The 10 most humbling experiences that every Durham student can relate to

Durham is a bubble, let’s face it. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone has struggled through the same ghastly and humbling experiences which really knock the confidence. Below is a list of 10 of the worst, most mortifying and most universal first world problems we all suffer through as Durham students.

1. Nobody recognising your college stash when you go home for summer

What do you mean nobody thinks my college fleece is cool back home? What do you mean nobody has heard of Collingwood? What do you mean a red and back tie is no longer considered a decent replacement for a personality? Heartbreaking and humbling hardly describe the feeling.

2. Getting kicked out of Jimmy’s

Oh, come on, we have all been there. Don’t act like you haven’t at least once. Nothing more humbling than being kicked out of your second home when all you wanted was another Woodgate. That solitary walk home tends to be a somber and humbling affair as you contemplate your life decisions.

3. Walking up Cardiac Hill

The daily reminder that your physical fitness peaked during rounders in year six. Not an awful lot to say here but it makes for a bleak start to a day and helps you realise that one game of college sport a week is not a suitable way to “cancel out” the nights out and takeaways.

4. A Thursday morning

The mess on the floor, the questionable Instagram Story and the feeling that a chun is coming. There is absolutely zero danger of you making it to your 9am seminar. Even when you have a wholesome Wednesday night in, the PTSD comes back when your eyes open on a Thursday. Stay classy, Durham.

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5. The walk of shame

Be it the hill to the Viaduct, the Viaduct to Gilesgate or Gilesgate to Elvet, it is never pretty. 10am (if you haven’t already been kicked out), looking like a mess and seeing your mates on their way to a productive and fulfilling day. They know what you have done, they know it all too well. In the name of progression I suggest we rename the walk of shame to “the stride of pride”. A little less humbling.

6. Being the last survivor in the Billy B during summative season

Of all the people who left it last minute, you really left it the most last minute. A strange combination of pride and shame is the emotion for this one. In the moment, it is a heroic victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. 24 hours later, you realise that you might have got it a little bit wrong. Oh well, done is better than perfect.

7. Playing against a DU ringer when you’re hungover

Game’s gone. I repeat, the game has gone. The struggle to get out of bed to play a team much better than mine on a Saturday morning post-Jimmy’s is humbling enough. Do you really need to bring an ex-academy baller to score seven goals? No, no you don’t. Eternally offside behaviour.

8. Queueing up in Boots for scabies cream

Bit of a flashback to February 2023. Does this happen at other universities, too, or is Durham just scabies central? Genuinely curious, it feels like every other person I’ve met has had them in Durham. The pipeline from nightclub ballpits to Boots is all too familiar for many of you. Somewhat comforting to be side by side with others in the queue, at least.

9. Getting ID’ed in a shop despite being well into your 20’s

Surely the eyebags I have accrued from this university are evidence enough that I am absolutely not under 18? How about my blatantly southern accent up north indicating that I am a university student who has finished school and therefore over 18? Bonus points for when the ID gets inspected for about 10 seconds and you wait by awkwardly.

10. Tripping up the stairs in Loft

Why is it so dark? Why are those stairs so steep? Why are they so narrow? Seriously, sort it out. After a heavy session down Waterhouse there is no chance I am making it up those stairs without tripping up and holding up the queue even further. #durhamcore.

Related articles recommended by this author:

• A (somewhat) satirical guide to how the Durham colleges spend their summer holidays
• ‘Jimmy’s will still be Jimmy’s’: Jimmy Allen’s open a second nightclub in Durham
• I went to all 16 Durham college bars in one night so you don’t have to