I went to FND alone and had the best night of my life

FND is a staple part of any student’s week in Loughborough. But imagine trying it on your own? 

Would it be just as good without your mates or would it be a lonely night spent looking enviously at other people? Would I meet complete weirdos and wake up not knowing where I was?

Of course the night began with queuing. So at 11:30pm I got settled into the union queue, surrounded by copious amounts of freshers who could be mistaken for a bunch of kids out on a school trip.

It was here where my night took a turn. After avoiding the countless puddles of piss against the wall, a new friend I met in the queue decided to make a bet with me. He said: “Bet you a drink I can toss this bottle through the rack above us?” It was a two litre bottle of lemonade, and the gap was pretty small.

Even though I’m not a gambling man, I felt lucky. I said: “I bet you three”. I lost. The bottle slid through the gap like it was a perfect fit. Fucking typical.

We get in, and I buy the guy this three drinks. The cheapest I could find. And a double for myself, because I needed it badly.

It was here that he decided to invite me to his “incredible after party”, the likes of which are apparently legendary. I think the word heroin was also thrown about, but promptly confirmed as a joke.

Unfortunately I lost afterparty man, but I’m sure we’ll meet again.

The only thing to do then was a standard lap of honour of our beloved LSU. Starting with Cogz and seeing a couple of token freshers cutting shapes on the dance floor.

Then venturing into Room 1 and realising it’s far too early for anything even remotely interesting to be happening, so ending up in Fusion where it looks like a school disco, with groups of girls and groups of guys on separate sides.

So JC’s it was. Here I bumped into some friends who were heading outside for a fag, so, I joined them.

Then it happened.

The sound of puke erupts from behind me. There’s a guy, two feet away from me, chucking up a concoction of Sourz and Nasty’s onto the floor, missing me by inches.

Naturally his friends just take him to the bench, and make him sit down because they don’t want to leave. Until they realise he’s officially a vegetable.

With a bit of heckling from my mates, they make the decision to carry him out. After that I thought it was time to head inside.

Cogz is my favourite spot in the union. It always has stuff going on, and easily plays the best music if you’re not absolutely wasted. So I ditched my friends and went to get down.

Here I ran into a bunch of people that made me question whether I can actually dance. The dance off that always erupts looks intimidating, but is fine as long as you just egg it on.

After busting some serious dance moves in Cogz, I then thought it was time to head to Room 1. Here is where I bumped into this guy. Meet Tom, an Industrial Design Finalist.

Tom (Industrial Design Finalist)

Tom was in a pretty good mood because he’d just managed to get into the union for free. Of course, I didn’t believe him. But he insisted: “I went to the girl on the till, and said, if I tell you a funny joke, will you give me free entry? She said no. So I told the joke anyway.”

He convinced her to close her eyes, and when she did he stamped himself and walked straight through. Tom, we salute you.