I’m sure everyone has seen those “Day in the Life at The University of Edinburgh” TikTok videos, so I wanted to give it a try. On the screen, it looks effortless: stylish fit checks, hangouts with friends, and the ability to remain consistently aesthetic, whether productive or not. In reality, living up to that standard was harder than I anticipated.
I can’t name just one aspect I struggled with, because there were many. The whole thing quickly became an ordeal of overthinking, followed by the realisation that my attempt might be futile. The sight of me waking up in the morning wasn’t flattering, and neither was my breakfast, even though I really tried to make it look appealing. If something looked awkward, it meant another retake. Even filming my outfit, which meant choosing a nicer outfit than the usual top and joggers I usually throw on, took several attempts because of lighting, awkward angles, or my face looking odd. During the day, it was either inconvenient to film or I forgot altogether, and when I did record something, I wasn’t sure whether to edit it out or keep it in for authenticity’s sake.
While many of these problems came down to perfectionism, is that not what these videos seem to encourage? We’re not watching them to see a completely genuine routine. We rarely see the aesthetic fall apart: the oversleeping, rushed mornings, or ten-minute tutorial work cramming beforehand — because who wants to watch that? It probably wouldn’t get as many views anyway.
I couldn’t even bring myself to post the final result because I disliked it so much. While I’m confident vlogging would be less time-consuming with practice, it’s certainly not something I’ll be doing during exam season. If anything, it reminded me that the reality of student life is unavoidably messy – and perhaps far more honest.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
