Mistakes you'll make as a fresher

Freshers will be one of the best years of your life, with new friends, exciting opportunities and a chance to further explore your passion.

However, it can also be pretty tiring trying to balance study and a jam-packed social life. Don’t panic, you’ll get through your first year just fine, but the odds are you’ll make a few of these little freshers mistakes along the way…

Under and Over Packing

Let’s face it, deciding what to take with you is a tricky business. Most likely you’ll find you’ve massively overdone some of the less useful aspects, with enough fancy dress and scented candles to last a decade, let alone the one year. To counteract this however, you’ll have forgotten an array of things you could actually use.

Bring just enough clothes to cover your floor

Mum might have a drawer full of essentials from paracetamol to safety pins and be able to produce colanders and fancy cooking utensils from mystery cupboards, but that won’t come in handy when you need to hastily fix your jeans and cook pasta before a lecture.

Forgetting Everything People Tell You About Themselves

You will definitely lose track of the amount of times people ask you your name, where you’re from and what you study. It becomes tempting to record it, ready to replay without actually losing your voice – the bigger issue however, is when you ask these questions to countless others and forget all of their answers. I mean all of them, flatmates included.

Alcohol, great for many things, but not remembering names

Be prepared to re-ask (and re-answer!) quite literally hundreds of times, as well as face the embarrassing moment when supposed strangers know everything about you and you can’t even remember ever seeing them before.

Being Late For Lectures

Whether you are lost, hungover, whatever the excuse, accept it now; you will most probably be late to at least one. The more innocent among you will actually be lost, but a vast majority will be hungover or overtired (with an overwhelming percentage of these cases occurring during freshers week… for obvious reasons!). Don’t panic, just sneak into the back and look apologetic, the lecturer won’t eat you I promise.

Realizing You’re In Charge And Getting Excited…

First trip to the supermarket without your mum pushing the trolley and the power is in your hands. It’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll do an initial splurge, cramming the freezer full of pizza and ice cream – three weeks in and you’ll be craving the sight of anything green and nutritious.

Pasta is your friend, embrace it

Realizing You’re In Charge And Panicking

Suddenly, there isn’t someone on call to ask how long to soak your pans for or what goes in the washing machine and what doesn’t. All your whites will end up a funny shade of pink, most of your clothes will need reshaping and more importantly I bet nobody uses an iron for the entire three or so years you study. Second year comes around and most don’t even seem to own one. Being responsible isn’t all late nights and cake for breakfast.

Getting Your Priorities Muddled

Everyone looks for different things out of their first year at university. Some want the highest possible grade, some a new crowd of party loving mates and some just to learn more about themselves. Whatever you think you want, make sure you balance it all out. No doubt there’ll be weeks when you’re behind on every assignment and still stay out till 3am clubbing, but there may also be weeks you’ll be studying all day with only a break for lunch. Enjoy everything in moderation and you’ll be just fine.

Deadlines can wait, the floor is SO comfy

The important thing to remember is that while you will probably mess up a few times in first year, you’re not alone. Everyone will struggle with some aspect of independent life, so don’t be afraid to ask your flatmates and friends for help once in a while. Make mistakes, enjoy yourself, and aim for that sweet sweet 40%.