Things you’ll only remember if you were a Covid-19 fresher

There is no denying the freshers of 2020 did not have an ordinary experience. There are definitely certain things that occurred during our first year that truly sound like a fever dream, and if you told uni students ten years ago about this, they would think you’re lying. But hey, we survived the trauma and are making up for it in our final years I guess! So in case you had forgotten what been a covid fresher was like, I’m here to remind you…

Isolating during freshers week

Thank goodness, I was lucky enough to avoid isolation throughout the entire year (not sure how I pulled that one off). But for those of you who had to isolate in the first week, are you okay? I mean I suppose it gave you chance to bond with your flat properly, but the idea of being stuck for a week with people you’ve never met in a brand new city is slightly unnerving!

Booking pubs and bars

Oh those awful days where you could only go out in groups of six! It basically forced everyone into immediate friendship groups, which honestly did make it easier in freshers. But the fact that we had to physically book tables is a concept that now feels so foreign. An Otley Run was unheard of because the chances of you booking more than five pubs was near impossible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Endless drinking games

Don’t get me wrong, a drinking game is fun from time to time, but when the first few months of uni consisted of incessant games of ring of fire after the pub, it wasn’t exactly the first year experience you dream about. Having afters instead of pres did seem to make it significantly cheaper though. I now can only dream of my bank account looking like it did during first year.

Online uni

Admittingly, I have a love/hate relationship with online uni. I certainly wasn’t grateful for it at the time because it made it so hard to meet people, especially as I was unlucky enough to be allocated Oxley as accommodation. However, now in my third year, I would give anything to just stay tucked in bed and watch a morning lecture without having to turn my camera on. Oh, and seminars too when everyone just left the zoom call when the teacher forced us into breakout rooms or started picking on people to speak. It was traumatising.

Accommodation Security

Accommodation security were so unnecessarily scary and some took their jobs a little too seriously. In Oxley, they would spend all evening and night driving round the grounds and honestly, it made me feel guilty for just walking to Circuit Laundry. That adrenalin rush you got from being in someone else’s flat and security showing up can never be matched.