She’s known for her amazing style, has two double-platinum albums and two degrees under her belt, but Paloma Faith admits she found university really difficult. Speaking exclusively to Cosmopolitan’s spin-off student magazine, Cosmo on Campus, she states:
“I remember my first year of living away from home really well. I was excited about being independent, but struggled with the reality. One morning in my shared house, I woke up and couldn’t see anything. It turned out that I had really bad conjunctivitis. I’d underestimated how much support ‘home’ had given me – I couldn’t cope. I felt like I just needed my mum.”
“When I lived in Leeds, I made the fatal mistake of having a boyfriend who lived in London – I was constantly going home to see him. I found it difficult to bond with anyone, and I initially didn’t make that many friends. When we broke up, I threw myself into going out and ended up making some really good mates. My advice is to split up with anyone before you go to uni!”
She’s got a strong work ethic and is a huge advocate of working throughout university:
“I worked my way through uni – I studied five days a week, and worked three nights in a bar. I danced on a podium one night a week too! I enjoyed having money, and because I’ve always been a bit of an outsider, working in a bar was great. It meant I met loads of interesting people outside of my course, who I had lots in common with. Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs worked in one bar with me – he was at Leeds Met University in the arts school. When I worked with him on The Voice this year, it was hilarious – we were like, ‘We’ve come a long way!’ Working through uni was really helpful.”
“I walked everywhere because we lived so close to uni. All my life, I’ve saved 25% of my earnings and put it aside. Then I have a day where I have a treat.”
Despite this, she found it hard to fit in:
“I found my first experience of university really regimented [Paloma studied contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds]. I went in five days a week, 7am until 6pm. I didn’t have much in common with the other students and found it hard to fit in – they were amazing athletically, but weren’t creative like me. I stayed and graduated, but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have done – I stuck it out because I’m stubborn, but wasted time doing something that wasn’t right for me.”
Opening up further about her choice of degree, her advice is to never bow to pressure, but always give everything time:
“The best piece of advice my mum gave me was, ‘Don’t ever study what you think you should study – do what you genuinely enjoy… If you’re unsure about your course, you’ve got to be certain you’ve given it a proper go before you pack it in. Look at how each term is structured – there might be something you’re more interested in next term. I think a year is long enough to know whether something’s right for you or not. If you’ve done that and still hate it, try something else.”
She’s also a great believer in looking beyond the end goal:
“I never trained as a singer, and neither of my courses ended up feeding directly into the profession that I’m doing… [but] thanks to my first degree, I’ve developed an awareness of the way I look on stage, which a lot of other people doing this job don’t have. My time at Central Saint Martins [Paloma achieved an MA in theatre direction] means I’m able to offer my creative input into set design and artwork too. All your experience feeds in; it just might not be in an ‘obvious’ way.”
For further content, please go to www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/paloma
The full interview appears in the Autumn 2014 issue of Cosmo on Campus, available from 6th October across universities in the UK. Cosmo on Campus is also available to purchase on Apple Newsstand (download the Cosmo UK app to access).
