@Mom #1

Welcome to the first ever @Mom advice column! In this column, I will be consulting my many years-worth of life experience to answer your most burning questions.

So let’s get into it shall we?

“Make out with someone from EUC?”

Oh honey, we’ve all been there. Back in the good ol’ days when I was a first-year student, together with pretty much every other first year, I implemented a ‘no-EUC policy’. The reasoning behind this decision makes a lot of sense but in all honesty, we’re bound to get to a point where we simply don’t care anymore. Especially not after enjoying some adult beverages.

Of course, you don’t want everyone to know what (or who) you’ve been doing. In all honesty, yes, everyone will know, but no one will care. A second reason for abstaining from the ol’ canoodling is that you probably want to avoid awkward situations when you walk into this person later. For some reason, however, you always end up having at least one PBL with them the next quad, but it’s never as bad as you expect it to be.

If you decide not to do it, I completely understand, but just make sure you don’t restrict yourself. You’re young, you’re a student, you’re allowed to do stupid stuff and have fun. As long as you are certain that you are not hurting anybody, I don’t see why you should rule out hundreds of oh so convenient options, simply because you might unwillingly bump into them.

And even though you youngsters are probably not thinking about it right now, of higher educated people in the Netherlands, approximately 14% meet their partner at University. So chances are, that on your wedding day, you will be saying thank you, not only to God, but to Jägerbombs… and to mom, for telling you to ho around a lil’.

“Is it bad to take four years instead of three?”

You sweet, sweet EUC students are under a lot of pressure. Next to the high workload, you’re under the pressure of keeping up the reputation of ‘party-UC’, whilst participating in extra-curriculars as well as finding time to spend on your own hobbies and writing for thebrokenprinter dot com. We have seen that it is definitely do-able, however, it causes a lot of stress. To me, the workload combined with the stress seems like the perfect recipe for the occasional breakdown that you won’t have time for.

Of course, you would prefer to be done in three years but it’s not a problem if you choose to do an extra year. A fourth year would allow you to spend more time on your passions outside of EUC, take some extra courses outside of your major and maybe even go on exchange as well as do a minor.

Before deciding, make sure you know exactly why you want to get study delay and what your options are. Also, have a chat with your student counselor about your study plan.

University is a time you should be enjoying. If you’re spending the very large majority of it stressed, you will be a lot happier if you were to lighten the workload a little. If university is considered to be the best time of your life, a fourth year doesn’t sound bad at all, it sounds like a blessing. Don’t feel bad about getting study delay. You’ve gotten all of your EC’s in your first year, something you cannot say about many students in the Netherlands. Just make sure you ask your mama if she’s okay with paying the extra tuition.

“How do you eat healthy on a student budget?”

I could bore you with the regular ‘buy in bulk’-stuff, and actually, I will. If any of your favourite healthy foods are on offer, buy a lot of it. If it’s a product that you can’t keep for very long, do some meal-prep and freeze it. Not only your bank account will thank you, but your tired future self as well as they will just have to pop it in the microwave.

A second tip, though it might not sound as healthy, frozen vegetables are great. They are much cheaper than fresh vegetables and you can store them for a longer time. If I would have to believe my own Mother (Mom, 2018), frozen veggies are just as healthy as fresh ones!

Another thing that is very easy but still appears to be so, so difficult in the morning: bring your own lunch. If you don’t feel like making something in the morning, try to make a little extra food the night before so you can have leftovers for lunch.

If you are not a great cook or you just really don’t feel like cooking, get some of the marked down salads from Albert Heijn or check out the app ‘Too Good to Go’, where a number of restaurants sell their leftover food for a third of the price.

If all else fails, get some of Fatima’s soup or come home sometime for a nice, free, warm meal. Your father and I miss you.

“Energydrink or coffee?”

A nice mixed drink never hurt anybody. ;) Cracking up haha, tell Karen I said hi!

(coffee)

Eat your veggies, stay in school, don’t do drugs.

Love,

@Mom

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