A new academic year!

Hello everyone!

Starting a new year at uni is always very exciting – whether it’s the excitement of catching up with friends after summer, being a year closer to graduating, or reliving fresher’s week all over again!

But it is also important to look back and reflect at the end of each year about what went well and what did not. I like to call these as my “pits and peaks”, and every year my friends and I go for an end-of-year meal and discuss our pits and peaks, and what we learned from them.

Looking back, I’d like to say that my year went fairly well – I had a lot of trips to the Norfolk beaches coupled with many country pub lunches with my friends (it was my first-time swimming in the cold British waters!) and I was also able to get involved with the Surgical Society at UEA to organise a National Surgical Conference! I got to learn so much more about UEA with my role here at the International Office, and I loved each bit of my involvement. It is very rewarding to be able to work with and for the University that has made my last 3 years away from home so comfortable and exciting. In fact, I realised coming back for my fourth year, that Norwich has become synonymous with home, and it is my experience at UEA, and my friends that make it so.

With that said, I did have quite a few pits as well. Last year was academically very challenging, and even though I loved being part of so many different events, conferences, and societies – I struggled a lot with juggling it all. The time – management demon comes to trouble everyone at some point in their university life, and I suppose there’s no set way around it! I was lucky to have a good support network in both my friends and advisors at UEA who helped me navigate my jam-packed year.

I am excited to see what is in store for the next year, and to add another set of pits and peaks to my list!

-          Roshni Bahri, Indian Ambassador.