Welcome to third year.

The stress of university is slowly starting to mount and the frustrating part is that I really can't find the motivation to do anything. I have a mountain of work that needs to be completed and I know that if I keep putting it off, the last few weeks of April are going to be horrific. I guess I just have to stop procrastinating, sit down and force myself to write something - I'm fine once I get going. I need some guidance on certain areas of my dissertation but I keep making excuses not to see my tutor because I really don't have anything to show her. Maybe if I manage to plow through my introduction and chapter one this week, I'll feel more comfortable going to see her. Whether this actually happens is a different story of course.

My sleep pattern has gone AWOL again but to be honest, it doesn't really bother me as I get most work done at night anyway; it would just be nice to actually function normally in the day along with the rest of the population. It's probably down to the fact that I haven't been the most sensible of third years over the past few weeks - out most nights, spending way too much money and being completely useless the next day. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's all bad as I'd hate to look back and think I wasted my time at university (I won't have much of an opportunity when I'm in full time work after all) but at the same time, I know that my education is important and I'd kick myself if I invested all of these years in this course only to fall at the final hurdle. It's not happening! I only have another few months, I can do this.

It's my 21st birthday on the 21st. I'm not sure what I'm doing for it yet (I'm not sure that I'm even that bothered) but Dad said he will take me on a clothes shopping spree - something I desperately need. In fact I've already started as I asked him if I could get one of Topman's discounted cardigans. It's one of those big, chunky knitted ones that I always refuse to pay full price for so I was pleased to see them in the end of season sale. Looking around, it seems as though the nautical look is in again for guys this year and I really, really, really want some sailor shorts so I may add those to my birthday list. I have some nautical t-shirts and sailor shoes that would go well with them; I just run the risk of looking like a walking Lacoste advert.

On that note, I think I had better stop wasting my time online and get down to writing up a CV that's due tomorrow for business of journalism. Whatever you are doing, your day will definitely be better than mine.