Freshers: the most overrated week of your life

So far, I have spent most of my second year of university huddled up in a nest of duvets, blankets and self-indulgence.

Unable to tear myself from my only place of refuge in my pigsty of a student house, I force myself to face reality. I am now a real adult. Yesterday, I received a letter about gas and electricity bills. I took out the bins. I cleaned the kitchen surfaces. These were all firsts.  Would I trade all of this to go back to being a Fresher? Not for one second.

Freshers’ week has become synonymous with partying and heavy drinking, both of which are supposed to hurtle you into ‘the real uni experience’. Your only responsibility is to make friends, make memories and make sure you don’t vomit on any potential pulling partners.

But when the morning after looms, it becomes apparent that Freshers’ week is not all it is hyped up to be.  Exhausted and disorientated, you arrive late for your 9am introductory lecture. You doze through it, stumble back to halls and realise you have no idea how to cook. You ring your mother.

You suddenly feel very homesick. And then you have to prepare yourself for another night of small talk with strangers, awkward grinding with the guy who ends up being your lab partner and paying extortionate amounts for vomit-inducing tequila shots.

Clearly, it is exciting being in a new city with new people. But add in a new course, new living conditions, a totally new way of life and it all becomes overwhelming. Freshers’ doesn’t ease you gently in.

It does not give you time to feel settled;  it puts unnecessary pressure on you to binge as many nights as possible in a row. And if you don’t immediately facebook upload the almost obligatory album of all your wild nights out and new friends, then you clearly aren’t having the time of your life.

Ultimately, so much stress is put on Freshers’ to be the time of your life that it has become impossible for it to be. It is an experience; but not one I would like to repeat. Despite both the increased workload and levels of maturity required of second year, nothing could be better.

Feeling secure in real friendships, aware of what clubs and societies are for you, and being used to living away from home means that you are far more likely to enjoy yourself. Although ask me again when my house temperature reaches minus numbers in the dreary depths of January and I can’t promise i’ll be as upbeat and sure of my convictions!