About this time last year I was busy stocking up on cardboard boxes, books and enough tinned food to keep me from starving if the apocalypse occurred. And this was all because I would be starting my first year at uni on September 29th. Although this year has hands down been the best year of my life, and I wouldn’t change a single bit of it, here are some things I wish I’d known…
- If you’re living in halls, don’t bring a year’s supply of cleaning equipment. Due to my mother’s unhealthy obsession with wiping down every visible surface with bleach on a daily basis, she was adamant that I left for uni with two industrial sized bottles of Domestos, which just sat in the cupboard under my sink, untouched for three terms. If you’re living in halls, it’s very likely that you’ll have a cleaner who will clean your kitchen and bathroom. All you have to worry about is picking your hair out of the sink so it doesn’t get clogged (don’t wait until the water isn’t going down to do this) and making sure that last night’s rice doesn’t become a permanent presence on your saucepan.
- Make notes for your seminars. For some reason, I thought that as soon as I started university I’d morph in
to a red wine-swirling, polo-neck wearing genius with opinions on everything and the ability to understand any book I read. This was not so. Although lectures seriously help with understanding the book, or subject you’re studying, tutors expect a little more from you in seminars. If they’re emailing you questions to think about, it’s important to actually go ahead and research them instead of just giving them a quick browse ten minutes before you leave for the seminar-otherwise you’re just left opening and closing your mouth in confusing, resembling a goldfish with flicked eyeliner. - Read the books. I was pretty attentive with my reading and made sure it was completed every week, even if it meant staying up until four in the morning to finish Book Twelve of The Odyssey because I’d decided that watching Orange is the New Black was a higher priority that day. The one time I decided not to read on of the books for my modules, only one other person turned up to the seminar-and he hadn’t read the book either. Luckily my tutor hadn’t been in the lecture so I was able to spiel off a lot of things about the apocalypse and impotence, which seemed to go down well.
- It’s not compulsory to go out drinking on Fresher’s. Drinking was never my thing, and drunk people just outright annoyed me, so why I thought I’d suddenly find both of these things ‘fun’ when I came to uni is a mystery. On my first night in halls, I decided to go to the ‘party’ in the flat below, w
hich basically consisted of a topless, stoned version of Jack Whitehall who kept showing me the ashtray he got from his ‘lads holiday’ in Amsterdam, and three other girls smoking Marlboros out of a kitchen window and doing shots of pink absinthe. Even though I kept telling myself that this was the “uni experience”,I was back in my room by 1 AM. While I had been running around throwing shots over my shoulder and pretending to be having a good time, my best friend had been tucked up in bed watching Bake Off, which was much more my cup of tea. Basically, there’ll always be someone who’s not up to drinking to hang out with. - Get involved in societies. The one thing I wish I had done this year was to join more societies. I saw university as a fresh start, and before going decided I’d join EVERYTHING – the newspaper, dance, the drama society, the feminist society, athletics. I actually didn’t join any of these, and instead wandered around the societies fair with a few flatmates, only picking up leaflets for the societies they were interested in, just in case they thought I was a massive loser for playing the violin. Societies are a great way of making friends, simply because you’ve already established that you have a common interest. Also, societies often offer exec positions, which look great on a CV.
- You’re probably not going to be best friends with your flatmates. Before I moved in, I had visions of my flatmates being the cast of F.R.IE.N.D.S and uni life being like one long episode, minus the canned laughter. In actual fact, most of my flatmates didn’t leave their rooms unless they really had to, and I only properly made frends with one boy out of the thirteen people I lived with. But being friends with your flatmates isn’t the be-all and end-all of your social life. Everyone on my course was super friendly and made an effort to talk to people, and your circle expands through the societies you join and mutual friends of other people. On the other hand, I know plenty of people who are best friends with their flatmates. It can go either way.
- Before you fork out £50 on the best dictaphone in PC World, check the university’s policy on recording lectures. I suffered from serious second-hand embarrassment when one of my lectures was stopped for our professor to remind a boy, in front of 200 people, that the university didn’t allow students to record their staff.
- Bring ear-plugs and headphones. Being kept up by Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ being blasted at three in the morning tends to happen more often than you’d think. Also, as good as you think your music taste is, the girl below you probably doesn’t want to listen to it through her ceiling.
- Get a provisional license even if you can’t drive. Carrying passports around on a night out is a real pain.
- The ‘fresher’s 15’ is not a myth. My friend from home remarke that a lot of people from my Sixth Form had come back from uni a lot wider than they used to be (and I couldn’t help feeling that I was included in this). Oven chips on a daily basis may seem like a good idea, but your body won’t thank you for it.
- Neither is fresher’s flu – no one is safe, no matter how strong your immune system. Stock up on Ibuprofen and always
bring water to lectures. There’s nothing worse than something coughing though a lecture except being the person coughing through a lecture. - You’re going to be a little fish in a big pond again, but that’s just going to prepare you for life. You may have been the genius in your little village secondary school, but you can bet everyone else on your course was too. Once you accept that your self-validation can no longer come from getting the best grades, you’ll start to develop more as a person and learn to value yourself in new ways – as soppy as that sounds.
- Grease Lightening is the best song for getting creeps away at night clubs. Nothing says “stop invading my personal space” better than not-so-accidentally punching someone during your enthusiastic dancing.
- Even though “first year doesn’t count” is basically the fresher’s mantra; you still need to work hard. Getting essays done on time, attending lectures and revising in time for end of year exams will all help you avoid having a meltdown on the phone to your mum.
- Double save everything. A friend of mine had a terrible experience of writing a 3000 word essay, only for her laptop to completely die the night before it was due. Memory sticks save lives.
- Be yourself. University is a fresh start. You’re no longer with people who’ve seen you during your awkward emo years or when you had that terrible haircut in Year 8. You won’t be branded a ‘loser’ for playing in an orchestra, or enjoying musical theatre, or writing anymore because there are hundreds of other ‘Yous’ out there who enjoy doing those same things. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my first year at uni, it’s that it’s the one place where I can be unashamedly myself and my confidence has rocketed.
Wherever you’re going to university, I hope you have the best time – I wouldn’t change anything about my experience.
Beth Thomas 