Every stage of first term at UWE

From getting far too drunk in SWX to spending the day waiting for the Asda delivery man, we all go through the same journey at UWE.

Bonnie the skeleton, often mistaken for a boy, is the seventh member of Flat 105. We decided to include her in the uni lifestyle and, just like any of you, she’s been through all the ups and downs that make first term at UWE so special.

Freshers’ Week

You’re raring to go: no one has annoyed you just yet and you feel fresh and fabulous. Most importantly it starts with you having money.

You embrace the slightly cringe “chundergrad” chart on your flat’s wall. After hating every second of singing along to Calvin Harris’ How deep is your Love in SWX a thousand times, your night ends pointlessly in the toilet.

The end of Freshers’

You’re reflecting on everything you’ve done – and everything you regret. You start to question who you are and what you have become.

Any effort that you might have made at the beginning has rapidly decreased and you are plunged into an identity crisis – whose bed did you just wake up in? This question proves difficult to answer as every single room in the Student Village are identical to each other.

Work starts to kick in

Having structure back in your life seems all too strange after the summer holidays – especially if you’ve just returned from finding yourself on your gap yah.

But it’s okay: you’re still at the stage where you can go out and be early for your lectures. You wish your lecture hall was as notorious as Yik Yak’s constant reference to room 2B020.

You’re really starting to settle in now

You only have off milk and ketchup left in your fridge. You regret branching out and buying only Sainsbury’s basics in your last shop to save yourself a few pounds, partly because of being blinded by the orange labels.

But most significantly, you feel genuinely bad for cheating on Asda. We can all relate to the feelings we get for the Asda man when he finally arrives.

Mid-term approaches and you go a bit psycho

The evenings are getting darker and longer, so you’re spending less time in the communal area and being far less productive. You feel trapped and confused.

You spend you’re time trying to avoid the stress of sorting out your living arrangements for next year (although this proves impossible due to the distinctive tenseness in the kitchen) and decide to take up smoking and wallow in your overdraft.

It’s time to think about getting a student job

This bleak concept comes to mind while waiting for you’re washing to dry. You also hope that someone doesn’t come to collect their washing that you removed from the machine and leave on the side.

Will your glorious plan to work in the student shop ever become a reality? Of course it won’t.

You indulge in increasingly unhealthy habits

This includes waisting money that you don’t have on pointless things. You start drinking alone and work your way through ten Nos balloons a night. You’re also splurge more money on brilliantly bad food from the famous kebab van.

But when the main man isn’t there and replacements appear, you promptly question his whereabouts. Is he okay?

Christmas is around the corner

You can do it. You start to feel festive and merry once again and remember that you do, in fact, enjoy student life. You’ve gone as far as drawing names for secret santa in your flat, even if the £5 budget seems far too generous.

You’re excited to receive some gifts from Poundland and end of downing a pint of lukewarm gravy.

Acceptance

You finally feel at one with the idea that this is where you will be living for the foreseeable future, and find comfort knowing it could definitely be worse.