This is what life as a fresher in York is like, as told by BeReal

⚠️ It’s time to BeHungover ⚠️

8 months ago

Ahh, first year. A time of making new friends, finding your feet at uni, and probably getting absolutely trashed every weekend. With a brand new set of freshers about to step foot onto campus (welcome to York, by the way), it’s only right that my very-recently-ex-fresher self catches you up with the typical first-year experience via Gen Z’s favourite app, BeReal. Here’s what life is like as a fresher in York right now:

Being everywhere at once

Image credit: @ca_amb on BeReal

The good thing about being a fresher is that when you get to uni, nobody knows who anybody else is. This gives you the perfect opportunity to make as many friends as possible that you can ignore your degree and do fun things with. If you turn any corner ever either on campus or in York itself, you’re bound to find a group of freshers trying to find the perfect spot to take eight identical BeReals, all of which will be posted eight hours late.

Living in Halls

Image credit: @ca_amb on BeReal

If you have the luxury of a spacious room at home, be prepared to kiss that goodbye, you’re in on campus-accommodation now. Coming to uni, you’ll learn just how many hours there are in a day, and you’ll probably spend a lot of those hours in your little slice of halls-heaven. Put some fairy lights up and get cozy, that little room is yours to make home.

Pre-drinking

Image credit: @lekss and @ca_amb on BeReal

Arguably the favourite activity of the vast majority of York freshers. As a group of people whose ages usually start with the number one, it’s no surprise that the whole budgeting thing is still proving a bit tricky, so being able to buy copious amounts of alcohol at a discounted price provides some temporary bliss while you ignore the fact you’re about to empty your wallet getting even more drunk at Indie Tuesdays.

Going out for the fifth Saturday in a row

Image credit: @haz3sixx and @ca_amb on BeReal

How anybody manages to go out so often is beyond me, but you can rely on a fresher to somehow achieve it. If there’s a club or a concert to go to, every first year in York will be in the queue way before the doors are unlocked, because what’s the point of having a night out if you’re not maximising your time? Plus it makes you look vaguely interesting and/or annoying to your BeReal friends every time you wake them up at 3am by posting late.

Regretting everything in the morning

Image credit: @lekss and @ca_amb on BeReal

Going out doesn’t seem so fun anymore when you wake up with a splitting headache the next morning, and no amount of painkillers are saving you from this one. The highlight of your Sunday will be posting at 4pm when you’ve finally woken up. And if the excruciating pain wasn’t enough, say hello to the crushing feeling of embarrassment as you start to remember what actually happened last night. It’s almost enough to make you never want to go out again. Almost.

Being violently hungover, but still going to lectures

Image credit: @ca_amb on BeReal

You will never find a bigger gathering of hungover freshers than in a Thursday 9am. Once you’ve forced yourself to walk all the way to the SLB, it’s usually time for the post-Salvos regret to show up, which happens to create the perfect conditions to realise just how much work you need to catch up on. Bonus points if you study a science subject, you’re very quickly going to become best friends with Lecture Capture.

Actually getting on with some work

Image credit: @ca_amb on BeReal

Or at least pretending to get on with some work after the hangover has finally worn off. Let’s face it, it’s never fun remembering that you’ve got a degree to do and you’ll do just about anything to forget that fact again. And you’ll inevitably get distracted five minutes through your assignments, but hey, it’s not your fault that BeReal chose that particular half-hour to go off. It’s entirely the app’s fault that you’re panicking at 3am the day all your assignments are due.