Before I went to uni, soo many
people told me that Freshers Week would be the ‘best week of my life’. So when
I finally arrived, super excited for this amazing, life-changing, crazy Fresher
experience, you’ll forgive me for being a little bit disappointed.
Firstly, a quick disclaimer: I
was extremely homesick in my first week of Uni. I cried, lots and didn’t really
tell anyone (who wants to tell people you’ve known for two hours that you want
to leave already, particularly when the girl in the room next door has
travelled for 21 hours and half way round the world rather than the 2 hours
down the M25 you travelled to be there!?). This is probably a factor in why I
wasn’t a massive Freshers fan. I’d also just like to add that the Freshers week
of my second year was probably one of, if the not THE, best week of my life, so
please read on to find out what on earth I’m talking about.
There are probably a few of you
who don’t like to drink or clubbing. Keeping it real, a LOT of Freshers week is
made up of this. Unis definitely try to promote non-alcoholic, non-club types
of events but the reality is that the biggest events of Freshers week are the
club nights or college social events. Now, I like going out and I like to have
a drink, so this wasn’t my main issue with Freshers. What I didn’t like was
going out with people I had known for literally 3 hours. You’re stuck in an extremely
awkward situation where you don’t really know what to say to each other beyond,
‘What’s your name?’ and ‘Where do you come from?’ and the trust between you is
about zero. This leaves you torn between wanting to get really drunk to drown
your homesick sorrows but also not wanting to drink at all because if you do
get wasted what will everyone think of you and more to the point, how will you
get back to the flat you now live in which you can barely remember where it is,
even stone cold sober?
It’s an exhausting week too. You
meet a ridiculous amount of people. You potentially go out for 8 nights in a
row and you may also have things to do during the days. Going out with friends can
seriously be the most fun thing ever. Some of the best nights of my life have
been at uni and trust me, if you had asked me that two years ago, I would NEVER
have believed you. You may have to wait a while at uni before you start to have
a really good time. However, you may extremely lucky and be loving uni life
straight away and to you I say enjoy it (and also I’m pretty damn envious you
settled in right away!)
Finally, a little note on
homesickness. It’s pretty likely that it will hit everybody at some point in
the year. For me, it hit early. I cried every day of the first week. But never
again up to this point did I shed a homesick tear... Sure sometimes I craved
home of course, but never in the pitifully sobbing way I did in Freshers week. For
my flatmates it came later in the year, for some, half way through first term
or for a lot of them, in second term. I know it’s a lot easier said than done,
but always try to talk to someone. It’s not easy, especially when you hardly
know them and you’re worried about what they will think of you, but you’ll need
the support. And chances are they’ll be feeling pretty similar too. My last tip
for Freshers survival would be to stick it out. Do NOT run home (also because
you would probably have one or two parents there also missing you and begging
you not to go back). I waited five weeks. Any earlier I probably wouldn’t have
come back and that would’ve been the biggest mistake of my life. Give it a
chance. Give the people and lifestyle a chance. Don’t take Freshers week as a
reflection of the whole year, because I really don’t think it is a true
reflection.
So have fun. I feel like this
post is a very negative view of Freshers, which is not really want I intended
it to be. I mainly want to say that if you don’t have the time of your life in
that week, do not worry about it. There will be so many better uni times to
come – I promise!
- Alex
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