Everything to snog, marry and avoid in your second year at Newcastle Uni

Whilst I gaslight myself into thinking I am still a silly billy fresh, I am unfortunately a third year (cries in oap). However, this week whilst I have been asked more times than I can count about my post uni plans, I have been reminiscing on being a seasoned second here. Without further ado, here’s everything to snog, marry and avoid in your second year.

P.S. You will still make the same mistakes you made in first year…

Category one – Snog

The Holy Hobo queue 

Did some of my friends have pres at 7pm last week to beat the queue? Yes, yes they did.

Whilst the queue is a real struggle, and you’ll bump into everyone and their mum, and then continue to have immense hangxiety about hugging a random person on your course the next day – nothing actually beats watching your friends take it too far on karaoke.

Even if there’s so many people in there on a Tuesday it is more of a rogue sauna than a club.

Doing the Great North Run

The running epidemic will start in second year, stay safe out there. Apparently exercise FOMO is a real thing you can fall victim to and you may find yourself putting your name in the ballot, somehow getting a place, with no training and then having to actually run a half marathon (guilty).

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However, if you do train for it apparently it is a lot of fun. Plus, the running cult truly does have its perks, you’re able to hang your medal out at pres and bring it up in every single conversation. Who needs travelling in Bali for a month this summer when you’ve ran the Great North Run? Like every other student in Jesmond.

Using LinkedIn

Apparently getting a grad job or summer internship is harder than just being the personality hire. So, get LinkedIn and force your housemates to connect with you. If you really want to feel bad about your life choices and make your Sunday scaries even worse, take a look at what people from primary school are doing with their lives. Whilst you think it could be fun to stalk a random girl from Brownies (if you know, you know), LinkedIn sadly notifies them when you view their profile. When you finally pluck up the courage to actually make a post, force your housemates to comment professional messages rather than the usual “Slay bestie”. Adulting truly isn’t for the weak – I am the weak.

£1 Jagerbombs

Need I really say more? Amazing at the time, hangxiety ridden the next day – especially if you are like me and are a silly billy third year who doesn’t know her limits.

Going to Tesco in your sweet treat outfits

Going alone is a totally and utterly humiliating, the fear of who you might bump into whilst gazing hopefully at the yellow stickers. With your housemates, when you’ve all agreed you’re not going out and will have an early night – but then end up chatting absolute shit in the kitchen till 2am post-Tesco in a mismatched tracksuit. A truly remarkable experience you will tell the grandkids about.

Taking it too far on socials

In second year, you have more established friends in the societies you’ve joined and therefore are more comfortable at the rogue sports society pres and therefore end up getting paralytic. Whether you’re a silly billy fresh or second year the hangxiety is basically the same… 

Category 2 – Marry

£2 Tuesdays

Bad day? Drinks on Osborne Road.

Good day? Drinks on Osborne Road.

Mediocre day? Drinks on Osborne Road.

On a Tuesday, make sure you get there early to secure a table, so you can nosy at the BNOCs and their North Face puffers.

House parties over clubbing

Biggest pros include being able to wear non-clubbing shoes, actually being able to hold and hear a conversation and being able to have the ultimate nosy around the house of a person you have only ever met drunk. Have fun getting some interior design inspo x

Going to the beach to reconnect with nature

You probably did this a fair few times in first year, but in second year when the deadlines pick up and you pass the fun of Halloween and the dreaded month of November as a uni student comes around, you will appreciate the power of sea air on a whole new level.

Having a Pop card

From someone who failed to get one in second year, please get one. A genuinely great investment you can make during your time at uni (more than stepping foot in the Marj or Phil). Save yourself the pain of expensive singles and Nexus robbery.

Cosy Joes

No words needed, just convinced it never fails x

Category 3 – Avoid

Housecest

Just because you’re not in Park View anymore doesn’t mean you can’t become a victim of housecest. Whether you’re in a park view bedroom or a lovely attic room in Jesmond – remember the awkward conversations in the kitchen which will inevitably follow when your short lived romance doesn’t last.

Not doing the seminar prep

Now this feels slightly hypocritical, but from your third year Fairy Godmother please do the seminar readings. Seminar leaders will pick on you, and you will feel stressed if you don’t know what the secondary reading is about and then have a whole excuse not to go to the next seminar. Remember your nine grand whilst it feels like a very expensive library membership, in reality it does include some lectures and seminars.

Bumping into your Hinge matches on campus

You will inevitably see people you matched with on a Sunday night, then look at on your profile a different day and have a why did I do that realisation across campus. Not something you can avoid, just something you should take into consideration when scrolling through Hinge.

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