Freshers’ Week is the BEST week of your life: you’ll make memories that’ll last a lifetime and friends with whom you’ll ride off into the sunset in blissful euphoria. Right…? Wrong. Well, not necessarily wrong but I promise you this, it will never live up to the perfect pipe dream you’ve been sold.
Don’t get me wrong, it is such an exciting time as you stand on the precipice of adulthood, with countless, new possibilities on the horizon. However, it’s so easy to let all the build up surrounding it overshadow your actual experience – an experience that at times can feel like the Hunger Games themselves.
Starting uni is such a massive change, so naturally, it entails so much more than simply having the time of your life. For everyone, there’s an untold amount of anxiety surrounding this week as you hope to find your way in this new environment. For most people, this involves the daunting move away from home; once your parents hug you goodbye, you’re left alone, staring at the four walls of your new room, wondering what to do with yourself. FOMO can kick in instantly, telling you that you’re not meeting enough people and that everybody else is already so connected – particularly if you’re not from London. Your self-esteem might take a hit, but don’t worry, your bank account will take a bigger one.
In this new world of independence, there’s so much to consider that the feeling of being overwhelmed can hit you like a sledgehammer. What societies are you joining? Can you navigate the city? Where are you going tonight? Your 7-day bender leaves you in a state of sleep deprivation and the daytime allows no respite as your social battery must be turned up to the max. All whilst making sure you don’t burn the kitchen down in your first week and figuring out if your flatmate will turn out to be a serial killer or a speaker at your wedding.
Although this all sounds very cynical, the point is that you shouldn’t let all the pressure put on
freshers’ week stop you from actually enjoying yourself. No one reflects on freshers’ as the peak of their uni experience, it’s simply the beginning. Once you surpass the Welcome Week pandemonium and are no longer recycling the classic 5 questions (“What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” “Did you take a gap year?” “What do you study?” and “Which accommodation are you in?”) life feels so much more comfortable.
Hopefully, you had a great week, but if you didn’t, it’s not the end of the world. Trust me, it really does get better. Just be kind to yourself, be kind to others and whatever you do… don’t commit flat-cest!
Photo by DJVIBE / STUDIOX on Unsplash