepare for things beforehand!
I hope this post has given you at least some insight into Asperger’s syndrome. I personally believe that conditions such as Asperger’s aren’t understood as well as they should be, and I really want to change that with this blog. I will make another post about Asperger’s soon; as there are a few more things that I’d like to talk about (this post is longer than I'd intended already!).
Thank you all for reading! If you have any feedback for me, please let me know as I'd love to hear it!
Spoiler
My shrink things I have Asperger's syndrome. I'm being tested at the moment.
I want to be a doctor but I have social anxiety. Please tell me how you manage the social difficulties you face .
Original post by Taurus5
WOW that sounds an amazing journey and adventure yes it had it's difficulties but it's better than my summer. Hope you enjoyed, wish I'd had it
yes it had it's difficulties but it's better than my summer. Hope you enjoyed, wish I'd had itIt was a great experience for sure. I just wish I hadn't been so exhausted from the beginning after the night at the airport, that way I could've appreciated it more
Original post by Mad Man
My shrink things I have Asperger's syndrome. I'm being tested at the moment.
I want to be a doctor but I have social anxiety. Please tell me how you manage the social difficulties you face .
I want to be a doctor but I have social anxiety. Please tell me how you manage the social difficulties you face .
My feeling is that my social difficulties have become less noticeable as I've gotten older and had more experiences. For example, on my recent trip to America I had to go to places like restaurants and supermarkets to make sure I had enough to eat, which in the past I couldn't face going into. Doing the things that made me uncomfortable was difficult at first, but getting used to the people, lights etc over several visits made it easier.
Things like eye contact have become easier over time as well. What helps me is trying to look at people's lips whilst they are talking to me and glancing up to make eye contact now and then. I have trouble filtering out background noise, and trying to lip read helps me understand and keep track of what they are saying.
Overall I think trying to expose yourself more to situations that you find difficult is the best way to overcome these challenges. Practising different social situations with friends or family members that you trust is also valuable, I had to do this when trying to overcome my anxiety around shopping
Original post by Leviathan1741
My feeling is that my social difficulties have become less noticeable as I've gotten older and had more experiences. For example, on my recent trip to America I had to go to places like restaurants and supermarkets to make sure I had enough to eat, which in the past I couldn't face going into. Doing the things that made me uncomfortable was difficult at first, but getting used to the people, lights etc over several visits made it easier.
Things like eye contact have become easier over time as well. What helps me is trying to look at people's lips whilst they are talking to me and glancing up to make eye contact now and then. I have trouble filtering out background noise, and trying to lip read helps me understand and keep track of what they are saying.
Overall I think trying to expose yourself more to situations that you find difficult is the best way to overcome these challenges. Practising different social situations with friends or family members that you trust is also valuable, I had to do this when trying to overcome my anxiety around shopping
Things like eye contact have become easier over time as well. What helps me is trying to look at people's lips whilst they are talking to me and glancing up to make eye contact now and then. I have trouble filtering out background noise, and trying to lip read helps me understand and keep track of what they are saying.
Overall I think trying to expose yourself more to situations that you find difficult is the best way to overcome these challenges. Practising different social situations with friends or family members that you trust is also valuable, I had to do this when trying to overcome my anxiety around shopping
Thanks. Please note thar I may not have Asperegers and I find it truly inspiring that you have overcome your difficulties.
Original post by Mad Man
Thanks. Please note thar I may not have Asperegers and I find it truly inspiring that you have overcome your difficulties.
Thank you!
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