1. There's too much hype around freshers week - I came to uni with all these great expectations of alcohol filled nights with my new flat mates, dancing the night away and staggering home at 5am hand in hand with my new friends. My freshers week sort of was and sort of wasn't that. There will be a lot of alcohol but you will probably pass your limit and end up coming back to halls at 3am in a taxi. You will dance with your new friends but you'll still be a little bit cautious around them as you try and work out the new people in your life.
2. You don't have to LOVE freshers - I didn't. I spent a lot of time in freshers week crying, or nearly crying, or on the phone crying. One of the things that made me cry was the fact that I wasn't loving freshers life and felt like I was doing it wrong, or that uni wasn't for me, or that I didn't belong here purely because there's this big thing about freshers being such an amazing week. You will get sad and friend-sick and homesick and that is OKAY. If anything it's totally normal, you just might not think it. I've learnt that lots of people try and hide the fact that they miss their friends from home, but if you speak to people you'll realise that so many people feel the same.
3. It takes time for people to get to know you/used to you, they don't hate you - I haven't been a "new kid" in ages. I've always been surrounded by people who know me and how loud I am and love me for it, so I forgot that people have to take time to get to know you. I genuinely believed people hated me, they didn't.
4. Societies are the best thing you can do in your new environment - I joined Extreme Sports. I knew I was going to join extreme sports before I even got here, but I didn't know how much it would help me settle into uni. I was struggling but I met some of the most amazing, kind, funny and welcoming people in the society. If you join a society it's because you're interested in something, like other people there, therefore you already have common interests. I've just come back from a surf trip, don't be afraid to just go for things, the best thing is to just throw yourself into it.
Those are the 4 main things that I took away from freshers week, that no one really ever mentioned to me before I got here. Things are a lot less weird now, freshers is a week of excitement/strangeness/events, but I'm finally in a sort of routine. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds, until next year freshers week.
2. You don't have to LOVE freshers - I didn't. I spent a lot of time in freshers week crying, or nearly crying, or on the phone crying. One of the things that made me cry was the fact that I wasn't loving freshers life and felt like I was doing it wrong, or that uni wasn't for me, or that I didn't belong here purely because there's this big thing about freshers being such an amazing week. You will get sad and friend-sick and homesick and that is OKAY. If anything it's totally normal, you just might not think it. I've learnt that lots of people try and hide the fact that they miss their friends from home, but if you speak to people you'll realise that so many people feel the same.
3. It takes time for people to get to know you/used to you, they don't hate you - I haven't been a "new kid" in ages. I've always been surrounded by people who know me and how loud I am and love me for it, so I forgot that people have to take time to get to know you. I genuinely believed people hated me, they didn't.
4. Societies are the best thing you can do in your new environment - I joined Extreme Sports. I knew I was going to join extreme sports before I even got here, but I didn't know how much it would help me settle into uni. I was struggling but I met some of the most amazing, kind, funny and welcoming people in the society. If you join a society it's because you're interested in something, like other people there, therefore you already have common interests. I've just come back from a surf trip, don't be afraid to just go for things, the best thing is to just throw yourself into it.
Those are the 4 main things that I took away from freshers week, that no one really ever mentioned to me before I got here. Things are a lot less weird now, freshers is a week of excitement/strangeness/events, but I'm finally in a sort of routine. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds, until next year freshers week.
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