Meet our new columnist - student Kate Samuelson, who gives us her take on life as one of Belsize Square's new generation. This month, she learns that honesty can be the best policy...

I can't believe that it’s the end of February already. New Year feels like only yesterday yet we’ve been breaking resolutions for two months now. Any minute now, it will be Passover, then summer, then the High Holidays and before we know it, it will be February again!

Last month I wrote about the frustrations of the university system, and the never-ending snow and it’s funny to see how much has changed since then. University-wise, I have happily received two more offers, and it hasn’t snowed for weeks now!

Because of the clear roads, I have driven a lot – however it hasn’t always been as fun as I had hoped it would be. Last week I parked in a tiny space and, on reversing, slightly bumped the car behind me. This had never happened to me so I panicked and immediately got out to assess the damage. The licence plate of the car was completely smashed! Having remembered a story my uncle had told me (his friend had once come to collect his car to find it completely dented with a note on it reading: “all the people around me think that I’m writing down my name and number but I’m not”). Baring this story in mind, I left an apologetic note with my phone number, address and name, and came home feeling miserable.

That night, I received a call from the owner of the damaged car. She explained that due to my surprising honesty, she would be honest too, and confess that her licence plate had been broken for some months! Although I had a lot of stress and anxiety over nothing, I did learn an important lesson from this – doing the right thing can often work in your favour.