So, what do you mean I’m halfway through uni as a second-year?

Being a second-year student is a strange in-between space: no longer a fresher, but nowhere near finished. It’s exciting, overwhelming, and slightly terrifying all at once.

As the new year has come, the scary questions creep up about your post-uni plans. For many of us, we’re halfway there already. As in, we’ve already completed half of our degree. How? Uni still feels new in so many ways, yet somehow this little life feels like the new norm, that the thought of it ending is not how I wish to start my new year. 

From first flats to familiar spaces

Some of my most prominent memories are from my first uni accommodation. At first it felt daunting and scarily free, yet now that chapter of my life is already over, and I wish it wasn’t.

Late-night kitchen chats, chaotic hosting of pres, learning how to live with people you’ve just met and learning more and more about each other in the most sentimental way. Those moments felt ordinary while they were happening, yet now they’re full of nostalgia now that first year is complete. 

Now in my second year house, relationships get stronger (we know each other inside and out), routines are more distinct (attending lectures more regularly and not just skipping because I can) and I know the best places to go on campus and in the city centre. By second year your uni city has become your home from home, and it’s full of memories you will always cherish. 

When the modules get more intense 

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Second year is where the academic reality really hits. The modules are harder, the expectations higher, and the pressure more constant. Some topics genuinely test me, leaving me questioning whether I’m capable of keeping up and understanding what I’m learning. 

There are moments where assignments and deadlines are too overwhelming, but it’s about balancing the workload, pushing through the difficult modules, and trusting that you can achieve the grades you need to.

A-Levels feel like another lifetime ago

It’s strange how distant sixth form and college feel now. At the time, A-levels consumed our entire world: revision timetables, exam stress, results day nerves. Moving away for university felt like a huge leap, and now that version of me feels almost unrecognisable. Yes, it was only a year and a half ago. But when I think of how long that feels, it’s almost another lifetime. University didn’t just change our routines; it changed our entire selves – we are such different people now.

Strangers who became my closest people

One of the biggest surprises has been the people. Arriving not knowing who you would meet, assuming friendships might be temporary and not finding “your people”. Instead, I found people who are now some of the most important in my life: friends who have seen me stressed, homesick, exhausted, and still stayed. 

It’s strange to think that people who were once strangers are now the ones who know us best. They sort of just appeared from nowhere but they’ve been woven into our everyday lives, and imagining university without them feels impossible.

When homesickness gets quieter

Homesickness hasn’t disappeared, but it has changed. In the first year, it was loud and constant, especially when there’s birthdays and holidays, feeling an intense sting of FOMO. Now, it’s easier. We’ve settled in, got our routine, independence, and acceptance that our old home will always be there. 

It takes time to become settled in a different place or even a different mindset, I know that I’ve recognised that things change (especially in most recent years from celebrating leaving secondary school, completing A-Levels, moving to university and soon be contemplating my next choices after uni) but these are all important footnotes and you will shape around these decisions. 

Am I a different person now?

Sometimes I catch myself wondering if university has changed me. I think it has. I’m more independent, more self-aware, and more resilient than I used to be. But I still have other aspects; I still get overwhelmed, I don’t always know what I’m doing, I’m unbearably impatient. These things are all “me”, so I wouldn’t change anything. As someone who loves to think and contemplate the future, I’m interested to see how much change will happen before I leave university and will future me think and look the same as I do now. 

A Year and a half left

What scares me most is how fast time is moving, I’m sure we can all agree on that. A year and a half suddenly feels incredibly short. What will happen in that time? Who will I be when it’s over? Will it pass as quickly as the first half did?

Being halfway through uni feels like standing in the middle of something important; no longer a fresher, but not near a graduate. Many people say that second year is one of their favourites, because everyone knows that January resembles something deeper than just half way through the semester. Maybe this middle stage is exactly where we’re meant to be, even if it feels daunting to think of it in terms of the calendar.