Second year is FAR better than freshers

It’s getting to that time of year when nostalgia hits. Exams loom, and after a long summer of living with your parents before moving into another year of university, ever closer to getting that real life job.

You might feel sad a wave of sadness looking around your cosy halls accommodation, dreading the treacherous streets of Selly Oak and having to work for more than 40%. You might think that the best year of uni is over already.

You’re wrong and here’s why.

The wonders of Selly Oak

There is nothing better than walking to lectures in a brisk 15 minutes, traipsing through chicken boxes from the night before. It might look like the slums on first sight, but this is a facade. Everything you have ever needed and things you didn’t even know you needed is right here in Selly.

We’ve got pubs, we’ve got Roosters, we’ve got ice cream shops, and most importantly we have Aldi. Say goodbye to Costcutter, it’s a whole new world of variety over here.

The locals love us

Double beds

Seriously, the difference these babies make to your life is amazing. Hangovers are vastly improved, many a hungover housemate can now squeeze into one bed to wallow in each others regrets.

You’ve made it through the adolescence of first year rooms, well done. You’re now being rewarded with an adult-sized bed.

Paradise, is that you?

Walking to Fab 

There is nothing that improves camaraderie more than paralytic students trekking to Fab together at midnight, rain or shine. You save taxi money, you make friends that you’ll never see again, and then you get to top it off by freezing in a queue for ten minutes. What’s not to love?

young and naive

Housemates

This year you get to live with people you actually like. Congratulations. You’re still going to annoy each other over washing up but, this time, you’ve chosen these people. It’s better living with friends because you can socialise with them beyond small talk in the kitchen.

Goodbye clingy fresher friends

In second year, you can finally cut those ties you’ve had since Freshers Week. There’s always those people you feel obliged to pre with every time you hit Stuesdays, accompanied by cringe games of Never Have I Ever and chants of “down it freshaaaaa”. These days are over; these people need not exist anymore. Selly Oak is a place of freedom where you choose your friends, and those who don’t make the cut past Freshers Week are forgotten. You may nod at them in the street if you wish but days of fake friendship are over.

You may nod at them in the street if you wish but days of fake friendship are over.

Sorry, do I know you?

All in all, there’s many a benefit to making into your second year of undergrad study. Living it up in Selly, with every friend just a hop, skip and a jump away, is a world apart from those cramped halls.

Your “uni experience” has only just begun.