Bills, bins and buying milk: Everything you learn as a second year at Cov Uni

First year of uni seems like a breeze. You're independent now: You can wake up five minutes before your lecture starts and still make it (God bless you uni halls), you can go out three times a week and after all that you can do the absolute minimum amount of work because it doesn't count.

Or you’re a second year student, drowning in four essays, two presentations, a mountain of housework and you only just found out your lecturer’s name yesterday.

There are some key differences between second year and first year of uni and through our not-so-empirical evaluation we can officially conclude that second year is the best, even if it is a lot of hard work. Why, you ask? Let us tell you.

Living with people you actually chose

Shall we all take a moment to be grateful that we finally don’t have to live with a mole for a year? Like, you actually get to live with your friends. You chose all of these people to live with and it's adorable – you're practically a family now.

First year accommodation is a new and exciting experience until you realise your flatmates are actually antisocial af and messy with a capital M. You never would have chosen to live with these people if you had a choice. But living with your friends is so different. The best nights are when you can spontaneously bang on your housemate's bedroom door and you have no idea if three hours later you'll be in bed together watching Netflix and eating Deliveroo or on the dance floor of Kasbah.

Your landlord is like your third parent

It’s a little bit more personal now, handling your rent, bills and any damage control. Suddenly you need to start turning off lights, turning the heating down and keeping money back just in case the ceiling falls in, or something.

And instead of complaining to an app about your problems, there’s something called a conversation in the 21st century which is a whole lot worse – but a necessary evil. You're going to have to actually talk to your landlord when something goes wrong, that's right. And trust me – they’ll enforce house duties on you like they’re your second mother.

We're too boujee for this

Adulting isn't actually that fun sometimes

We were so eager to leave home but forgot there’s another part of life we didn’t think about. Living in a house means you actually need to run a house. This will give you a sudden new found respect for your mother like you never knew.

Taking out the bins will become your nightmare. You have to do annoying household tasks like cleaning the hob, washing the bathmats, and meter readings? Hello, I am not 40 years old, I am really not about this homeowner life.

Also, are we even old enough to be responsible for not going over our water bill? Let me have a full concert and meet and greet in my shower, please and thank you.

You have more unexpected evenings out

Unexpected is definitely the word for it because it's not just the spontaneity of the night out, it's the nature of it. What normal 20-year-old chooses bingo and pub quizzes over the club? Uni students do, especially second years.

You learn a lot more about Coventry in your second year and this is down to the fact that you really need a chill night…for once. It can't be all Kasbah and JJ's and Empire all the time. We're old now, we have joint pain, bad hangovers and two essays due tomorrow.

Make money at bingo > spend money in JJ's

Yes, second year actually counts

It’s all well and good living with your friends until you realise it might’ve not been the best decision as they hardly let you do any work. You will find yourself talked into games of Mario Kart and trips to Quids Inn even though you all know full well that you have a phase test tomorrow.

You actually need to put your head down to work, instead of down a toilet for once. It’s alright though, at least you’ve got your friends’ support when you come out with a third.

These are the people responsible for you getting a 52 on that essay

Freshers' is so much better than before

Freshers' in second year is somehow way more fun, which seems like a paradox. You're not even a fresher and you've done this all before, so why does it feel so much better?

Maybe it’s because you finally know your way around Cov – which nights for which clubs, the best kebab shop to end up in, the fastest route home, etc. But you actually end up going out way more than you expected. With that guilty conscience and thoughts of your impending deadlines pushed right to the back of your head, let’s go tell everyone in Kasbah smokers how you’re a cool second year.