Hey! So I'm 23, did my undergrad degree, did well, but I was hopelessly unhappy, depressed, and anxious. I'm physically disabled and experienced a long period of declining mental and physical health. So what did I do? I decided to take a gap year and go back to do my MA!
I really love my subject. That was a huge problem for me during my BA but I've come to terms with it and I am prepared academically and I really want to do it. Except for the social stuff...
I'm living in, moving away from my parents again, and most of my friends. But -- I'm scared.
I was going to go up next Monday - the beginning of Welcome Week (or so I thought). However, turns out that there's a postgrad mixer on the Sunday and I was considering whether to go up then. This triggered a lot of negative, anxious feelings around uni social life, but I can't tell if I'm projecting my bad experiences as an undergrad onto my potential postgraduate experience.
I am medicated for my anxiety and I have techniques for managing it, but I still don't find socialising easy, especially given the physical demands of any uni socialising which may involve a lot of moving around.
My more specific question when I opened this up was 'do you think I should go against my original plan, and go up early solely so I can go to one event? (which may be crap and would mean messing up some of my plans). How important is one social event?' Especially if a lot of the people you're studying with are doing PT or distance learning.
But as I've been writing this, I was thinking about the number of MNers who have surely done MAs and can lend a hand to me. Has anyone got any general social advice for a nervous postgraduate student to make friends, how uni events work, and/or how they differ from undergrad?
Thank you. Sorry I sound so neurotic. 