My Very First Lectures at Aston University

I can still vividly remember my very first week in Aston. I was so excited, hoping to perform good and show my best, ready for the adventure that was my first year. Or at least I thought so...

My very first lecture was - Introduction to Organisational Behaviour. Patrick, the lecturer, just mesmerized everyone in The Great Hall. I think from all my first year lecturers Patrick was the one that just always managed to pull out an actual show. People would sometimes applaud him after the lectures. So, to go back to my very first lecture. I stepped into the Great Hall expecting the worst. I had no idea what Organisational Behaviour is and I imagined the professors to be all serious and stern. Patrick started with introducing himself (as every lecturer) but it was not the usual introduction, it felt sincere, honest and really personal. As if we were out in a pub - me, my mates and Patrick and we were just telling each other crazy stories from when we were young (lets just say that). I left the lecture calm and relaxed, thinking that everything to follow was easy and fun. God, I was so gullible!

The Management came next, then the Economics, then the Accounting, the Marketing and they all just seemed so difficult and new. I had never ever discussed the subjects in school. I would comment on every lecture with my mates and we would all be like: 'That wasn't too bad...' or 'I liked it', or 'Piece of cake!'. Bloody hell, we were all so wrong. It turns out that you have to actually read after the lectures and prepare yourself for the next one, and write homework, and even do research. You can imagine that the longer it takes one to realize all that the harder it's going to be for him to cope with it. Well, we found that out in Week 3 when we had our first quiz in Financial Accounting. We all felt so unprepared and plain stupid. That is when we had to go back to the first lecture and catch up. We would have study groups which now seem like a total waste of time. We would call friends and previous teachers and even parents for help when all we needed to do was read and just absorb the material.

Still, there was one subject that I immensely liked from the very first lecture. That is - Quantitative Techniques. Oh, I still remember the first slide, it was on some material I had covered in school 5 years ago. I finally had a subject that I had an amazing advantage in. Yes, it was not very interesting, but I did not have to study at all. I never bought the Quantitative Techniques textbook and I still love the subject.

Just like that my first week was over, and then the next one... Today I feel like I just got into uni, not much wiser and not much smarter, just a boy on its way to real life. OK, well, maybe a bit smarter and just a very tiny bit wiser, and more prepared for what is to come.