Reading

These days I’m really into self-improvement or non-fiction books relating to human psychology, self-care books around mental health and wellbeing, personal finance, activism (intersectional feminism, antiracism etc) and job-hunting books. I’ve started to read these kinds of books because I realized that reading could help me to have a better understanding of the ‘real world’ and my career pathway. I also find it useful to reflect back on the kind of readings I do and how it helps to shapes my world view and my values and beliefs that I would like to live by, so that I can find a more meaning and happiness in my personal and work life.

Sports

Rather than hitting the gym, I prefer playing sports such as netball and badminton which I’ve played since I was young. So, at the first opportunity I joined the Pendle College Netball and the Lancaster University Malaysian Student Society (LUMSS). They used to have regular netball and badminton session where the seniors and freshers get to play together and get to know one another. Despite my many slippery falls on the netball court and losing my shoe in the middle of the game – of course being the competitive person that I am, I still managed to play on – I not only met a lot of great netball players but I also got to befriend a lot of them as we worked together as a team.

Drawing & Calligraphy

Art therapy in any form is a great way to de-stress and clear your mind whether it is drawing or sketching something. Recently, I’ve become interested in calligraphy and honestly, who doesn’t love reading some positive affirmations with aesthetically beautiful handwriting to keep yourself motivated through the hard times?

Academic rep

Being an Academic Rep gave me the opportunity to make some real changes in our Media and Cultural Studies module whether it is to give people longer extension or staggered deadlines for assignments during the pandemic where students’ mental health and wellbeing were our top priority. This helped students like me to manage the workload more effectively as we all learned to swiftly adapt to online learning. I also enjoyed attending departmental meeting with lecturers and staff as I’m one of the few students who gets an early glimpse of some of the interesting proposed undergraduate and postgraduate modules for prospective students.

Societies

What’s a university life without joining a few societies along the way?

One of the societies I joined during my 1st and 2nd years was the Film Production Society where I got the chance to be one of the editors for one of their Short Shorts Film called ‘Reflections’. Another was LA1TV where I helped to set up the sound and camera equipment for LUSU 2020 Annual General Meeting. I was most active in the Malaysian Society (LUMSS) as I was not only a regular member, but I was elected as their Media Officer and when it came to planning and managing the events it’s ‘all hands on deck’ for everyone. Despite the chaos and various obstacles, I have always enjoyed seeing the satisfaction and happy smiles of our members to keep me going!

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Nurin is a third year undergraduate at Lancaster University and is studying Film, Media and Cultural Studies.

Lancaster University employs students to create authentic content from a student perspective. All views expressed in this article are those of the students, and do not necessarily reflect the views or position of Lancaster University.