Freshers’ Week sucked – here’s why term-time is so much better

It's the legendary Freshers' Week that older cousins, friends and teachers alike have told us stories of for years…so why do I find myself stood in the middle of a club, packed like a tin of sardines, relatively sober and wondering where it all went wrong?

Freshers' is possibly the most talked about part of student life at university. We join Facebook groups straight after results day to see who's buying what tickets and which flats pre-drinks are being held at. The reality is that you are thrown into a new part of the country, with people you have just met, whom you are now expected to live with, eat with, drink with and go out with – and if the thought of that is overwhelming for you, you are not alone.

It took me a while to grasp the concept that it was completely normal to feel this way, after spending quiet moments in my dorm trawling through forums on The Student Room where I found solace in other freshers sheepishly asking "is it okay that I'm not having fun?"

In fact, recent studies published in The Guardian this year detailed that the transition from sixth form or college to university can be extremely challenging for new students

So much so that it is said around one in three freshers display symptoms of mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety.

A brilliant article was also published in The Independent in 2016, regarding how the pressure to "have fun" and the culture of FOMO has caused great difficulty settling in during Freshers'.

After days of remaining cooped up in my dorm, tearfully phoning my mum for reassurance and dreading the evenings of awkward drinking games followed by torturous clubbing, I was beginning to lose hope.

Then something beautiful happened that I never thought I'd catch myself being thankful for in my life. Term began.

For me, term-time was a God send. It halted the clubbing scene, lectures wore people out too much to want to go out in the evenings, leaving us forced to spend nights in together and talk to one another.

Also known as actually making friends.

The thing that I never really considered before going to uni was that although you've moved away from your old life, it doesn't stop. The chances are any drama that was still brewing, or any summer romances you had conjured up before you left will not magically resolve themselves just because you have changed location.

But the greatest thing I found about university is that you now are blessed with a new crowd of people who also have dramas to gossip about or relationship troubles that need advising. The time spent in together is the perfect opportunity to not only bond over your struggles, but to receive new perspectives and advice.

Soon I found that the best memories were made not by coming home at 3am after a night full of awkward dancing and constant double checking your eyeliner was still in place

But instead, sitting at the table for hours sharing the trials and tribulations of exes and questionable friends from home over the half empty bottle of cheap wine from the Co-op that had been forgotten in the fridge.

As more nights like these unfolded I found myself leaving my room more, phoning my mum less (sorry Mum) and most importantly, realising I had found a group of friends who now knew me as well as I knew them, who I could confide in and have fun with.

Coming to the end of Freshers, I felt as though I'd been let in on this massive wind-up in which everyone who had been to uni before agrees to pretend it's the best thing since sliced bread.

But, a month in, I realise that it was just completely overrated, as many of my new friends now look back and agree, and that it is in term time where true friends and true memories are made.

And finally, the feeling of the worried, nervous fresher has faded away.

But it is important to know that for some the feeling may not fade as easily, or even at all, and therefore we should be encouraged to take advantage of the following organisations:

Samaritans 116 123 (UK) www.samaritans.org

Students Against Depression www.studentsagainstdepression.org

Student Minds www.studentminds.org.uk

Or indeed inquire about student support within your university regarding counselling or other support schemes they may offer.