Everything you’ll miss about being a UEA fresher

So your first year at UEA is almost officially over, which means you have to give up the title of ‘fresher’. Personally, I think first year offered a perfect blend between the excitement of trying new things and the security of being allowed to make mistakes. Unfortunately, the good ol’ times are over, we’re growing up, and soon we’ll all have grandkids…at least that’s how being done with one-third of our time at UEA feels anyway.  There are so many things about being a fresher that most of us will miss, and here’s some of them.

Assessments not counting towards your final grade

Yes I study, but I can also afford to take my time doing it leisurely, making my notes pretty and colourful, not worrying that much about what mark I get as long as I don’t fail. That’s not to say that final assessments weren’t somewhat stressful. They were, and they didn’t even count towards our final grade – all we had to do was get a measly 40%. Let’s face it, we’re all dreading the fact that we’re going to have to stop skipping lectures and seminars (or at least, we should stop doing that) because they’ll actually count for something from next year onwards.

Tutors being lenient in their marking because you’re in your first year

“Don’t worry too much about your bibliography, after all, this is one of your first few essays!” “This is such a great essay, especially for a first year!” “We don’t expect it to be perfect anyway.”

We’ll miss hearing these kind, lenient remarks. Being a first year means that professors will be less strict when marking your work and will expect less from you than from a second year or a third year. It’s been easy to get away will small things like a few mistakes in your citations, but we’re all going to have to aim for literal perfection from now onwards.

Having more time on your hands

Go out, chill and relax while you can in the first year because we’re obviously not going to get to do it as much in our next two years. Timetables will get busier, work will pile up, many of us will get jobs, and life will get a bit more hectic in general. Being a fresher means that everyone expects you to have loads of free time and fun, so we don’t have to feel so guilty about mindlessly exploring the city or spending nights at the LCR.

Not having to panic about job prospects

After your first year at university, you’re going to realise that you’re heading straight for release into the outside world in two years. Everyone will be trying to get internships and work experience, trying desperately to enhance their CVs. Being a fresher allowed us to live in denial for a little while longer. Simple things that happen in the second year such as choosing your own modules forces you to think about your future. You can’t use the excuse of only being in your first year at university anymore.

Living on campus

On-campus accommodation is incredibly convenient when you want to get to classes on time. Most of our rooms also come with a set of friends, our flatmates, whom we would have seen every day for an entire academic year. We’ll also miss living so close to the beautiful lake and being able to take a leisurely walk whenever we feel like it. If you live in the Ziggurats, you’ll probably also miss the view from your window, especially the views of the sunsets and sunrises. Let’s not forget that we all also lived really close to the LCR, which means that we could decide at as late as midnight to buy a ticket and take a 10-minute walk to the party, and then walk conveniently back to our beds when we tire out.

Most of your friends living near you

You don’t even need an official or important reason for coming over (“hey, I wanna learn how to knit I’m coming over) to a friend’s place because they don’t even live that far away in the first place. It’s also a lot easier for you to meet up with a group of friends who all live around the same area, rather than trying to gather all your friends from their respective houses all across Norwich.

How easy socialising was

We had freshers’ week to start us off with, and the socialising was actually pretty intense. Everyone was so excited to be in a new place that we were all buzzing with friendliness, eager to make friends with everyone we exchanged glances with. There were flat parties to go to and new societies to join, and everyone was pretty much willing to talk to you as long as you weren’t completely horrible. But in the second year, people have practically chosen their group of close friends, everything is less exciting and none of us will have the time or energy to socialise as enthusiastically as we did in our first year.

Being the babies of the University

In general, we weren’t expected to know better. Professors were lenient with us, the staff gave us lots of help, and things were always explained to us patiently. In societies, second and third years took the lead, and we would happily let them. Most seniors are generally really helpful, and now that we’re moving onto the second year, we’re the ones who have to take care of a new batch of freshers coming in.

The excitement of new but basic experiences at university

The first times are always more exciting than any subsequent experience. Seeing the donkeys near the lake, the bunnies hopping around campus, the beautiful Waterstones on campus and visiting the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts are really great things to do, but you get less satisfaction out of seeing these things every day. University seemed like a new and exciting place for freshers. It may still be slightly exciting, but the novelty of being a student at UEA has probably worn off by now. For many of us, it would have been our first time living away from our parents, but by the end of the first year, we’re all used to the independence.

Freshers year was amazing, and we’re all definitely going to miss it.