Want in on six simple life-hacks to get the most out of your time studying in Ireland? Our Student Ambassador Soumily Mallick from India gives us the low-down.

Being a student, I was very excited to come to Ireland to study; experience new culture, roam around, share happy selfies with friends and family, talk to strangers and just have fun in general! These cloud-nine moments last for the initial few months and then BOOM!! The reality of back-to-back assignments, exams and responsibilities of living alone— cooking, taking care of yourself and managing expenses, hit us all at once. On top of this, this year, we were faced with our little friend Covid-19 which changed everything.

In this blog, I am going to share six ways to keep yourself motivated and sane during your studies abroad so that you get to keep that cloud-nine feeling alive throughout the journey.

1. Does the ever-changing weather makes you lazy and feel like you don’t want to get out of bed?
Don’t let the weather trick you or you will end up spending the rest of your time in Ireland inside. Just get up, get dressed and get going on your plans for the day.

2. Pace yourself or you might get caught in a never-ending cycle!
You know the saying ‘too much of anything is bad’, right? Well, you too should hold this as a rule for life! At the end of the day, you are here to study so make that your main priority. Keep on top of your workload so that in your free time and over the weekends you can meet up with your favourite people for an alfresco cup of coffee and a muffin without the guilt.

3. Your chat with the stranger in the coffee shop didn’t go as well as you thought it would?
Don’t go judging and stereotyping the entire place and its amazing people based on something unfortunate that just happened. Remember this world is huge and everything that happens leaves a lesson behind so take it positively.

4. Procrastinating work on pending essays with excuses?

I like to keep on top of things by writing it all down, it makes completing tasks fun!

5. All my friends are working part-time and it seems like I will never
find a job…
Relax! Take things step-by-step, don’t jump into looking for a part-time job right after landing. Take your time, everyone has their own journey to travel. Perhaps your dream job will knock on your door if you study properly and do valuable networking. Get to know the place, the people and the environment first— the right opportunity will come in time.

6. Haven’t got any international friends yet? 

Don’t worry, friends will come in due course…

And if all else fails, how do I keep myself sane?

With Friends I can rely on…

Have faith in yourself and you can thank me later 😛

Soumily Mallick, who is from India, is doing a Master’s of Science in Supply Chain Management at the Institute of Technology Carlow.