Sheffield...And You

Sanita Jemberga, Latvia

So, how was it? Honestly, it was better than I expected. But do not read this as a PR exercise to persuade you to come here and study. The most important thing to remember is that the quality of the time you spent there is entirely dependent on yourself. Do not expect someone to come and make your life wonderful!

First of all, you have to establish why you want to come to Sheffield.

At the beginning, I was worried by the thought of living here: it was too different from the city I lived in Latvia. It turned out to be a rather enjoyable experience because of the people I met. Sounds rather stereotypical, but it is true. Firstly, the academic quality (at least in the Journalism Department where I am a student) is high. You meet the people from the journalism industry in the guest lectures (in other circumstances they would probably not pay any attention to you). You will have good academic teaching and tutors you can perceive as equals, not supervisors. Most importantly, some of your course mates will be cool. You will learn from them if you are open to ideas. You will save the time to read hundreds of history books or you will be able to reconstruct the reality from newspaper reports because you will have really wonderful people from around the world who can explain. I do not know whether it makes sense on paper - but in real life it does.

Part of you will be another person after that year. It is the second and greatest point. You will never have such an opportunity to know the people from all around the world. You will learn from them the things which will challenge your understanding about the respective states, and you will even change your tastes because of the foods you are eating! Britain is multi-cultural - you will experience it in every single thing.

But the most important ingredient is you. If you expect someone to invite you to enjoy the club, you´d better bury yourself now. The whole time depends on how active you are, how open you are to ideas and new friends. No one expects you to be a friend to everyone, the situation where everyone likes you (or not) is unimaginable. But some of those people will become your friends.

On the first day when you come here, you will feel lonely and miss a lot of things (home, friends, boyfriend, cat or dog, even climate) but, remember everyone feels the same! On the basis of loneliness, you can make another friendship.

And do not forget about the travelling! Even if your academic work is hard (and, believe me it will be), there is time to travel. I have been to Italy, Ireland, Scotland, and France (and I have some ideas where else to go). My friend asked when I study. I don´t know, but the marks are excellent. So, I believe it is a matter of balance.

So, in general, Sheffield is a good place. You can have a vibrant academic and personal life, good fun and great friends and a lot of experiences which will probably make you a better person, if you put in some effort.

Sanita Jemberga, Latvia